Shall horses run upon the rock? will [one] plow [there] with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
Ver. 12. Shall horses run upon the rock] Is it possible they should do so and not first break their hoofs, and then their necks? will the rider therefore venture there? were it not matchless madness in him?
Will one plough there with oxen] Sure he will conceive it too hard a tug, and too vain a labour. Jerome rendereth it Bubalis, with wild oxen; which, not accustomed to the yoke, are like to make but wild work wherever they are ploughed with. Now as there is no good horse racing upon a rock, nor fit ploughing there; so neither must you ever hope to escape unpunished, or to keep up your commonwealth unshattered, so long as ye deal thus preposterously, perversely, and absurdly, Proverbs 14:14. That of Virgil is not much unlike:
“ Atque idem iungat vulpes, et mulgeat hircos. ”
For ye have turned judgment into gall, &c.] Or into poison; the Chaldee rendereth it, into the head of hurtful serpents. The word seemeth to signify the poison of serpents, which is in the head. See Hosea 10:4. See Trapp on " Hos 10:4 "
And the fruit of righteousness into hemlock] Or wormwood, as if ye were akin to that star in the Revelation that is styled Wormwood, Revelation 8:11, that great Antichrist, who would make the world believe that he hath power, de iniustitia facere iustitiam, ex nihilo aliquid, ex virtute vitium, that is, of injustice to make justice, of nothing to make something, of virtue vice, to dispense with any of the Ten Commandments, to make new articles of the Creed, to dispose of all kingdoms at his pleasure, and what not (Bellarm. lib. 4, de Pontif. Roman.)? Pope John XXIII saith, that he may grant a dispensation against the law of nature and of nations, against St. Paul and St Peter, against the four Gospels. The Council of Constance comes in with a Non obstante against Christ's own institution, withholding the cup from the sacrament; and the like for priests' marriages, prayers in a known tongue, singing of Psalms. When the cardinals meet to choose a Pope they make a vow, whosoever is chosen he shall swear to such articles as they make. And Sleidan telleth us, that the Pope is no sooner chosen but he breaks them all, and checks their insolencies, as if they went about to limit his power, to whom all power is given both in heaven and earth, both in spirituals and temporals. And, indeed, he is called the beast, in respect of his civil power, and the false prophet, in respect of his spiritual; and the star Wormwood, because being himself in the gall of bitterness and bond of perdition, he turneth all judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousess into wormwood: see Amos 5:7 .