Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
Ver. 22. Destruction and death say, &c.] That is, the dead in the grave, and damned in hell, as some gloss it. Others, man in his corrupt estate, though a child of death, yet capable of salvation; and the wisdom of God hath found out a way to save him by his Son, letting in life by the ear, according to that, "Hear, and your souls shall live," Isaiah 55:3. The dead in sins and trespasses shall hear the voice of the Son of God (in the preaching of the word), and shall live, the life of grace here, and of glory hereafter, John 5:25. These have heard of God's wisdom in his various dealings with the sons of men, and that with their ears; both with the gristles that grow on their heads, and with the inward ears of their minds, so that one sound hath pierced both, but yet the one half hath not been told them; they can truly say, as the queen of Sheba said to Solomon, Thou hast added wisdom and goodness to the fame, 1 Kings 10:7. And as David in the person of Christ, Psalms 16:11, "Thou wilt show me the path of life"; whereby is hinted that Christ himself, as man, did not so fully understand in the days of his flesh the unconceivable joys of heaven, as he did afterwards, when his whole person was glorified with the glory which, as God, he had with the Father before the world was, John 17:5 .