They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.
Ver. 14. They meet with darkness in the daytime] They are infatuated and besotted; a spirit of giddiness seizeth them; ita ut in re clarissima destituantur prudentia, saith Vatablus, so that they cannot discern things that are evident and clear as the sun at noon day; they have light without, but want light within; they lack discretion and judgment to do for the best: this was threatened, Deuteronomy 28:29, and accordingly fulfilled upon those blind Pharisees, as our Saviour often calleth them, and now upon that whole nation, Romans 11:18 2 Corinthians 3:14. Since they crucified the Lord of glory, they never prospered in anything they uudertook, neither will they be driven out of that fool's paradise of a sublime dotage whereinto they have long since wrought themselves: They had bribed our William Rufus to hear them and favour them in a disputation against the Christians; but they lost the day, and their money together. Rabbi Judah, surnamed The holy, was intimate with Antoninus Plus, the emperor, and thought to have proselyted him but it would not be. Rabbi David Reubenita and Rabbi Solomon Molchu set upon Charles V, in the year of grace 1530, to convert him to Judaism, but with ill success; for they were presently imprisoned, and shortly after executed, Rabbi Solomon at Mantua, and Rabbi David in Spain. How they are benighted in their expositions of Scripture, troubling those clear fountains with their ridiculous conceits and foolish fables, I need not relate. Neither are many of the Popish interpreters (as they will be accounted) much wiser, being judicially blinded, given over to an injudicious mind, Romans 1:28, to the efficacy of error, 2 Thessalonians 2:11, so that
They grope at noonday, as in the night] They have neither light nor sight left them, and this by a just hand of God upon them, because they closed up their eyes lest they should see, Acts 28:27, they would not receive the love of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:10. Therefore now it is hid from their eyes, and the light that is in them is darkness. Women and children see further into the mysteries of religion, than many of these learned doctors, these idol shepherds; God's sword being upon their arm, and upon their right eye, Zechariah 11:17, that is, both upon their power and policy, so that they are like owls, that can see better in the dark than in the light; and like moles, that dig dexterously underground, but are blind above ground, neither do they ever open their eyes till the pangs of death are upon them.