Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:
Ver. 2. Though they dig into hell, &c.] No starting hole shall secure them from the wrath of God and rage of the creature, set at work by him. "Hell and destruction are before the Lord," Proverbs 15:11, yea, hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering, Job 26:6. He hath a sharp eye, and a long hand, to pull men out of their lurking holes; as he did Adam out of the thicket, Manasseh from among the thorns, 2 Chronicles 33:11, Jonah from the sides of the ship, the Duke of Buckingham in Richard III's time, &c. "Be sure," saith Moses, "your sin will find you out," Numbers 32:23, and God's hand will hale you to punishment.
Though they climb up to heaven] That is (by a hyperbole), to high and strong places; as the Babel builders, the Benjamites that fled to the rock Rimmon, and there abode four months, Judges 20:47, the gibing Jebusites, that were so confident of their stronghold of Zion that they flouted David and his forces, 2 Samuel 5:8, the proud prince of Tyre, and others.
Thence will I bring them down] From their loftiest tops of pride and creature confidence, which God loves to confute and defeat: as I might instance in Nebuchadnezzar, Xerxes, Haman, Sejanus, Bajazet, that terror of the world, and (as he thought) superior to fortune, yet in an instant, with his state, in one battle overthrown into the bottom of misery and despair; and that in the midst of his great strength. The same end awaits the Pope and his hierarchyruet alto a culmine Roma, that Jupiter Capitolinus shall be one day unroosted by him, who casteth the wicked down to the ground, Psalms 147:6 .