But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.
Ver. 12. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day] Unless it were with weeping eyes. Iisdem quibus videmus oculis flemus. Men have the same organ of seeing and of weeping; that when they behold a doleful object, they might weep over it; not as the crocodile doth over the dead body which she had slain before, and afterwards devoureth; but with true tears of compassion, weeping with those that weep. God takes it ill here, that any should once look upon his afflicted people, unless it be to pity and relieve them. He observed Cain's lowering upon his brother, Genesis 4:6, and the Jews' wagging their heads, Matthew 27:39, Rabshakeh's lofty looks, Isaiah 37:28, Laban's change of countenance, Genesis 31:2. Men may not look at liberty, and as they list. Vultu saepe laeditur charitas. It was not for nothing, therefore, that in Queen Elizabeth's days, at a meeting of the borderers in the marches between England and Scotland, about goods unjustly taken, security was given and confirmed on both sides by oath, according to custom and proclamation made, that no man should harm other by word, deed, or look.
When he became a stranger] And fell under a strange punishment, as Job speaketh, Job 31:3, that is, a rare and unheard of misery, monstrosum exilium, Tremellius rendereth it. This was threatened, 2 Chronicles 7:21, and accordingly fulfilled, Lamentations 1:9. Israel became the world's wonderment, a famous instance of God's severity against a people of his wrath and of his curse. Aben Ezra rendereth it, In his strange day, such as he had never seen the like before. Others, when he was banished his own borders, and became a stranger at home: when God seemed to look strange upon him, and to stand aloof, or as a man astonied, that knows not whether he had best help or no, as a mighty man that cannot save, Jeremiah 14:8,9. John Baptist was beheaded in prison without any law, right, or reason, as though God had known nothing at all of him, saith that martyr (Acts & Mon. 1423).
Neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children, &c.] For this is to be sick of the devil's disease, επιχαιρεκακια, and such are assured that they shall not go unpunished, Proverbs 17:5. God will soon see it, and be displeased, and turn the current of his wrath upon such an offender, Proverbs 24:18, as he did here upon Edom, for looking with liking on the calamity of his brother, for rejoicing at the downfall of his enemy.
Neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly] Heb. Magnified thy mouth, blustering and breathing out big threats, setting up thine horn on high, and saying, "Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof," Psalms 137:7 .
“ Diripite, ex imis evertite fundamentis. ”(Buchanan.)
Such a Pyrgopolynicas was Nebuchadnezzar, Isaiah 10:13, and Alexander the Great, and Antiochus, that little antichrist, Daniel 7:8, and that great antichrist of Rome, bellowing with his bulls, and menacing hell to all that adhere not to him. See Revelation 13:5,6, and a like phrase to this, Ezekiel 35:13 .