These [were] the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work.
Ver. 23. Those that dwelt among plants and hedges.] Hedge rogues, Mr Dyke a calleth them: the base brood of their degenerated forefathers, saith another; poor-spirited men; not like that late learned martyr, who in his banishment or flight for conscience, served the mason; nor like Musculus, forced to dig in the town ditch one while for a poor livelihood; but such as choose rather to abide under the hedges of Babylon, and there to plant gardens, make fences and flower pots for the king of Babylon, than to return to their own country, though Cyrus had proclaimed liberty for them so to do.
There they dwelt.] Or, Remained, namely, in Babylon, in the service of the king of that place, being miserable by their own election. These are res obsoletae, things worn out and forgotten; and indeed they deserve to be forgotten. For such the Church prayeth, Psa 126:4 "Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south." Piscator gathereth from this text, that Ezra wrote this book after the return from Babylon.
a Serm. on John v.