Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Ver. 2. Learn not the way of the heathen.] Their sinful customs and irregular religions - mere irreligious. a
And be not dismayed at the signs of heaven.] Which the blind heathens feared and deified; and none did more than the Syrians, the Jews' next neighbours. Of the vanity of judicial astrology, see on Isaiah 47:13. He who feareth God needs not fear the stars; for "all things are yours," saith the apostle. 1Co 3:21 Mulcasses, King of Tunis, a great star gazer, foreseeing by them, as he said, the loss of his kingdom and life together, left Africa that he might shun that mischief; but thereby he hastened it, A.D. 1544. God suffereth sometimes such fond predictions to fall out right upon men for a just punishment of their curiosity.
For the heathen are dismayed at them.] Therefore God's people should not, if it were for no other reason but that only. See Matthew 6:32. Let Papists observe this.
a See Selden. De Diis Syris.