out like fire, and burn that none can quench (it), because of the evil of your doings." Jer. xxi. 12. This is a manifest declaration that the neglect of justice and right, and the toleration of oppression, were the principal causes of God's heavy vengeance against that royal house!
The same advice was, by God's command, repeated by the prophet to the king himself in his palace (see the next chapter):—"Thus saith the Lord; go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, and say, hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates" (that is, all persons whatever that enter in by the palace gates, plainly including the whole court, before whom the prophet was to deliver his message): "Thus saith the Lord; execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor ; and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger,"[1] &c.—"For if ye do this thing in-deed" (that is, if ye will execute judgement and righteousness, deliver the oppressed, &c.) "then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David" (or rather "that sit, i. e. reign, "for David upon his throne") "riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants, and his people" (that is, the court should continue and prosper.) "But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord" (i. e. Jehovah) that this house" (i. e. the palace) "shall become a desolation." Jer. xxii. 1 to 5. So that the whole court were as much interested to promote a speedy reformation, as the king himself. Thus it is plain that the king and court had also a choice given them of life and death, as well as the people; and, consequently, that the judgments denounced were only conditional, in case the warning was neglected; for it is manifest that God mercifully tendered to them (even at the eve of their destruction) a continuance of the
- ↑ And what "wrong" or "violence to the stranger" can be more oppressive than that of detaining him in an involuntary servitude, without wages, in a miserable, wretched bondage, worse than that of brute beasts!
