And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered [it] of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.
Ver. 7. And all the graven images thereof] Upon these the jealous God will execute vengeance: so to show his hatred of idolatry. "The stones of the altars he will make as chalk stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and the images shall not stand up," Isaiah 27:9. As for those that "worship them, and repent not of the works of their hands," Revelation 9:20, they shall smart surely for their idolatries, as did those of old in the wilderness; and the more ingenuous of their posterity acknowledge at this day, that there is no punishment befalleth them in which there is not still an ounce of that golden calf. True it is, that the Samaritan superstition which was grosser at first (and for which they were carried captive by the Assyrian), was afterwards refined by Manasseh, a Jewish priest, that in Alexander's time made a defection to him, and brought many Jews with him, but that saved them not from utter destruction.
And all the hires thereof shall be burnt with fire] Her rewards given her by her sweet hearts, Hosea 2:5; Hosea 2:12; Hosea 9:1; her vowed presents and memories (as Papists now call them), her monies and donaries, shall be set on a light fire. God will confute their vain confidences, as he did those Popish rebels of Norfolk, in Edward VI's time, who brought into the battle the Pix under his canopy, and with all his trinkets, crosses, banners, candlesticks, memories, &c., which in the end could neither help themselves nor save their friends from the hands of their enemies (Acts and Mon. fol. 1190).
For she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, &c.] Ill-gotten goods thrive not. Few harlots are found to be rich. Indeed we read of Phryne, a notable strumpet, that she offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes, on the condition that this might be engraved on them, ' O μεν Aλεξανδρος κατεσκαψεν, &c. Alexander pulled them down, and Phryne set them up again, but it would not be accepted. Flora also, the Roman harlot, was very rich; and so is the whore of Babylon to this day, by her trading with the merchants of the earth; but this will not hold long, Revelation 18:10. In one hour shall her judgment come, and in one hour so great riches shall come to nothing, Revelation 18:17. England was wont to be counted and called the Pope's ass, for bearing his burdens, and his puteus inexhaustus, his infinite pit of treasure, whence he drew at pleasure. Polydore Virgil was sometime collector of his Peter Pence here, &c.; but Henry VIII cashiered and cast him out hence, depriving him of his harlot hire. And well he had done, had he not given occasion to those that came after to complain, Possidebant Papistae, possident iam Rapistae.