Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Ver. 2. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?] Heb., For not bread; for that which can no more feed you than those husks could the hungry prodigal. Luk 15:16
“ Turpe est difficiles habere nugas:
Et stultus labor est ineptiarum. ” - Martial.
The saying of the Roman general to the soldier that kept the tents, when he should have been fighting in the field, Non amo nimium diligentes, I love not those that are too diligent, will be used of God, if, when he calleth us to the care of higher things, we busy ourselves only about matters of an inferior alloy. Surely, as Domitian the emperor spent his time in catching flies, and Artaxerxes in making hafts for knives, so do most men in trifles and lying vanities, neglecting the one thing necessary (with Martha), and preferring, as those Gergesites in the Gospel, haram domesticam arae Dominicae, a swine sty before a sanctuary. Between such and true believers there is as much difference as is between substantial merchants who deal in rich commodities, and those nugivenduli Agyrtae, who sell gaudes, rattles, and trangums; as is between spiders that catch flies, and eagles that hunt after hares and herons; as is between fowlers that follow after quails, and children that run after butterflies. Had men but tasted of God's bread, they would never set such a price upon dove's dung. Had they drunk of Christ's wine, (which is beyond the best nectar or ambrosia), they would never thirst again after the world's delights; Joh 4:14 which are such as whereof a man may break his neck before his fast. Ecc 1:8
“ Clitorio quicunque sitim de fonte levarit,
Vina fugit, gaudetque meris abstemius undis. ”
- Ovid. Metam., lib. xv.
And your labour for that which satisfieth not.] The world is full of pomp and pleasure, 1Jn 2:15 and yet it satisfieth not, because it is full of nothing but of emptiness; the creature is now, ever since the fall, as the husk without the grain, the shell without the kernel; yea, "the world passeth away and the lusts thereof," 1Jn 2:17 for a man cannot make his heart long to delight in the same things, but ipsa etiam vota, post usum, fastidio sunt, we loathe after a while what we greatly lusted after, as Amnon did Tamar. Therefore "love not the world," 1Jn 2:15 "labour not for the meat that perisheth," Joh 6:27 but hasten heavenward, saying, as that pilgrim did, who, travelling to Jerusalem, and by the way visiting many brave cities, with their rare monuments, and meeting with many friendly entertainments, would say eftsoons, I must not stay here, this is not Jerusalem.
Hearken diligently unto me.] Heb., Hearing, hear - i.e., Hear as for life, with utmost attention of body, intention of mind, and retention of memory.
And eat ye that which is good.] Not only hear the word of God, but eat it; turn it in succum et sanguinem, into juice and blood, digest it, incorporate it into your souls, Jam 1:21 for it is the heavenly manna that hath all manner of good tastes in it, and properties with it. 2Ti 3:16
And let your soul delight itself in fatness.] Talis est doctrina et gratis evangelica quae mentem saginat et impinguat, A good soul feedeth on the fat, and drinketh of the sweet, that is found in the precious promises. Psalms 36:8 ; Psa 63:5