Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.
Ver. 8. Had taken it.] As also Hebron and Debir, while Joshua was yet alive, Joshua 10:42 ; Jos 15:63 which yet some hold to be there set down by way of anticipation.
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Ver. 8. Likewise also] Or, yet nevertheless; albeit these dreadful executions are set before them for an example.
These filthy dreamers] Or, these sound sleepers, these whom the devil hath cast into a dead lethargy of damned security. (Sopiti. Beza.) Or, these Nehelamites, that pretend dreams and divine inspirations. SeeJeremiah 29:24; Jeremiah 29:31 .
Defile the flesh] By nocturnal pollutions, which we must pray against. The devil can fasten that filth upon the soul when we sleep, that he cannot do at another time.
Despise dominion] Gr. αθετουσι, set it at nought. See Trapp on " 2Pe 2:10 " Under pretence of Christian liberty, they "set it aside," they "put it from its place" with scorn and contempt.
And speak evil of dignities] Gr. blaspheme glories: so the Papists do familiarly those princes they count heretics, as Henry IV of France, whom they called Huguenot Dog, &c. Our Edward VI, bastard. Of Queen Elizabeth they reported in print some years after her death, that she died without sense or feeling of God's mercies. Sanders calleth her the English wolf; Rhiston, the English lioness, far surpassing in cruelty all the Athaliahs, Maacahs, Jezebels, Herodiases, that ever were. Os durum! Harsh mouth. (Rivetti Jesuita vapulans, 263.)