And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour [them], because of their own counsels.
Ver. 6. And the sword shall abide on his cities] Heb. shall keep residence or rush upon his cities. It can do no less; it cannot return into the scabbard, rest or be still, till the Lord, who put it into commission, call back again his commission, Jeremiah 47:6,7. It is a dreadful thing when the sword abideth on a people; as in Germany, that stage of war; Ireland, still a land of divine ire, &c. England hath some halcyons at present, praise be given to God; and let every good man pray with David, "Scatter thou the people that delight in war," Psalms 68:30. The Pirates' war was despatched by Pompey with incredible swiftness, to his eternal commendation (incredibili celeritate et temporis brevitate a Pompeio confectum). And we have cause to bless God (saith a countryman of ours) that God hath raised up instruments for us, who have hazarded the shortening of their own lives for the shortening of the war; who have done their work of late, as if they had took it by the great, &c. And the same author observeth, that it is a sad thing for the sword to be in the field; but for the sword to be in the cities it is much more sad: and he instanceth in Jerusalem out of Josephus, where the number of the slain was 1,100,000 (Jos. de Bell. Jud. l. 7 c. 7.). We may further instance in that unhappy city of Magdeburg, in Germany, where so much cruelty was exercised first by Charles V (much regretted by him at last in his retired life, taking account of his actions), and since that in our memory by M. Tilly, who, like a bloody villain, put to the sword there 20,000 persons at least of all ranks, ages, and sexes: that great city also he burned down, utterly turning it into cinders, excepting 139 houses. The like immunity was exercised by the pope's champions upon the poor Protestants at Angrogue, in France; where they killed and burned without mercy; but could never set fire upon the two temples there, nor upon the minister's house, which remained whole, the houses round about being all consumed with fire.
And shall consume his branches and devour them] His branches, or his villages, which are as branches of the greater cities. The trees of America (but especially of Brazil) are so large, that it is reported of them that several families have lived in several arms or branches of one tree, to such a number as are in some petty village or parish here. The greater cities are as the body or root of a tree, the village as the branches. The Scripture often calleth them mother and daughter, as Heshbon and all her daughters, that is, villages, Numbers 21:25, as the Chaldee here explaineth it. See Ezekiel 16:44,45; Ezekiel 16:48; Ezekiel 16:53. Hence we read of a city and mother in Israel, 2 Samuel 20:19. Branches also are called daughters of the trees they grow from, Genesis 49:22. The word here rendered branches is by some rendered bars, by others, diviners or liars, as the word here used is interpreted, Jeremiah 50:36. A sword is upon the liars or diviners, and they shall dote: potest Augur Augurem videre et non ridere? saith Cicero of such diviners: that is, Can they one look upon another and not laugh, considering how they gull people with their lies and fopperies? The sword shall be upon such, as it was upon Balaam, Satan's spelman, they shall be a portion for foxes, Psalms 63:10, as those that
“ Astutam vapido servant sub pectore vulpem. ”
Because of their own counsels] He that goeth to school to his own carnal reason is sure to have a fool to his master; an ignis fatuus, a foolish fire, that will bring him into the bogs and briers. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity to God. Nemo daeditur nisi a seipso. See Trapp on " Hos 10:6 "