And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.
Ver. 21. And stoned him with stones.] This is mercis mundi: this is the lot of downright dealing prophets, even the same as of hares that will needs give laws to lions: it is Aristotle's comparison. a The post truly saith,
“ Nihil est violentius aure tyranni. ”
Tyrants are very touchy: Tange montes et fumigabunt, Touch those mountains, and they will smoke: none but silken words will down with them. Maneinellus, for his plain dealing in a sermon preached at Rome before Pope Alexander VI, had first his hands cut off, and then his tongue cut out, of which wound he died. Savanarola was served in like manner; so was Lambert, bishop of Trajectum, for reproving King Pipin, &c. Muleasses, king of Tunes, cruelly tortured to death the Manifet and Mesnar by whose means especially he had attained to the kingdom, grieving to see them live to whom he was so much beholden, and therefore rewarded them with such sharp punishment. Who knoweth but Joash might be of the same mind toward good Zechariah? See 2 Chronicles 23:11 .
a In Politic.