I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Ver. 10. I have sent among you the pestilence] That evil angel, Psalms 78:49, that το θειον, eminent hand of God, as Hippocrates calleth it; that destruction that walketh in darkness and wasteth at noon day, as the Psalmist styleth it, Psalms 91:6. This God sent; for it is a messenger of his sending, an arrow of his shooting, 2 Samuel 24:15, and may better be called morbus sacer than the falling sickness; as being an extraordinary hand of God, such as was that Sudor Anglicus, in the days of Edward VI the sweating sickness that raged very violently for forty years together here in England (as Sennertus testifieth), and slew so many, that strangers wondered how this island could be so populous as to bear and bury such incredible multitudes. No stranger in England was touched with this disease; and yet the English were chased therewith not only here, but in other countries abroad; which made them, like tyrants, both feared and avoided wherever they came. So long as the ferventness of this plague lasted, there was crying, Peccavi, Peccavi; I have sinned, I have sinned, and some pretences of turning to the Lord. The ministers were sought for in every corner (saith Mr Bradford), Oh, you must come to my lord, you must come to my lady. Thus, "when he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongues," Psalms 78:34; Psalms 78:36; as the fox, when taken in a snare, looks pitifully, but it is only that he may get out; as ice melts in the day and hardeneth again in the night; or as iron is very soft and malleable while in the fire, but soon after returneth to its former hardness.
After the manner of Egypt] In the way to Egypt (so some read it), as you were trudging down to Egypt for help against enemies, or for corn in time of famine (for Egypt was the world's granary), I have stretched my net over you: Egypt hath gathered you up, Memphis hath buried you, Hosea 9:6. But taking the words as we translate them, "After the manner of Egypt," i.e. so as I plagued the Egyptians, when you were among them see Exo 12:29 with mortality of men and murrain of cattle, Exodus 9:15. The plague of Athens is graphically described by Thucydides; whence Ovid and Virgil are thought to have borrowed their descriptions of the pestilence. The plague of Italy is set forth in lively colours by Dionys. Halicarnass. lib. xi. Antiq. That of Constantinople by Nicephorus and Sigebertus.
Your young men have I slain with the sword] Iuvenes a iuvando, saith Varro: because they are able and apt by arms to defend the commonwealth, and to help it at a dead lift. In Hebrew they have their name a delectu; because they are chosen to fight and do business, as fittest for the purpose, Exodus 17:9 2 Samuel 6:1. These God had slain with the sword, which cutteth its way through a wood of men, and heweth down the youngest and strongest; spareth neither lord nor losel, as they say; is despatched with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, Isaiah 9:5 .
And I have made the stink of your camps] By means of the slain, both men and horses, that lie unburied, and poison the air; see Joe 2:20 Isaiah 34:3 .
And yet have ye not returned] Nec sic tamen: Vide contumaciam, saith Mercer here. Obstinate men will sooner break than bend. Monoceros interimi potest, non capi. The unicorn is able to be kiiled but not captured.