The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth [it] to heart: and merciful men [are] taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil [to come].
Ver. 1. The righteous perisheth.] So the world deemeth, but not rightly, for "the righteous hath hope in his death," when "the wicked dying is driven away in his wickedness" Pro 14:32 - by "him that had the power of death, even the devil" Heb 2:14 - having been "through fear of death all their lifetime subject to bondage." The Lacedaemonians all the time of their life adored death. The righteous can defy death, with Paul, and sing, Death, where is thy sting? hell, where is thy victory? He is not "killed with death," as Jezebel's children were; Rev 2:23 but dieth in peace, though he die in battle, as Josiah did, of whom some interpret this text.
And no man layeth it to heart.] Heb., Upon his heart, that it may sink and soak into it, so as to be soundly sensible of God's holy hand and end in such a providence. See Isaiah 5:12. There is a woe to oscitancy and stupidity of this kind.
And merciful men.] Heb, Men of piety or pity, such as all righteous persons are. They have received mercy, and they can show it; Col 3:12 they have steeped their thoughts in the mercies of God, which have dyed theirs as the dye fat doth the cloth.
Are taken away.] Heb., Gathered, as grain is into the garner, or fruit into the storehouse; so they into Abraham's bosom. As men gather flowers, and candy them, and preserve them by them, so doth God his pious ones.
No man considering.] None of those debauched ones Isa 56:12 to be sure of. These are glad to be rid of the righteous, as the Sodomites were of righteous Lot; as the heathen persecutors were of the martyrs, whom they counted καθαρματα, the "sweepings of the world, and the offscourings of all things." 1Co 4:13
That the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.] As was Methuselah a year before the flood; Jeroboam's best son, before the downfall of his father's family; 1Ki 14:12-13 Josiah before the captivity and first destruction of Jerusalem; 2Ki 22:20 James before the second; Act 12:2 Augustine a little before the sack of his city Hippo, by the Vandals. Felix Nepotianus qui haec non vidit, saith Jerome. Stilico said, that when Ambrose was dead great changes would follow; and it happened accordingly. Luther was taken away in peace, a a little before the calamity of Germany, which he foretold, for contempt of the gospel. Pareus died a little before Heidelberg was taken, futuro malo substractus. Mr Brightman was buried a day or two before the pursuivant was sent for him. God had housed him, as he had Lot before the storm; hid him, as he had done Moses in the hole of the rock, till the tempest was blown over; dealt by him, as once by Daniel, Dan 12:13 who was bid to go away and rest before those great clashings and confusions should come, which had been foreshown to him. Howbeit this is not generally so; for Jeremiah lived to see the first destruction of Jerusalem, John the Evangelist the last. Mr Dod and many other holy men outlived our recent unhappy wars, and deeply shared in them. But usually God taketh away his most eminent servants from the evil to come. As when there is a fire in a house or town men carry out their jewels; ωκυμοροι οι θεοφιλεις, saith an ancient, b the best die first commonly. The comfort is, that though as grapes they be gathered before they are ripe, and as lambs, slain before they be grown, yet this benefit they have, that they are freed from the violence of the winepress that others fall into, and they escape many storms that others live to taste of.
a Calvin, in hunc locum,
b Dion., Prus. Orat. 28.