Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height [was] like the height of the cedars, and he [was] strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
Ver. 9. Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them] It is not usual with God to hit men in the teeth with what he hath done for them, James 1:5, unless in case of unthankfulness, as here. Then, indeed, people shall hear of what they have had, and be taught the worth of good turns by the want of them. Good turns aggravate unkindnesses; and our offences are not a little increased by our obligations. Hence this approbation; and it is as if God should say, This people hath not only done the evils before mentioned, but also after the receipt of mercies without measure, and many miraculous deliverances; as if I had even hired them to be wicked; and as if that were to pass for truth which the snake in the fable said to the countryman that had showed it kindness, Summum praemium pro summo beneficio est ingratitudo. In the year 1245 the Pope was denied entrance into England; it being said that the Pope was but like a mouse in a satchel, or a snake in one's bosom, who did but ill repay their hostess for their lodging. God had done exceeding much for this perverse people; and this they now hear of with stomach enough, as well they deserved. At Athens, if a servant proved ungrateful for his manumission, his master had an action, αποστασιου, against him; and might recover him again into bondage. Lycurgus, the Lacedemonian lawgiver, would not make a law against ingratitude; as holding it monstrous not to requite a kindness, not to acknowledge a good turn. The old Romans decreed that such as were found guilty of this fault should be cast alive to the cormorant, a to be pulled in pieces and devoured. Our Saviour fitly yokes together the evil and the unthankful, Luke 6:35; and God here sums up all his people's sins in this one, as the epitome of all the rest.
Yet I destroyed the Amorite] When once his iniquity was full, Genesis 15:16, when he had filled the land from corner to corner with his uncleanness, Ezra 9:11, then sent I my hornets before them, which drove them out before them. But not with their sword nor with their bow, Joshua 24:12. See this thankfully acknowledged by this Church after she had prayed for her learning, Psalms 44:2,3; Psalms 44:9,10 .
Whose height was like the height of the cedars, &c.] For stature and strength they seemed insuperable, Numbers 13:28, &c. But God soon topt them and tamed them, he took them a link lower, and made them know themselves to be but men, Psalms 9:20; or if trees, cedars, oaks (as Plato saith of man, that he is but arbor inversa), yet,
I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath] I left him little enough to be proud of; less than Nebuchadnezzar, who had a stump left, and was reserved for royal state again, Daniel 4:15. God cut off these Amorites; that is, all the seven nations, head and tail, root and branch, old and young together, Deu 7:2 Joshua 6:21 (behold the severity of God), as if he had forgotten that forepart of his back parts, Jehovah, Jehovah, gracious, merciful, &c., and had taken up that emperor's motto, Fiat iustitia, pereat mundus, Let justice be done, though never so many be undone.
a A large and voracious sea bird (Phalacrocorax carbo), about 3 feet in length, and of a lustrous black colour, widely diffused over the northern hemisphere and both sides of the Atlantic. ŒD