And they covet fields, and take [them] by violence; and houses, and take [them] away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
Ver. 2. And they covet fields, and take them by violence] See here the several degrees of sin, and what descents covetous men dig to hell, and beware betimes. Surely as the plot of all diseases lies in the humours of the body, so of all sin in the lust of the soul. The heathen could say (Laertins),
Pαντων μεν πρωτιστα κακων επιθυμια εστιν .
Covetousness is called the lust of the eyes, 1 John 2:16, because from looking comes lusting, from lusting acting (hence lusts of the soul are called deeds of the body, Rom 8:13), yea, acting with violence, they covet and take, they rob and ravish, Psalms 10:9, there is neither equity nor honesty to be had at their hands; but as they take away fields, houses, heritages shamelessly; so they bear them away boldly, and think to escape scot free; because it is facinus maioris abollae (Juvenal), the fact of a great one, whose hand is to power, as Micah 2:1 .
And houses, and take them away] Though a man's house be his castle, as we say, yet it cannot secure him from these cormorants. Scribes and Pharisees devoured widows' houses, Matthew 23:14, where was a concurrence of covetousness and cruelty, for these seldom go sundered, besides the putrid hypocrisy of doing this under a pretence of long prayers. A poor man in his house is like a snail in his shell; crush that and you kill him.
So they oppress (or defraud) a man and his house] Either by fraud or force, by craft or cruelty, they ruin a man (a well-set man, virum validum, גבר) and his family, his whole progeny; which might not be done to the unreasonable creatures, Deuteronomy 22:6. This is to be like Uladus, that cruel prince of Valachia; whose manner was, together with the offender, to execute the whole family; yea, sometimes the whole kindred.