And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find [a place]: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.
Ver. 8. To sojourn where he could find a place.] By the iniquity of the times, he was put to his shifts, and forced to seek a subsistence where he could get it. See the like in Nehemiah 13:10,11. Ministers are not of the chameleon kind: they cannot live upon the air. It was a sad thing that Luther should be forced to complain, Spoliantur parochiae et scholae non aliter ac si fame necare nos velint: Parishes and schools are robbed, as if they meant to starve up the ministry. It was an ingenuous confession of that Popish priest, but a shame for those that put him to it, We preach the gospel, tantum ut nos pascat et vestiat, only for food and raiment. In many places they allow the ox nothing but the straw for treading out the grain: and so much straw as themselves please. O tempera!