He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty.
Ver. 19. He leadeth away princes spoiled] Or priests. Ducit sacerdotes inglorios, so the Vulgate translateth, He leadeth away the priests without glory, dishonoured. Priests were generally much esteemed and privileged in all ages. Alexander the Great gave greatest respect to Jaddus, the Jewish high priest. When the Gauls had burnt Rome, and were besieging the capitol, Gaius Fabius Dorso, attired as a priest, with his sacrifice and other necessaries in his hand, marched through the midst of the enemies, astonished at his resolution, offered his sacrifice on the hill Quirinalis, and returned in safety. The Bardi, a kind of priests, were here in Albion of such esteem among the greatest commanders, that if two armies were even at push of pike, and a bard had stepped in between them, they would have held their hands, hearkened to his advice, and not have offered to strike till he were out of danger: Magna fuit quondam capitis reverentia sacri. Howbeit, such also have been carried captive, and slain by the enemy, as was Seraiah, the high priest, by Nebuchadnezzar; and before him the two sons of Eli (whose white ephod covered foul sins), slain by the Philistines. "The Lord hath despised, in the indignation of his anger, both the king and the priest," Lamentations 2:6. "Both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not," Jeremiah 14:18. The word Cohen is used indifferently to signify a priest or prince, an ecclesiastical or secular governor. Broughton rendereth it here dukes; others, presidents or praefects of provinces. Honour is no shelter against the wrath of God.
And overthroweth the mighty] Such as might seem immoveable as a rock, or tree firmly rooted, these God shaketh and shattereth to pieces; he rooteth them up, and ruineth them. Let no man think to prevail by strength, 1 Samuel 2:9, since the weakness of God (if any such thing there were) is stronger than men, 1 Corinthians 1:25. He will smite his enemies (as so many puny boys) in the hinder parts, and so put them to a perpetual reproach, Psalms 78:66. Yea, he will not only smite them on the loins, but through the loins, Deuteronomy 32:11, that they never rise again. Let them, therefore, learn to meddle with their match, Ecclesiastes 6:10, and take heed how they fall into the punishing hands of the living God.