Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most just?
Ver. 17. Shall even he that hateth right govern?] Heb. Bind; sc. malefactors, whom magistrates use to hamper? Others take it to be binding up the wounded after the manner of chirurgeons. An qui odit iudicium, chirurgos imitaretur? so the Tigurines translate: Would he who hateth right do as surgeons use to do? Would God, if he were unrighteous, bind up the broken hearted, or receive into favour, as he doth, a sinner that repenteth, doing him good again, as if there never had been a breach between them? It hath been noted, that a king hath his name in the Greek tongue from healing, Aναξ from ακος Medela; and that, Isaiah 3:7, a governor is called a healer, or binder up; the same word there as here in the text. But how unfit for such an office must he needs be who not only doth not right, but hateth it, as did Nero, Caligula, Commodus, &c.?
And wilt thou condemn him that is most just?] Or, that is strong and just; illumne impietatis sugillabis? (Tigur.) None in his right wits would ever do so; for what else were this but to exalt a man's self above the Divine Majesty? And yet what do they less than this who grudge at God's proceedings, and are ready to think that if they had the ordering of things in their hands they could dispose of them a fair deal better? How absurd and unseemly this is in any one is aptly set forth in the next verse, "Is it fit?" &c.