Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Ver. 15. Because ye have said,] i.e., Ye have thought and reckoned so, but without your host, as they say; Jer 6:19 Hear, O earth; behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts.
We have made a covenant with death.] Nos ab omni male sumus secttrissimi: Thrasonicae hyperbolae - we are shot free, and shall escape scot free. Becket's friends advised him, for his security, to have a mass in honour of St Stephen, to keep him from the hands of his enemies. He had so, but it saved him not, as not to have been dipped in Lethe Lake could save the son of Thetis from death, &c. a
And with hell are we at agreement.] Heb., We have made provision, or taken order, egimus cantum. The prophets tell us a tale of death and hell, but we shall yet dance upon their graves; and for hell, we fear it not. The lion is not so fierce as he is painted, nor the devil so black as he is represented. Diabolo optime convenit cum lurconibus. Good fellows shall have good quarter with the devil, say our modern atheists. But what a mad fellow was that advocate in the court of Rome, mentioned by Bellarmine, who, lying at his last gasp almost, and being called upon to repent and cry to God for mercy, prayed thus: O Lord, I have much desired to speak one word unto thee before I die, not for myself, but for my wife and children, ego enim propero ad inferos, neque est ut aliquid pro me agas, for I am hasting to hell; neither is there anything to be done by thee for me. And this he spoke, saith Bellarmine, b who was by and heard it, with as much confidence as if he were but travelling to the next town.
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through.] To sweep away such as are drowned in drunkenness, and dread no danger.
It shall not come to us.] Whatever the prophets prate; let them say as they please, we will believe as we list.
For we have made lies our refuge.] A poor refuge; for, tenue mendaciam pellucet, lies are so thin, they may be seen through; but it may be that they called their false refuges lies, not because they held them so, but because the prophets called them so, whereas to themselves they seemed prudent counsels.
a Spencer.
b De Arte Mor., lib. ii. cap. 10.