They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew [it] not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
Ver. 4. They have set up kings, but not by me, &c.] The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin render it, "They have reigned themselves"; like as St Paul telleth the haughty Corinthians, who, carried aloft by their waxen wings, domineered and despised others, "ye have reigned as kings without us," &c., 1 Corinthians 4:8. But our reading is according to the original; and so they are charged with a double defection; the one civil, from the house of David, "they have set up kings," &c.; the other ecclesiastical, from the sincere service of God, "they had made them idols." For the first, it was not their fault to set up kings; but to do it without God, without his license and approbation. They took counsel, but not of God; they covered with a covering, but not of his spirit, that they might add sin to sin, Isaiah 30:1. They went headlong to work, in setting up Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. For although the things were done by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, as was likewise Christ's crucifixion, Acts 2:23, see 1 Kings 11:31 ; 1Ki 12:15 ; 1Ki 12:24 yet because the people were led by their own pride and ambition to choose a new king, without either asking God's consent or eyeing his decree, they did it rashly and seditiously; neither aimed they at anything else, but at the easing of their burdens, and drawing to themselves the wealth of the kingdom. As for Jeroboam, it is before noted, that although he had it cleared to him, that God's will was he should be king over the ten tribes, yet because it was a will of God's decree, not of his command, as of a duty to be done by him; and because he did not as David, who when he had the promise of the kingdom (yea, was anointed king) yet invaded not the kingdom, but waited till he was lawfully exalted thereunto by God; therefore passeth he for a usurper. And the people are here worthily reprehended, since whatsoever is not of faith is sin; and it is obedience when men obey a divine precept; but not ever when they follow a divine instinct.
They have made princes, &c.] Some render it, They have removed princes (as if in the word Hasiru Sin were put for Samech, R. Sal. Jerki.), they have taken liberty to make and unmake princes at their pleasure; as the Roman army did emperors; and as that potent Earl of Warwick, in Henry VI's time, who is said to have carried a king in his pocket. But because the former reading is confirmed by the Chaldee paraphrase, and the sense is agreeable to what went before, neither read we of any kings of Israel deposed by the people, we retain it as the better.
Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols] Of the guts and garbage of the earth had they made them terricula, fray-bugs (or spectres), or molestations (Gnatsabim): terrorem enim et tristitiara duntaxat afferunt suis cultoribus, for they cause terror and heaviness only to those that worship them (Polan.). "Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god," Psalms 16:4. The Greek Churches, for instance, so set upon image worship, and therefore now subjected to the Turkish tyranny; a type whereof were these ten tribes carried captive by the Assyrian, without any return. Idols are called griefs, or sorrows, saith Peter Martyr, because they torment the mind and trouble the conscience; neither can they quiet or pacify it; so that idolaters must needs be always in doubt and despair, as Papists are, whose whole religion is a doctrine of desperation. Their penances and pilgrimages to such or such an idol might still their consciences for a while; but this was a truce rather than a peace; a palliate cure, which would not hold long; a corrupting of the sergeant, but not compounding with the creditor.
That they may be cut off] Not their silver and gold, the matter of their idols, as some sense it; but the whole nation, princes and people together. Idolatry is a God-provoking and a land-desolating sin, as in this prophecy. Often it is not so much the enemies' sword as the sin of idolatry that destroyeth cities and kingdoms, through the justice and jealousy of Almighty God.