He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.
Ver. 30. He shall deliver the island of the innocent] Or, He shall deliver the not innocent; him that is not guiltless; and even such shall be delivered for the purity of thine hands. Thus God gave Zoar to Lot, and all the souls in the ship to Paul, and the guilty Israelites to Moses. See Jeremiah 5:1. Or, The innocent shall deliver the island; or, Liberabitur vita innocentis, the innocent shall be freed from affliction: so Brentius.
And it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands] i.e. Of thy works, or by thy pure hands lifted up in prayer. Semen sanctum statumen terrae, the saints bear up the state, Isaiah 6:13, they uphold the pillars of the earth by their piety and prayers; and therefore when God is unchangeably resolved to ruin a people he silenceth his saints, as Jeremiah 7:16, or removeth them out of the world, as he did Methuselah the year before the flood. And as one sinner may destroy much good, Ecclesiastes 9:18; so one praying saint may save an island, a whole country; it is delivered by the pureness of thy hands. It may be the work sticks at thee; why then is not thy shoulder at the wheel when the cart is stalled?