Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
Ver. 5. Saying, When will the new moon be gone, &c.] "O, what a weariness it is! and ye have snuffed at it," Malachi 1:13. See the note there. This ye have said, or thought at least; and God knoweth the language of your hearts. He presseth upon no man; neither will he accept that service that is pressed out of people, as verjuice out of a crab. All his saints are free hearted, Psalms 110:3, all his soldiers volunteers; they welcome the sabbath, as that holy man did, who went forth to meet and salute it with Veni sponsa mea, Come, my sweet spouse, I have dearly longed for thee. The sabbath they call Desiderium dierum a day of delight. They also pass it over with singular delight, Isaiah 58:13, walking into Christ's garden of spiritual duties, whereof there is so great variety for the good soul to breathe itself in and not be sated; and then are taken into Christ's wine cellar, and (after a holy manner) inebriated with Divine consolations, Song of Solomon 2:4,5 2 Corinthians 1:5, such as the cock on the dunghill knows not, such as pass all carnal men's understanding. They find no more relish in holy days and duties than they do in the white of an egg or in a dry chip; the work they do at such times, for fashion-sake or fear of law, &c., is dead work, as the apostle calleth it; they sit in the stocks when they are at prayers, and come out of the church when the tedious sermon runs somewhat beyond the hour, as prisoners do out of a jail, &c.; they cannot tell how to wear out the sabbath, which therefore they wish over, and constantly violate, either by corporal labour or else (which is as bad, or worse) by spiritual idleness. Full ill would these men, addere de profano ad sacrum (as the Jews say we should do), pronouncing those happy that begin the sabbath with those of Tiberias, and end it with those of Tsepphore; the former began it sooner than others, the latter continued it longer (Buxtorf. Synag. Jud.). Full ill would they have liked our King Edgar's law, that Sunday should be solemnized from Saturday, nine o'clock, till Monday morning. Full loth would these men be to beg David's office out of his hand, of being a doorkeeper in God's house; that is, to be first in and last out. And what would they do to keep an everlasting sabbath in heaven that are so troubled and even tired out with so short an attendance on the Lord's day; not without a world of wilful distractions, such as spoil and corrupt their performances, so that they stink in the nostrils of the Almighty?
And the sabbath] Not the sabbath of the seventh year (called Shemittah, Remission, Lev 25:3-7), as some would have it meant; but the weekly sabbath, which the unrighteous Mammonists here cry out of, as if on that day the sun proceeded a slower pace than on others; and they greatly grudged, lucellum suum Dei cultui cedere, that God should be served to their disadvantage. Their fingers therefore itch to be setting out corn; and they as dearly desire it as David did once to come and appear before the Lord. As he had his "When shall I come?" by way of wish, Psalms 42:2, so they had their When shall we sell corn? when shall we set forth wheat? Surely as David's soul longed sore to go forth unto Absalom, 2 Samuel 13:39, so that he could have found in his heart, but for stark shame, to have gone himself and fetched him home; so was it with these gripple grain masters, these frumenti corrasores et veluti corrosores, Proverbs 11:26. They had a good mind to have been doing on the new moons and sabbaths, but that they were flatly forbidden by the law, made on purpose for "these lawless and disobedient," 1 Timothy 1:9, these masterless monsters, these yokeless Belialists, to be to them as chains and shackles, to confine them, Exodus 20:8 ; Exo 34:21 Leviticus 23:3 Nehemiah 10:32 ; Neh 13:15 as Solomon's command did Shimei, that they may not leap over the pale after profit and pleasure, or if they do they may die for it. Isaiah 66:23, it is prophesied that, in the restitution of the Church from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another (as often as they come), without tiresomeness, all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord, they shall "call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable," Isaiah 58:13, be rapt and ravished in spirit, Revelation 1:10, be in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost all the day long: Pνευματικως σαββατιζειν, μελετη νομου χαιροντας, as Ignatius hath it: Sabbatize spiritually, rejoicing in Divine meditations (Epist. 3. ad Magnes.). This well practised would take men off from the world's tasteless fooleries, as his mouth will not water after homely provisions, that hath lately tasted of delicate sustenance. It would also blessedly free them from those many foolish and hurtful lusts, 1 Timothy 6:9, those heavy sorrows and self-created miseries, wherewith covetous caitiffs pierce themselves through, gall and gore their own hearts, and trouble their own houses, Amos 8:10, taking no more rest than if upon a rack or bed of thorns.
Making the Ephah small, and the shekel great] Selling by small measures but for great rates; which was directly against the law, Deuteronomy 25:13,14, and that golden rule of right, the standard of equity, the royal law of liberty, Matthew 7:12, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." This is the sum of what they have said, for duties of the second table.
And falsifying the balances by deceit?] Heb. perverting the balances of deceit, that is (by a metonymy, as Job 22:6), making those that were right deceitful. See Proverbs 20:10; Proverbs 20:23. See Trapp on " Pro 20:10 " See Trapp on " Pro 20:23 " Such falsifiers are counted no better than Canaanites, Hosea 12:7, and shall have small joy of their cursed hoards of evil gotten goods.