They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Ver. 10. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate] In dome iudicii, saith the Chaldee: for the gate was the place of judgment, Amos 5:12; Amos 5:15 Deuteronomy 17:5; Deuteronomy 17:12; Deuteronomy 17:15. Those, then, that did not approve and applaud the oppressions and wrongdealings of the judges, and rich bribers, but cried out against such, and took the same liberty to rebuke them that they did to commit them, these were hated, cane peius et angue, worse than any toad. Thus Ahab hated Micaiah, the Sodomites Lot, the Jews Jeremiah, their successors Christ, the Baptist, Stephen, Paul. Thus those of Geneva hated Farellus, their faithful minister, tried him for his life, banished him out of their territories. Thus afterwards some of them hated Calvin, calling him Cain; yea, calling their dogs Calvin, in derision and detestation of him. And thus Bishop Ridley, lamenting the state of England, even of thy greatest magistrates, saith he, some (the king's Highness excepted) evermore unkindly and ungently against those that went about most busily and wholesomely to cure their sore backs, spurned privily, and would not spare to speak evil of them, even to the prince himself; and yet would they toward the same preachers outwardly bear a jolly countenance and fair face. As for Latimer, Lever, Bradford, Knox, their tongues were so sharp, they ripped in so deep in their galled backs, to have purged them, no doubt, of their filthy matter that was festered in their hearts, of insatiable covetousness, of filthy carnality and voluptuousness, of intolerable ambition and pride, of ungodly loathsomeness to hear poor men's cases, and to hear God's word. And these men, of all others, these magistrates then could never abide, &c. Thus he, and much more to the same purpose. They were then sick of a Noli me tangere, do not be touched by me, and so, alas, they are still. How few Vespasians to be found, of whom Quintilian testifieth, that he was patientissimus veri, one that would patiently hear the naked truth of things; not toothless truths only, but such as touched to the quick! How few Davids, that loved Nathan the better ever after, for dealing so plainly and faithfully with him, and made him of his cabinet council! How few Queen Elizabeths, who called often for her Deering by whom she was barely told of her faults; though the bishops, those court parasites, would never suffer him to preach more before her! The Queen of Navarre would not hearken to such ministers as disliked that fatal French match (that gave opportunity afterwards to the Parisian Massacre) in regard of the diversity of religions; but inclined rather to those that smoothed her up, and told her that it would lay the foundation of a lasting and most happy peace. And generally of those French Reformed churches it was observed, that for some years before that bloody massacre they affected a frothy, flashy kind of preaching; and cared not for that which came home to the conscience. See my Common Place of Admonition.
And they abhor him that speaketh uprightly] Auget orationem, saith Drusius. The prophet groweth in his expression of their wickedness: for to abhor is more than to hate; see Proverbs 6:16. Hatred (as they say of the crocodile) groweth as long as it liveth. Sin is of an encroaching nature. If a serpent devour a serpent (saith the proverb) he becometh a dragon, Serpens si serpentem comederit fit draco. Hatred of the truth, as runner, the older it is the stronger; the Pharisees for instance, who did not only inwardly swell and boil with hellish hatred of Christ, his works, and doctrine, but also outwardly belched out against him the basest blasphemies; and in their pertinacious working, constantly persecuted him, even to the most reproachful death of the cross. This is merces mundi, the world's wages to God's faithful witnesses. They "make a man an offender for a word" (yea, for speaking uprightly), "and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought," Isaiah 29:21. An expectas ut Quintilianus ametur? said he: Dost thou think that plain dealing Quintilian should be loved? it is not likely. To preach, saith Luther, the truth which is according to godliness, is nothing else but to derive the rage of the whole world upon a man's self. 30392- Amos 5:11 Ver. 11. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor] "Panting after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor," Amo 2:7 Psalms 109:16. Some render, Ye fire the poor; others, ye plunder them; so the Chaldee, and Jerome. The Seventy have it, Ye smite them with fists, Kατακονδυλιζειν. But better, Ye foot it upon them, and make them sell their commodities underfoot (as we phrase it), to pay your heavy taxes, and satisfy your greedy covetousness. &&& Poor-Oppression of
And ye take from him burdens of wheat] Heb. the finest wheat, and best winnowed; these ye force him to make money of, for your use; glad to feed upon the rotted wheat himself.
Ye have built houses of hewn stone] Squared and polished, thinking to flourish, and frolic (οικους ξεστους. Domos rasiles et politas. Sept.): but the screech owls of woe crying aloud from the stones out of those walls, shall mar your mirth, Habakkuk 2:11 .
But ye shall not dwell in them] For either ye shall be prevented by death, and sent to dwell with devils; or be carried away captive, and a stranger possess your new buildings, Deuteronomy 28:30 .
Ye have planted pleasant vineyards] As he in the history, that, having a cup of new wine in his hand, expressed out of the grapes of his newly planted vineyard, was set upon and slain by a wild boar, before he could drink it, and gave occasion to that proverb, Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra; Many things fall between the cup and the lip, between the chin and the chalice (Erasm. Adag.). Hereunto agreeth that story in Mr Burroughs upon Hosea (Burr. on Hos. i. p. 379). I had, saith he, certain information, from a reverend minister, that in his own town there was a wretched worldling, who had a great crop of grain. A good honest neighbour of his walking by his field, saith, Neighbour, you have a very fine crop of grain if God bless it. Yea, saith he, I will have a good crop, speaking contemptuously; and before he could come to get it into the barn, it was so blasted, that the grain of the whole crop was not worth sixpence. God hath many ways to defeat the wicked man's expectation, and the hope of unjust men perisheth, Proverbs 11:7. Etiam spes valentissima perit, so some render that text, he shall die or miscarry, in the very height of his hopes and expectations.