My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear.
Ver. 14. My God, think upon Tobiah and Sanballat] Heb. Remember, to be revenged on them, q.d. I cannot deal with them, but do thou do it. He doth himself no disservice (saith one) who when no law will relieve him, maketh God his chancellor. It is a fearful thing to be put over into his punishing hands by the saints, as Joab and Shimei were unto Solomon's hands by dying David. If men, in their best estate, are so weak that they are crushed before the moth, how shall they stand before this great God?
According to these their works] Qualia quisque tacit, talia quisque luat, Let them drink as they have brewed.
And on the prophetess Noadiah] Who joined with Shemaiah in this dissimulation, and was of his counsel. Omne malum ex gynaecio. False prophets and seducers are seldom without their women. Simon Magus had his Helena, Carpocrates his Marcellina, Apelles his Philumena, Montanus his Priscilla and Maximilla, &c.
And the rest of the prophets] Improperly so called, but so they pretended to be; and here they had conspired, a great sort of them, to do evil.
That would have put me in fear] By their concurrent prophecies, purposely to disgrace and endanger me. Suffragia non sunt numeranda, sed expendenda. Multitude and antiquity are but ciphers in divinity.