Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
Ver. 5. Therefore shalt thou fall] How could they do otherwise that were a nation so incorrigibly flagitious, so unthankful for mercies, so impatient of remedies, so incapable of repentance, so obliged, so warned, so shamelessly, so lawlessly wicked?
Therefore shalt thou fall in the day] Vivens vidensque peribis, thou shalt stumble at noon day, because there is no knowledge of God in the land; but thou hast loved darkness rather than light, therefore shalt thou have enough of it; thy feet shall stumble upon the dark mountains, Jeremiah 13:16, yea, thou shalt stumble and fall and never rise again, which is threatened expressly to these swearers, Amos 8:14, and implied in the Hebrew word here used. Such was Eli's fall off his stool, and Haman's fall before Mordecai the Jew, Esther 6:13. Impenitent persons are brats of fathomless perdition, they are ripe for ruin, shall fall into remediless misery, and (though never so insolent and angry against those that deal plainly and faithfully with them, as in the former verse, yet) they shall never want a Hosea to tell them so to their teeth; that those that will not bend may break, that if they will needs fall they may fall with open eyes, and not have cause to say that they were not forewarned. And this shall be done today, αυθημαρ, that is, very shortly, in this present age (so some interpret it), aut certe clarissima luce, saith Mercer, or else in the open light, and in the view of all men, not in huggermugger. Tremellius thinks it is as much as rebus adhuc integris subito opprimentur, Thou shalt be suddenly surprised when thou art in thy flourish, and fearest no changes. What can be more fair and flourishing than the field a day before harvest? than the vineyard a day before the vintage? certissime citissimeque corrues. Most ertainly, most certainly, fall down. Every wicked man may apply it; wherefore also it is delivered in the second person singular, Thou, even thou: to thee be it spoken.
And the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night] The Chaldee hath it, "as in the night, if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him," John 11:10. The false prophet cannot lay his hand upon his breast and say, as dying Oecolampadius did, Hic sat lucis, Here is store of light. Such are woefully benighted, yet more may look to be, for "their right eye shall be utterly darkened," Zechariah 11:17 (being blind leaders of the blind), yea, the night shall be upon them, and it shall be dark unto them; the sun shall go down over their heads, Micah 3:6, and when they fall together with those seduced souls into the ditch of destruction, themselves shall fall undermost, Matthew 15:14, and receive the deeper damnation, Matthew 23:14. If others shall be damned, they must look to be double damned, as Dives feared to be, if ever his brethren (by his example) came to that place of torment. Mercer's note here is very good, Nocte casuros dicit, &c. He saith they shall fall in the night, as signifying, by an allegory, that when calamity shall lay hold upon these false prophets, they shall also be pricked in their consciences, which shall tell them that ventris causa, for their bellies' sake, and other base respects, they have brought upon the seduced people so great mischiefs. This shall be as a dagger at their hearts, and shall fill their consciences with horror and distress.
And I will destroy thy mother] i.e. the whole synagogue, yea, the whole Church and state, the university of the Israelites; so that their nation and name should perish together. Is it not so with the ten tribes? who can tell at this day where to find them or whence to expect them? whether from China, as some think and allege, Isaiah 49:12, or from Tartary, as others, who say that Tartar (alias Tatari, or Totari) comes from תותר Tothar, a residue or remnant. This is no other than a vain and capricious fancy, saith learned Breerwood. Is it not altogether unlikely that the Lord in this threat might allude to that law, Deuteronomy 22:6, "Thou shalt not take the dam" (Heb. the mother) "with the young"; but I that am above law, saith God, will cut off dam and young together in the nest, I will utterly cut off the whole nation. This was fulfilled 2 Kings 17:5,7, and our prophet lived to see it, to his great heart-break. O that we could be warned, &c. Let holy mother Church of Rome (as they call her) look to it, with her doctrine of infallibility. These Israelites gloried as much of their mother, and thought (as Dionysius did of his kingdom) that the Church had been tied to their nation with chains of adamant (' Aδαμαντι δεδεμενην ωετο την αρχην κεκτησθαι), but their mother is here threatened to be cut off: and of the see of Rome it is long since foretold, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," Revelation 18:2. It is a question among divines whether the Church can fail? It is answered, that the Catholic invisible Church cannot; but any particular and visible Church may, as this of Israel, and that of Rome, which hath long since cast off Christ, and the public exercise of true religion; and is become ex aurea argentea, ex argentea ferrea, ex ferrea terrea: superest iam ut in stercus abeat, said one of her own sons, an Augustine friar, in 1414, and many others of their own writers say the same, necessario potius quam libenter, as wrested from them by the truth, rather than of any itching humour to disgrace their mother by uncovering her nakedness.