Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly [to them].
Ver. 12. Men groan from out of the city] viz. Under the pressures of their oppressors. Thus did Jerusalem, that faithful city, when once become a harlot; it was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers, Isaiah 1:21. The like did the city of Rome, when, under the government of Marius set up against Sulla, she cried out that the remedy was worse than the disease; and under Pompey, Calamitas nostra magnus est; Our calamity is great, and under the Caesars, that the names of their good emperors might all be set down in the compass of a signet ring; and again under the popes, that for many years together she had not had the happiness to be ruled by any but reprobates; Heu, heu, Domine Deus, saith Fasciculus temporum, bitterly bewailing Rome's misery under her turbulent tyrants, Hildebrand, Urban II (whom Cardinal Benno worthily calleth Turban), Boniface VIII, and many other such like monsters. Of most great cities it may be said, as of that strange vineyard in Palestine, Isaiah 5:7, God "looked for judgment, but behold oppression" (Heb. a scab); "for righteousness, but behold a cry."
And the soul of the wounded (of the deadly wounded) crieth out] Anima confossorum voci feratur, sc. For grief; and in prayer to God for ease.
Yet God layeth not folly to them] Deus non ponit prohibitionem, so one of the Rabbis renereth it. God putteth not a stop to the proceedings, he punisheth not those tyrants who do oppress whole cities, making their lust a law, and overbearing all right with their Volumus et iubemus; we will and we judge, nothing at all moved with the groans of the oppressed city, or with the outcries of the wounded. Word for word it is, Deus non interponit insulsum quid, God interposeth not anything senseless or unsavoury; that is, he suffereth not any cross meanwhile to befall them; yea, he so carrieth the matter as if he favoured them; yea, approved and prospered their crafty and cruel practices: for they live happy, obtain victories, are magnified among men, they flatter themselves in their own eyes, until their iniquity be found to be hateful, Psalms 36:2. Meanwhile, felix scelus virtus vocatur, as the orator speaketh, their prosperous villany is called virtue (Cicero, de Divin. lib. 2); and if any man mutter against them, yea, if he cry them not up, he is looked upon as a traitor, as Thraseas, that noble Roman, was by Nero (Dio in Ner.).