The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.
Ver. 6. The children also of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem] "The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold," Lamentations 4:2, with whom you were anciently confederate in the days of Solomon, 1 Kings 4:25, and seemed to be then their prosperity proselytes.
Have ye sold unto the Grecians] That is, to the Gentiles in general, for so St Paul often useth the word Grecians, as contradistinct to Jews; who were barbarously sold, as if they had been brute beasts, and that into the farthest countries, that they might never ransom themselves, nor return to their native soil again. This was singular, yea, savage cruelty, which the merciful God cannot abide, but will severely punish, Jam 2:13-14 Isaiah 47:6, "Thou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke." See the Babylonian cruelty graphically described, and accordingly recompensed, Jeremiah 51:34,35, &c. The Spanish cruelty to the poor Indians is unspeakable. They have made away 50,000,000 of them in 42 years, as Acosta the Jesuit testieth, and that under pretence of converting them to the faith. They suppose they show the wretches great favour when they do not (for their pleasure) whip them with cords, and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon: such a devil is one man to another, when set to work by the devil, and spurred on by him. But "shall they thus escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God," Psalms 56:7. He will do it: for those words are not more a prayer than a prophecy.