Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and [are] soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
Ver. 6. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people.] Or, But thou hast, &c. By a sad apostrophe a to God, he sets forth the Jews' dereliction and destruction irrecoverable, together with the causes of it, their impiety, cruelty, &c., but especially their contempt of Christ and his kingdom. Let us beware and be warned by their example. Rom 11:7-10 To be forsaken of God is the greatest mischief. Lay hold upon him, therefore, with Mary Magdalene, and say, Nobiscum, Christe, maneto: Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam.
Because they be replenished from the East.] Or, They are fuller than the East - that is, more superstitious than the Syrians and Mesopotamians, Balaam's countrymen. Ethnicismum illis improperat. Josephus b tells us, that a little before Christ came in the flesh, Herod had brought into Judea many superstitions of the Gentiles; and it appeareth by the first of Maccabees, that the Greeks had their schools at Jerusalem; and by the gospel, that the Pharisees held Pythagoras's transanimation, and many other pagan traditions.
And are soothsayers like the Philistines.] These were west of Judea. Isa 9:12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind. These were great soothsayers and sorcerers, and the Jews were tainted with that contagion, as sin is more catching than the plague. The vanity of this practice Cicero saw when he said, potest augur augurem c videre et non ridere?
And they please themselves d in the children of strangers.] They applaud and approve of their customs and commerces. Some think they are there taxed of paederasty, or sodomy, and that they boasted of it, as that odious Johannes a Casa did in print.
a Dεινωσις est in apostrophe.
b Antiq., lib. xvi. cap. 10.
c Augurium, quasi avigerium.
d Adhaeserunt. - Vulg. In usu habent. - Chald.