Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.
Ver. 9. Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, &c.] That is, in the courts of the Philistine princes, and of the Egyptian kings, who are here attested and invited, to judge between God and his vineyard, to pass an impartial sentence, and to say whether Israel's sins deserved not all the judgments that God by his prophets had denounced, yea, and greater too. Holy Ezra acknowledgeth as much, Ezra 9:13. But because that many were ready to say, as those in Jeremiah, "Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee (saith the Lord), because thou sayest, I have not sinned," Jeremiah 2:35. Yea, thy sworn enemies shall give true evidence against thee, and judge of the justice of my proceedings with thee, that I may be justified, and every mouth stopped.
Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria] That therehence ye may be eyewitnesses, and have a full prospect of their lewdness; which will be to you a pleasant spectacle; that out of their tragedies you may frame comedies. Samaria was a city set upon a hill; and as itself, so its wickedness, could not be hidden. Carnal people are very inquisitive into the miscarriages of professors; and ready to search more narrowly thereinto than Laban did into Jacob's stuff. What a jeer made Ammianus Marcellinus of the pride and luxury of some of the primitive bishops! Averroes, of the Papists' breaden god! the Turks, of the Papists' Asinus palmaris! the Jews, of their clipping the crucifix, and weeping over it in the pulpit! as also the swearing that is so common among Protestants, together with that mad conceit of some, that he that cannot swear with a grace, wanteth his tropes and figures befitting a gentleman! This and such like unchristian practices made learned Lineker, when he read Christ's Sermon in the Mount, cry out, Certainly, either this is not Gospel, or we are but bad gospellers (Profecto aut hoc non est Evangelium; aut nos non sumus Evangelici). It is a lamentable thing, that it should be commonly reported that there be such abominations found in the Church as are hardly heard of among the heathens, 1 Corinthians 5:1 .
“ pudet haec opprobria nobis,
Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli. ”
Why should it be told in Gath, or published in the palaces of Ashdod? 2 Samuel 1:20 ; why should Egyptians condemn Israelites, as the Scythians once did the Greeks, and the heathen Indians now do the beastly Spaniards that tyrannize over them? Why should there be any successors to those heretics mentioned by Bellarmine, and called Christianocategori, accusers of Christians; because by their unchristian conversation they delivered up Christ and his people to be buffeted and spat on by their enemies? See Trapp on " Hos 7:16 " "This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt."
And behold the great tumults] Or the humming noises, the garboils, the violent irruptions upon the poor oppressed, causing them to cry out, as those that are crushed or broken in pieces.
And the oppressed in the midst thereof] Whether by force or fraud oppressed; whether it were επιβολη or επιβουλη, "The Lord is the avenger of all such," 1 Thessalonians 4:6. This the heathen shall take special notice of, and say, with Calocerius the consul, Vere magnus est Deus Christianorum, The Christian's God is a righteous God indeed.