You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
Ver. 2. You only have I known] That is, owned and honoured, called and culled, chosen and accepted to be my people, when I had all the world before me to choose in, Deuteronomy 10:14,15, and nothing to move me thereto but mine own mere grace, even the good pleasure of my will (ευδοκια).
Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities] Not passing by the least without a sensible check: the least, I say, that is allowed and wallowed in; and that because of the disloyalty and treachery that is therein. Other mens' sins are rebellions against God; but the saints' sins are treacheries, because against the covenant. Let such, therefore, look to themselves, and walk accurately, or they shall be sure to rue it, ακριβως, Ephesians 5:15. God will be sure to plough his own ground, whatsoever becomes of the waste; and to weed his own garden, though the rest of the world should be let alone to grow wild. His own he will not fail to punish. 1. In case of scandal, as David. 2. For sins unrepented of, though not scandalous. Oh the bloody welts that God hath left upon the backs of his own dear children for such sins! Bastards may escape scot-free, but sons shall pay for it. Ingentia beneficia, fiagitia, supplicia. The punishing angel is bidden begin at God's sanctuary, Ezekiel 9:6. He will be sanctified in all that draw near unto him, Leviticus 10:3. Sanctified I say, either actively or passively; either in the sincerity of men's conversation or in the severity of their visitation; at which time his articles of inquiry will be very strict and critical against his own professed people, who are therefore worse than others (and shall therefore speed worse), because they ought to be better.