In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, [that] when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.
Ver. 18. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant.] He held it a sin then, and would have a dispensation for it, as it may seem. Young carpenters make many chips; so do young converts many faults, which God imputeth not. Let none by Naaman's example plead an upright soul in a prostrate body, pretend Nathanael in the skin of a Nicodemus. The words may be taken of the time past, and so some read, The Lord be merciful unto me, for I have gone into the house of Rimmon. So the word is used in Psalms 51:1; Psalms 52:1; Psalms 54:1 .