Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
Ver. 1. Cry aloud.] Heb., Cry with the throat, or, With full throat. as Jer 12:6 a Plenis faucibus, voce sonora, et quasi tubali: Set up thy note; not only say to the wicked, "It shall be ill with him," Isa 3:11 there is no peace to him, Isa 57:21 but cry it aloud.
Spare b not.] Singulae particulae habent emphasin; use utmost intention of spirit and contention of speech. Thou hast to do with a hypocritical nation, than which kind of people nothing is more stupid, more uncounsellable, or impenitent; for how should such repent as have converted conversion itself into a form, yea, into sin? Bestir thee therefore against these deaf sea monsters. Sic clames ut stentora vincere possis. If a man's house be on fire, we must not speak softly, as loath to awaken him: Sir, your house is on fire.
Lift thy voice like a trumpet.] Non ut tibia, sed ut tuba; not as a pipe for delight, but as a trumpet alarm against sin and Satan. As all the country was filled with the sound of that trumpet at the giving of the law, Exo 19:16 and as all the world shall hear the sound of that trumpet of God 1Th 4:16 when the law shall be required, so let the preacher's voice be a summons to speedy repentance, or else to unavoidable judgment. There is one c that descanteth thus upon the words: Various things there are, saith he, that sound louder than a trumpet - the sea, the thunder, or such like - yet he saith not, lift up thy voice as the sea, or as the thunder, but as "a trumpet"; because a trumpeter, when he sounds his trumpet, he winds it with his mouth, and holds it with his hands; and so a preacher, which is a spiritual trumpeter, must not only, by preaching well, sound forth the word of truth with his mouth, but also, by doing well, he must support and hold it up with his hands, and then doth he "lift up his voice as a trumpet."
And show my people their transgressions.] Let God's watchmen cast away the inverse trumpets of Furius Fulvius, which sounded a retreat when they should have sounded an alarm; but deal freely and faithfully with men's souls, taking the same liberty to cry down sin that men take to commit sin.
a Ne frigide arguas, et in aenigmatibus ac obscure. - Oecol.
b Ne parcas guttari et voci, - A Lap.
c Dr Playfair on Matthew 5:19 .