And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he [is] gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
Ver. 13. And rend your heart and not your garments] i.e. not your garments only, which was gestus perturbationis among the Jews, a gesture usual with them, to set forth the greatness of their grief and displeasure; as, 1. At funerals and loss of friends, as Genesis 37:34 Genesis 37:2. In case of blasphemy, as 2 Kings 18:37 2 Kings 18:3. In time of common calamity, Esther 4:1. Tum pius Aeneas humeris abseindere vestem Auxilioque vocare Deos, et tendere palmas (Virg.). Godly sorrow for sin should exceed all other sorrows whatsoever, both in intention and extension; the whole soul sending continual streams into it out of every faculty. And hence it is that the prophet here calleth upon them to rend, and as it were to discontinuate their hearts. Cor integram cor scissum, the broken heart is the only sound heart; and to rend the garment, and not the heart, is as very a fraud as that of players, who seem to wound themselves, but do not; and make a show of thrusting themselves through their bodies, but the sword passeth only through their clothes. Stage players can act to the life those whom they impersonate; yea, outstrip them in outward actions; so do hypocrites the true Christian. Doth good Josiah melt at the menaces of the law, and weep, and rend his clothes, and humble himself? 2 Chronicles 34:27; wicked Ahab will also, in like case, rend his clothes, put sackcloth upon his flesh, fast, lie in sackcloth, and go softly and heavily, as sorrowful men and mourners use to do, 1 Kings 21:27. Doth the publican fix his eyes on the ground? those hypocrites in Isaiah will hang down their heads as bulrushes. Doth holy Timothy weaken his constitution with religious abstinence? the false Pharisee will not only weaken his constitution, but wither and disfigure his complexion, αφανιζουσι, that he may appear to men to fast, Matthew 6:16. Such pains men will be at for applause, for a little stinking breath, which yet cannot blow one cold blast upon them when they shall be frying in hell for their seemingness. "Rend, therefore, your hearts," saith the prophet; "break up your fallow ground, circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the filthy foreskin of your hearts," Jeremiah 4:3,4, "wash them from wickedness, that ye may be saved," Joel 2:14. Be ye active, and voluntaries in your sorrows for sin. Virtus nolentium nulla est, feigned and forced grief is nothing worth. Judas grieved, confessed, restored, and yet miscarried. He went not forth, as Peter, to weep bitterly; he did not cast himself into heaviness, as James 4:9,10. It was fired out of him, as sweet water out of roses; it was squeezed out of him, as verjuice out of crabs. God's people are commanded to afflict themselves with voluntary sorrows, Leviticus 16:31; to loathe themselves for all their abominations, Ezekiel 6:9, to mortify the deeds of the body by the spirit, Romans 8:13, to do it with their own hands; and not to give over the practice of it till they feel their hearts to ache and quake within them, yea, to fall asunder in their bosoms, like drops of water. See all this done by David, after he had numbered the people, 2 Samuel 24:10. Some shadow of it we have in the example of Epaminondas, the Theban general, who the next day after the victory and triumph went drooping and hanging down his head: and being asked, why he did so? he answered, Yesterday I felt myself too much tickled with vain glory: therefore I correct myself for it today. But we have a better example in holy David, "whose heart smote him," saith the text, 2 Samuel 24:10, and made him smart inwardly. He was not yet smitten, either by God's hand or the prophet's reproach (as afterwards), but his sanctified conscience did its orifice of a faithful monitor and household chaplain; his heart misgave him. Bee masters tell us that those are the best hives that make the greatest noise. Sure it is that that is the best conscience that suffers not a man to sleep in sin. David's heart smote him. But for what? for numbering the people. It was for his own sin, for a small, for a secret sin, for a failing in the manner only. David knew that a man may die as well of an inward bleeding as of an outward hurt. The good soul is oft afflicted for failings in that holy duty which others applaud and extol. "And David said unto the Lord": he could not rest till he had opened his mind unto him by confession and supplication, and so got a vent to his troubled spirit: as when a sore is opened there is ease immediately. To God, therefore, he addresseth himself, not to men (as Judas did and Papists do, and many among us, being in pain of conscience, will rather shark for ease than sue for pardon), and acknowledgeth with aggravation the iniquity of his sin, Psalms 32:3, the sinfulness of it, as Paul's expression is, Romans 7:13 (for sin is so vile that he could call it no worse than by its own name), "I have sinned greatly in that I have done": his sin swelled like a toad in his eyes, and he spat it out of his mouth with utmost indignation. He confesseth sorrowfully, but not desperately, as Judas; for he both cries for pardon, "Take away the iniquity" (for as for the punishment how he stood affected, see Romans 7:17 : "Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and my father's house"), and concludeth himself God's servant, yea, proveth himself so (as some godly learned think), by those following words, "For I have done foolishly"; q.d. If I deserve not to be called God's servant in regard of my late sin (and indeed God calls him but plain David, Joel 2:12, "Go and say to David," not to my servant David, as at other times), yet at least in regard of my later service of confession joined with reformation; for now I see "I have done very foolishly," who once thought I had done wondrous wisely and politicly.
And turn unto the Lord your God] Of turning to God see at large the note on Zechariah 1:3. Here it is prescribed as a remedy against God's wrath, and pressed again and again, to show the necessity of doing it, or we are utterly undone. So elsewhere, "Turn you, turn you, why will you die? except ye repent, ye must needsly perish." Aut poenitendum aut pereundum, either you must turn on earth or burn in hell; be born again, or ye cannot enter the kingdom of God, John 3:3. Heaven was too hot to hold the apostate angels. And although the devil could get into paradise, yet no unclean thing ever got into heaven. No dirty dog may trample on that golden pavement. The pure in heart only can see God, as whole eyes can look upon the sunbeams, and as transparent bodies receive the light. "Turn you," therefore, "unto the Lord." If a man see a lion or a burning fire before him he will make some shift to turn another way. So here, biasse, for there is no safety in going forward; since our God is a consuming fire, and as a roaring lion will tear and rend the caul of our hearts in sunder, Hosea 13:8, if we rend not our hearts and turn unto him. By turning may well be here meant reformation, that repentance from sin, as humiliation, before required, is in Scripture called repentance for sin, for it is not enough to mourn unless we mend also, to bewail our wickedness, but we must embrace better courses, Jer 26:13 Isa 1:16 Matthew 3:8 Romans 12:9; Rom 13:11 Ephesians 4:22. God for this cause gives us the light of nature and Scripture, besides other means, and time enough. Had he given us but one prophet only, and but forty days, as he dealt by Nineveh, we should have done it as they did. How much more now that we abound with leisure (read Jezebel's sin and sentence, Rev 2:21), and have so many prophets rising up early and speaking to us. "Turn ye again now every one from his evil way," Jeremiah 25:4,5. What will become of us if we refuse to be reclaimed, hate to be healed? This one prophet here fills his mouth with arguments, Job 23:4. First, it is not to a tyrant or a stranger that you are exhorted to turn, but to the Lord your God, to him that is your head, husband, father, who hates putting away, having once betrothed you to himself in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in tender mercies, Hosea 2:19. Next, this Lord our God is, for his sweet and patient nature, here set forth, to be gracious, and will therefore love you freely, Hosea 14:4; merciful, and will therefore pity your misery; slow to anger, or not apt to snuff, but a master of his wrath, Nahum 1:2, Bagnal Chemah, and one that can bear more than any other whatsoever, Micah 7:17 .
And of great kindness] Or much in goodness, doing good to the evil and unthankful, as our Saviour yokes them.
And repenteth him of the evil] A little punishment being enough to a father for a great fault, Pro peccato magno paululum supplicii satis esto patri (Terent.). Where note, that God's repentance is not a change of his will, but of his work only; and so he repents for his people when he seeth their power is gone, Deuteronomy 32:36; when there is dignus vindice nodus, an extremity fit for Divine power to interpose, when the enemies are ready to devour the Church, or Satan to swallow down God's child in despair, his bowels work, he can hold no longer, but cries, Save my child, save my Church, &c., Jeremiah 31:20; then he sends out his mandamus trust for deliverance, Psalms 44:4; then he comes with his non obstante, as Psa 106:8 Isaiah 57:15. Now who would not return to such a God? and what heart can resist such powerful rhetoric? A heap of words we have here, taken for the most part out of Exodus 34:6, and all to draw out faith and encourage those that have any mind to look toward God. It is no such easy thing to believe, as fond folk conceit, and to comfort a conscience cast down in the sense of sin and fear of wrath is no less difficult, saith Luther, than to raise the dead from the grave. If men fear they shall fail of mercy upon their return to God, either they will fall into dedolency or despair. But persuade them once of the goodness of God, and it will lead them to repentance, Romans 2:4. Let them see that in their Father's house is bread enough, and they will home immediately; that God will abundantly pardon, and he shall have suitors great store, Isaiah 55:7. The sweet and gracious nature of God should be as a perpetual picture in our hearts, and an effectual motive to make men turn unto him.