They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Ver. 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria] i.e. By the calf set up at Bethel, not far from Samaria. This calf is called the sin, or guilt, of Samaria, to show the abomination of it; for which cause also Paul calls it sinful sin, Romans 7:13, as not finding for it a worse epithet; and antichrist for like cause he calleth "that man of sin," 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to note him merum scelus, pure wickedness, saith Beza, merely made up of sin. Now, to swear by this of Samaria was to deify it; to swear by anything besides the true God is to forsake him, Jeremiah 5:7, which is a hateful wickedness, Jeremiah 2:12,13; as in Papists who familiarly swear by their he-saints and she-saints, and so sacrilegiously transfer upon the creature that which pertaineth to God alone.
And say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth] God only liveth, to speak properly, 1 Timothy 6:17, but to say that Dan's Deunculus lived (being no better than a dumb and dead idol), and to swear by the life of it (as the Spaniards do now in the pride of their monarchy, by the life of their king), this is horrible impiety. As for that of Abigail to David, 1 Samuel 25:26, "Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth," the former was an oath, the latter was not an oath, but an asseveration or obtestation only, conjoined with an oath.
And, The manner of Beersheba liveth] That is, the forms and rites of worshipping in Beersheba (another nest of idolatry, Amo 5:5 Hos 10:13), as the Chaldee paraphraseth it. Durandus hath written, the Romish ritual, the way of worship used in that synagogue of Satan: Mercer rendereth it, Vivit peregrinatio Beersheba, the way or passage of Beersheba liveth. Beersheba had an idol, and was the way to Dan and Bethel; hence this superstitious oath drawn out to the full length, By the sin of Samaria, by the god of Dan, and by the manner of Beersheba: like as the Great Turk, Mahomet, promising his soldiers the spoil of Constantinople for three days together, if they could win it, for confirmation of his oath solemnly swore by the immortal God, and by the four hundred prophets, by Mahomet, by his father's soul, by his own children, and by the sword wherewith he was girt, faithfully to perform whatsoever he had to them in his proclamation promised.
Even they shall fall, and never rise up again] Fall fatally, ferally, irrecoverably, as old Eli did when his neck was broken, but first his heart. The ten tribes, for their idolatry and contempt of the word, never returned out of captivity. From the famine foretold what could follow but irreparable ruin, though for a time they might flourish? see Proverbs 29:1. See Trapp on " Pro 29:1 " Of that spiritual famine let us be most impatient, and say as Luther did, I would not live in paradise without the word; but with it I could make a shift to live in hell itself.