And they lay [themselves] down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned [in] the house of their god.
Ver. 8. And they lay themselves down upon clothes] i.e. table carpets, or bed coverlets, laid under those that sit at a meal; whether on the ground, with their legs gathered under then, (as the Turkish basbaws do to this day, and the Trojans of old, stratoque super discumbitur ostro), or at beds or tables, leaning on the left elbow, Esther 1:6 John 13:23. Et cubito remanete presso.
Laid to pledge] These should have been restored, and not detained beyond the time prescribed, Deu 24:12-13 Exodus 22:26,27 .
By every altar] It was their fashion to feast in their idol temples, 1 Corinthians 8:10; 1 Corinthians 10:21. See Horat. Od. xxxvii, lib. 1. And this in imitation belike of God's people, who were commanded to feast before the Lord, in the place that he should choose to place his name in. See Deuteronomy 14:23; Deuteronomy 14:26 1 Samuel 1:3,4, &c. And here paucis verbis multiplex scelus arguit, saith Gualther, in few words he accuseth them of much wickedness.
And they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god] A god they have of their own devising, a wooden god, and such as, if he had but a pair of horns clapped on his head, might make an excellent devil, as the Mayor of Doncaster told the wise men of Cockram, in Queen Mary's days, that came to complain of the carver for making them an ugly crucifix. Next, they "drink wine in the house" of their god, besides their drink offerings (which David's soul hated, Psa 16:4), they had their drunken compotations in their idol temples, as now they say in the Isle of Sardinia, after mass done they fall to drinking and dancing in the midst of the church; singing in the mean time songs too immodest for an alehouse. Lastly,
They drink the wine of the condemned] Or of such as they have fined or mulcted for not coming along with them to the idol temples. Diodati rendereth it, the wine of the amercements, that is bought with such money as they have unjustly fined and condemned the innocent in. There are those who here understood that wine that was wont to be given to malefactors led to execution, Proverbs 31:6, to cheer them up; but these wretches drank it off from them. The former sense is the better.