Israel [is] an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.
Ver. 1. Israel is an empty vine] Heb. an emptying vine, בוקק losing her fruit, and so deceiving the owner. How can Israel but be empty of all good, of all fruits of the Spirit, when he will not hearken unto God, nor dwell under the droppings of a powerful ministry? when he is cast off by God, Hosea 9:17, who fills his people with the fruits of righteousness, Philippians 1:11 : and is not a wilderness a land of darkness unto them? Jeremiah 2:31, when his root is dried up, and all his juice and strength runs out into leaves, so that is frondosa vitis (as the Vulgate renders it), a leafy vine; such as are our profligate professors, and carnal gospellers, and such as was St James's solifidian, that empty fellow, as he calleth him, κενε, James 2:20, when, lastly, the Holy Spirit (those two golden pipes, Zec 4:12) empties not into his candlestick the golden oils of all precious graces, as from two blessed olive branches. The vine and the olive, two of the best fruit trees, grow best together, saith Melancthon. If Israel's heart be divided from God, as Hosea 10:2, and hath not his fruit found in him, as Hosea 14:8, what marvel if he prove as Nah 2:10 empty and void and waste; and though as Nah 2:2 the Lord turn away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and married their vine branches?
He beareth fruit to himself] As he beareth fruit in and from himself (like the ivy, which, though it clasp about the oak, and sometimes kills it, yet brings forth all its berries, by virtue of its own root) so he beareth fruit for himself, or to himself. Profit, pleasure, and preferment is his Trinity; and corrupt self is all these in unity. He fasteth to himself, as those hypocrites, Zechariah 7:5; he prays, hears, confers, giveth alms, &c., out of sinful self-love. In all that he doth, sibi soli velificatur, he seeks his own ends only; as the eagle, when he flieth highest, hath his eye on his prey. In parabola ovis capras suas quaerit; in the parabol of the sheep, he sought for his own sheep; like the fish in the Gospel, either he is dumb, or hath nothing but silver in his mouth, he is a notorious self-seeker, he bears fruit to himself, he sacrificeth to himself, as Sejanus did. As Prometheus is fabled to have stolen fire from Jupiter, so the false Israelite would defraud God of heaven, if he could tell how. Spira confessed that he used prayer only as a bridge to bring him to heaven; and therefore he despaired of acceptance, as well he might: for how should God relish such sorry hedge-fruits? how should he say of such clusters of Gomorrah, "Destroy it not, for there is a blessing in it?" Isaiah 65:8. The good soul, as she bears all her fruit in Christ, John 15:2, so she keeps all her fruit for him, Song of Solomon 5:13, and cries out, Propter te, Domine, propter te. On account of you, Lord, on account of you. As all his springs are in her, so all she has and is, is for him; and if she had more and better, she could think it worthy of him. Hence it is, that when he comes into his garden (upon her invitation), Song of Solomon 4:16, to eat his pleasant fruits, he gathereth his myrrh with his spice, he eateth his honey with his honeycomb, as it were, crust and crumb together, Song of Solomon 5:1. He takes in good part the better and worse performed services; he passeth by failings in the manner, where the heart is upright for the main: wicked men present also some kind of fruit (as the oak bears some kind of apples and acorns, but they are not man's meat; swine indeed will hunch them up; so the devil likes well enough of these self-fruits), but they make not to God's palate. Delicata res est Spiritus Dei The Spirit of God is a charming person. (Tertull.), our oaken apples will not down with him. Self must be strained out, and God set up, that ye may be called "Trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he alone may be glorified," Isaiah 61:3; "being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God," Philippians 1:11 .
According to the multitude of his fruit, he hath increased the altars] Iuxta ubertatem, exuberant simulachris, saith the Vulgate elegantly; but yet short of the original, where there is a dainty alliteration, and a double polyptoton. a For the sense: the prophet, as he had accused Israel of emptiness and selfishness, so he doth here of unthankfulness, in abusing God's plenty to the promoting of idolatry; as if God had hired them to be wicked. See the like before, Hosea 2:8. See Trapp on " Hos 2:8 " and consider how far against the ingenuity of a Christian it is to be least for God when he hath most from him; when his own turn is served, then to turn his back from the author of all his good; to do as the moon, that getteth farthest off the sun when she is fullest of his light.
According to the goodness of his land] Idolaters desire to be in the place where there are good lands, fruitful fields; that they may lavish upon their images; that they may so beautify, or (as the Hebrew word here is) bonify their images, as Jezebel did her head with tires and brave dresses, 2 Kings 9:30. "Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god," or that endow another god, and give gifts to him, as that text may be rendered, Psalms 16:4. What excessive cost the superstitious Papists bestow upon their idols, or images (which are one and the same, as we see here), and especially upon their Lady of Loretto, the Jesuit Tursellinus hath set forth to the world. And why they so much desire and endeavour to recover England (praying for it, as is to be seen written on the gates of their colleges, Iesu, Iesu, converte Angliam: fiat, fiat Jesus, Jesus, convert the English, let it happen, let it happen) the reason is evident; it is a good land, and would easily yield them good images, stately altars, &c. England was wont to be called the pope's ass, and his puteus inexhaustus, unexhausted well, his pit of treasure, that could never be drawn dry: he was wont to say, that he could never want money so long as he could hold a pen in his fingers to write to England. He received here hence yearly above nine tons of gold. Now, according to what they received they expended upon their images. What a shame it is, then, for true worshippers, that there is no proportion between their increases for God and their increases from God, that those that are rich in this world are not rich in good works; that they lay not by for pious and charitable uses, according as God hath blessed them, 1 Corinthians 16:2, but that they should be the richer the harder; as children that have their mouths full, and both hands full, yet will part with none, but spill it rather. It is observed of men that grow very fat, that they have so much the less blood. And so the fatter many men are in their estates the less blood, life, and spirits they have for God.
a A rhetorical figure consisting in the repetition of a word in different cases or inflexions in the same sentence. ŒD