And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
Ver. 23. Because he gave not glory] Joseph is trusted with all Potiphar's goods, not with his wife: Glory is God's beloved Spouse; in the enjoying whereof he is a jealous God, admitting no co-rivul, in heaven or earth,Isaiah 42:8; to look upon it, and lust after it, is to commit spiritual adultery with it in our hearts.
And he was eaten of worms] σκωληκοβρωτος. Or with lice, as his grandfather Herod had been before him; as the tyrant Maximinus (who had set forth his proclamation engraven in brass, for the utter abolishing of Christ and his religion) was after him. a So was Philip II, king of Spain, who swore he had rather have no subjects than Lutheran subjects. And when he had very narrowly escaped drowning in a shipwreck, he said he was delivered by the singular providence of God to root out Lutheranism; which he presently began to do, &c. But God was even with him soon after. See Scriban. de Institut. Princip. xx. An evil end also befell Diagoras the atheist; who when he had made a famous oration against a deity, the people came applauding him, and said he had almost persuaded them, but only they thought that if any were God, he was for his eloquence' sake; whereupon this wretch, like Herod, was content to be thought a god; which soon wrought his ruin. Good therefore is the counsel of the apostle, "Let us not be desirous of vain glory," of popular applause; which what is it else but a blast of stinking breath, a meteor that liveth in the air, a Magnum nihil, a glorious fancy,Galatians 5:26; and if derogatory to God's honour, as here, it proves pernicious and destructive.
And gave up the ghost] His death was precationis opus potius quam morbi, as it was said of Arius the heretic, who was brought to confusion by the prayers of Alexander the good bishop of Constantinople. (Socrat. lib. i. cap. 15.) Josephus saith, Herod at his death much complained of the people's vanity in deifying him. But no man is flattered by another that hath not first flattered himself.
a Sic et Sulla pediculari morbo periit. Plutarch.