mh_parser/vol_split/17 - Esther/Chapter 8.xml

<div2 id="Esth.ix" n="ix" next="Esth.x" prev="Esth.viii" progress="99.16%" title="Chapter VIII">
<h2 id="Esth.ix-p0.1">E S T H E R</h2>
<h3 id="Esth.ix-p0.2">CHAP. VIII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Esth.ix-p1">We left the plotter hanging, and are now to see
what becomes of his plot. I. His plot was to raise an estate for
himself; and all his estate, being confiscated for treason, is
given to Esther and Mordecai, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.1-Esth.8.2" parsed="|Esth|8|1|8|2" passage="Es 8:1,2">ver. 1,
2</scripRef>. II. His plot was to ruin the Jews; and as to that, 1.
Esther earnestly intercedes for the reversing of the edict against
them, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.3-Esth.8.6" parsed="|Esth|8|3|8|6" passage="Es 8:3-6">ver. 3-6</scripRef>. 2. It is in
effect done by another edict, here published, empowering the Jews
to stand up in their own defence against their enemies, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.7-Esth.8.14" parsed="|Esth|8|7|8|14" passage="Es 8:7-14">ver. 7-14</scripRef>. III. This occasions great
joy to the Jews and all their friends, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.15-Esth.8.17" parsed="|Esth|8|15|8|17" passage="Es 8:15-17">ver. 15-17</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Esth.ix-p0.1_1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8" parsed="|Esth|8|0|0|0" passage="Es 8" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Esth.ix-p0.2_1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.1-Esth.8.2" parsed="|Esth|8|1|8|2" passage="Es 8:1-2" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Esth.8.1-Esth.8.2">
<h4 id="Esth.ix-p1.7">Esther and Mordecai
Enriched. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Esth.ix-p1.8">b. c.</span> 510.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Esth.ix-p2">1 On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the
house of Haman the Jews' enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai
came before the king; for Esther had told what he <i>was</i> unto
her.   2 And the king took off his ring, which he had taken
from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over
the house of Haman.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.ix-p3">It was but lately that we had Esther and
Mordecai in tears and in fears, but fasting and praying; now let us
see how to them there arose light in darkness. Here is, 1. Esther
enriched. Haman was hanged as a traitor, therefore his estate was
forfeited to the crown, and the king gave it all to Esther, in
recompence for the fright that wicked man had put her into and the
vexation he had created her, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.1" parsed="|Esth|8|1|0|0" passage="Es 8:1"><i>v.</i>
1</scripRef>. His houses and lands, good sand chattels, and all the
money he had heaped up which he was prime-minister of state (which,
we may suppose, was no little), are given to Esther; they are all
her own, added to the allowance she already had. Thus is <i>the
wealth of the sinner laid up for the just,</i> and the <i>innocent
divides the silver,</i> <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Prov.13.22 Bible:Job.27.17-Job.27.18" parsed="|Prov|13|22|0|0;|Job|27|17|27|18" passage="Pr 13:22,Job 27:17,18">Prov. xiii. 22; Job xxvii. 17,
18</scripRef>. What Haman would have done mischief with Esther will
do good with; and estates are to be valued as they are used. 2.
Mordecai advanced. His pompous procession, this morning, through
the streets of the city, was but a sudden flash or blaze of honour;
but here we have the more durable and gainful preferments to which
he was raised, which yet the other happily made way for. (1.) He is
now owned as the queen's cousin, which till now, though Esther had
been four years queen, for aught that appears, the king did not
know. So humble, so modest, a man was Mordecai, and so far from
being ambitious of a place at court, that he concealed his relation
to the queen and her obligations to him as her guardian, and never
made us of her interest for any advantage of his own. Who but
Mordecai could have taken so little notice of so great an honour?
But now he was brought <i>before the king,</i> introduced, as we
say, to kiss his hand; for now, at length, <i>Esther had told what
he was to her,</i> not only near a-kin to her, but the best friend
she had in the world, who took care of her when she was an orphan,
and one whom she still respected as a father. Now the king finds
himself, for his wife's sake, more obliged than he thought he had
been to delight in doing honour to Mordecai. How great were the
merits of that man to whom both king and queen did in effect owe
their lives! Being brought before the king, to him no doubt he
bowed, and did reverence, though he would not to Haman an
Amalekite. (2.) The king makes his lord privy-seal in the room of
Haman. All the trust he had reposed in Haman, and all the power he
had given him, are here transferred to Mordecai; for the ring which
he had taken from Haman he gave to Mordecai, and made this trusty
humble man as much his favourite, his confidant, and his agent, as
ever that proud perfidious wretch was; a happy change he made of
his bosom-friends, and so, no doubt, he and his people soon found
it. (3.) The queen makes him here steward, for the management of
Haman's estate, and for getting and keeping possession of it:
<i>She set Mordecai over the house of Haman.</i> See the vanity of
laying up treasure upon earth; he that <i>heapeth up riches knoweth
not who shall gather them</i> (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.39.6" parsed="|Ps|39|6|0|0" passage="Ps 39:6">Ps.
xxxix. 6</scripRef>), not only <i>whether he shall be a wise man or
a fool</i> (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p3.4" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.2.19" parsed="|Eccl|2|19|0|0" passage="Ec 2:19">Eccl. ii. 19</scripRef>),
but whether he shall be a friend or an enemy. With what little
pleasure, nay, with what constant vexation, would Haman have looked
upon his estate if he could have foreseen that Mordecai, the man he
hated above all men in the world, should have <i>rule over all that
wherein he had laboured,</i> and thought that he showed himself
wise! It is our interest, therefore, to make sure those riches
which will not be left behind, but will go with us to another
world.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Esth.ix-p0.3" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.3-Esth.8.14" parsed="|Esth|8|3|8|14" passage="Es 8:3-14" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Esth.8.3-Esth.8.14">
<h4 id="Esth.ix-p3.6">The Jews Encouraged to
Self-Defence. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Esth.ix-p3.7">b. c.</span> 510.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Esth.ix-p4">3 And Esther spake yet again before the king,
and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away
the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had
devised against the Jews.   4 Then the king held out the
golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the
king,   5 And said, If it please the king, and if I have found
favour in his sight, and the thing <i>seem</i> right before the
king, and I <i>be</i> pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to
reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the
Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which <i>are</i> in all
the king's provinces:   6 For how can I endure to see the evil
that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the
destruction of my kindred?   7 Then the king Ahasuerus said
unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given
Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the
gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews.   8 Write ye
also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal
<i>it</i> with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in
the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man
reverse.   9 Then were the king's scribes called at that time
in the third month, that <i>is,</i> the month Sivan, on the three
and twentieth <i>day</i> thereof; and it was written according to
all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants,
and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which <i>are</i> from
India unto Ethiopia, a hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto
every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every
people after their language, and to the Jews according to their
writing, and according to their language.   10 And he wrote in
the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed <i>it</i> with the king's
ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, <i>and</i> riders on
mules, camels, <i>and</i> young dromedaries:   11 Wherein the
king granted the Jews which <i>were</i> in every city to gather
themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to
slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and
province that would assault them, <i>both</i> little ones and
women, and <i>to take</i> the spoil of them for a prey,   12
Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, <i>namely,</i>
upon the thirteenth <i>day</i> of the twelfth month, which
<i>is</i> the month Adar.   13 The copy of the writing for a
commandment to be given in every province <i>was</i> published unto
all people, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to
avenge themselves on their enemies.   14 <i>So</i> the posts
that rode upon mules <i>and</i> camels went out, being hastened and
pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was given at
Shushan the palace.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.ix-p5">Haman, the chief enemy of the Jews, was
hanged, Mordecai and Esther, their chief friends, were sufficiently
protected; but many others there were in the king's dominions that
hated the Jews and desired their ruin, and to their rage and malice
all the rest of that people lay exposed; for the edict against them
was still in force, and, in pursuance of it, their enemies would on
the day appointed fall upon them, and they would be deemed as
rebels against the king and his government if they should offer to
resist and take up arms in their own defence. For the preventing of
this,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.ix-p6">I. The queen here makes intercession with
much affection and importunity. She came, a second time, uncalled
into the king's presence (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.3" parsed="|Esth|8|3|0|0" passage="Es 8:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>), and was as before encouraged to present her
petition, by the king's holding out the golden sceptre to her,
<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.4" parsed="|Esth|8|4|0|0" passage="Es 8:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. Her petition is
that the king, having put away Haman, would put away the mischief
of Haman and his device against the Jews, that that might not take
place now that he was taken off. Many a man's mischief survives
him, and the wickedness he devised operates when he is gone. What
men project and write may, after their death, be either very
profitable or very pernicious. It was therefore requisite in this
case that, for the defeating of Haman's plot, they should apply to
the king for a further act of grace, that by another edict he would
reverse the letters devised by Haman, and which he wrote (she does
not say which the king <i>consented to and confirmed with his own
seal;</i> she leaves it to his own conscience to say that), by
which he took an effectual course to <i>destroy the Jews in all the
king's provinces,</i> <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.5" parsed="|Esth|8|5|0|0" passage="Es 8:5"><i>v.</i>
5</scripRef>. If the king were indeed, as he seemed to be, troubled
that such a decree was made, he could not do less than revoke it;
for what is repentance, but undoing, to the utmost of our power,
what we have done amiss? 1. This petition Esther presents with much
affection: She <i>fell down at the king's feet and besought him
with tears</i> (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.3" parsed="|Esth|8|3|0|0" passage="Es 8:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>),
every tear as precious as any of the pearls with which she was
adorned. It was time to be earnest when the church of God lay at
stake. Let none be so great as to be unwilling to stoop, none so
merry as to be unwilling to weep, when thereby they may do any
service to God's church and people. Esther, though safe herself,
fell down, and begged with tears for the deliverance of her people.
2. She expresses it with great submission, and a profound deference
to the king and his wisdom and will (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p6.5" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.5" parsed="|Esth|8|5|0|0" passage="Es 8:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>): <i>If it please the king and if I
have found favour in his sight</i>—and again, "If the thing itself
seem right and reasonable before the king, and if I that ask it
<i>be pleasing in his eyes,</i> let the decree be reversed." Even
when we have the utmost reason and justice on our side, and have
the clearest cause to plead, yet it becomes us to speak to our
superiors with humility and modesty, and all possible expressions
of respect, and not to talk like demandants when we are
supplicants. There is nothing lost be decency and good breeding. As
<i>soft answers turn away wrath,</i> so soft askings obtain favour.
3. She enforces her petition with a pathetic plea: "<i>For how can
I endure to see the evil that shall come upon my people?</i> Little
comfort can I have of my own life if I cannot prevail for theirs:
as good share in the evil myself as see it come upon them; for
<i>how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred,</i> that
are dear to me?" Esther, a queen, owns her poor kindred, and speaks
of them with a very tender concern. Now it was that she mingled her
tears with her words, that <i>she wept and made supplication;</i>
we read of no tears when she begged for her own life, but, now that
she was sure of that, she wept for her people. Tears of pity and
tenderness are the most Christ-like. Those that are truly concerned
for the public would rather die in the last ditch than live to see
the desolations of the church of God and the ruin of their country.
Tender spirits cannot bear to think of the destruction of their
people and kindred, and therefore dare not omit any opportunity of
giving them relief.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.ix-p7">II. The king here takes a course for the
preventing of the mischief that Haman had designed. 1. The king
knew, and informed the queen, that, according to the constitution
of the Persian government, the former edict could not be revoked
(<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.8" parsed="|Esth|8|8|0|0" passage="Es 8:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>): What is
<i>written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring,</i>
may not, under any pretence whatsoever, be reversed. This was a
fundamental article of their <i>magna charta,</i> that no law or
decree, when once it had passed the royal assent, could be repealed
or recalled, no judgment vacated, no attainder reversed, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Dan.6.15" parsed="|Dan|6|15|0|0" passage="Da 6:15">Dan. vi. 15</scripRef>. This is so far from
bespeaking the wisdom and honour of the Medes and Persians that
really it bespeaks their pride and folly, and consequently their
shame. It is ridiculous in itself for any man, or company of men,
to pretend to such an infallibility of wisdom as to foresee all the
consequences of what they decree; and therefore it is unjust, and
injurious to mankind, to claim such a supremacy of power as to make
their decrees irrevocable, whether the consequences prove good or
bad. This savours of that old presumption which ruined us all:
<i>We will be as gods.</i> Much more prudent is that proviso of our
constitution, that no law can, by any words or sanctions
whatsoever, be made unrepealable, any more than any estate
unalienable. <i>Cujus est instruere, ejus est destruere—the right
to enact implies the right to repeal.</i> It is God's prerogative
not to repent, and to say what can never be altered or unsaid. 2.
Yet he found an expedient to undo the devices of Haman, and defeat
his design, by signing and publishing another decree to authorize
the Jews to stand upon their defence, <i>vim vi repellere, et
invasorem occidere—to oppose force to force, and destroy the
assailant.</i> This would be their effectual security. The king
shows them that he had done enough already to convince them that he
had a concern for the Jewish nation, for he had ordered his
favourite to be hanged <i>because he laid his hand upon the
Jews</i> (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.7" parsed="|Esth|8|7|0|0" passage="Es 8:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>), and
he therefore would do the utmost he could to protect them; and he
leaves it as fully with Esther and Mordecai to use his name and
power for their deliverance as before he had left it with Haman to
use his name and power for their destruction: <i>"Write for the
Jews as it liketh you</i> (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.8" parsed="|Esth|8|8|0|0" passage="Es 8:8"><i>v.</i>
8</scripRef>), saving only the honour of our constitution. Let the
mischief be put away as effectually as may be without reversing the
letters." The secretaries of state were ordered to attend to draw
up this edict on the twenty-third day of the third month (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p7.5" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.9" parsed="|Esth|8|9|0|0" passage="Es 8:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>), about two months after
the promulgation of the former, but nine months before the time set
for its execution: it was to be drawn up and published in the
respective languages of all the provinces. Shall the subjects of an
earthly prince have his decrees in a language they understand? and
shall God's oracles and laws be locked up from his servants in an
unknown tongue? It was to be directed to the proper officers of
every province, both to the justices of peace and to the
deputy-lieutenants. It was to be carefully dispersed throughout all
the king's dominions, and true copies sent by expresses to all the
provinces. The purport of this decree was to commission the Jews,
upon the day which was appointed for their destruction, to draw
together in a body for their own defence. And, (1.) To stand for
their life, that, whoever assaulted them, it might be at their
peril. (2.) They might not only act defensively, but might
<i>destroy, and slay, and cause to perish, all the power of the
people that would assault them, men, women, and children</i>
(<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p7.6" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.11" parsed="|Esth|8|11|0|0" passage="Es 8:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>), and thus
<i>to avenge themselves on their enemies</i> (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p7.7" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.13" parsed="|Esth|8|13|0|0" passage="Es 8:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>), and, if they pleased, to enrich
themselves by their enemies, for they were empowered to take the
spoil of them for a prey. Now, [1.] This showed his kindness to the
Jews, and sufficiently provided for their safety; for he latter
decree would be looked upon as a tacit revocation of the former,
though not in expression. But, [2.] It shows the absurdity of that
branch of their constitution that none of the king's edicts might
be repealed; for it laid the king here under a necessity of
enacting a civil war in his own dominions, between the Jews and
their enemies, so that both sides took up arms <i>by</i> his
authority, and yet <i>against</i> his authority. No better could
come of men's pretending to be wise above what is given them. Great
expedition was used in dispersing this decree, the king himself
being in pain lest it should come too late and any mischief should
be done to the Jews by virtue of the former decree before the
notice of this arrived. It was therefore <i>by the king's
commandment,</i> as well as Mordecai's, that the messengers were
<i>hastened and pressed on</i> (<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p7.8" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.14" parsed="|Esth|8|14|0|0" passage="Es 8:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>), and had swift beasts provided
them, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p7.9" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.10" parsed="|Esth|8|10|0|0" passage="Es 8:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>. It was
not a time to trifle when so many lives were in danger.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Esth.ix-p0.4" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.15-Esth.8.17" parsed="|Esth|8|15|8|17" passage="Es 8:15-17" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Esth.8.15-Esth.8.17">
<h4 id="Esth.ix-p7.11">The Joy of the Jews. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Esth.ix-p7.12">b. c.</span> 510.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Esth.ix-p8">15 And Mordecai went out from the presence of
the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown
of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city
of Shushan rejoiced and was glad.   16 The Jews had light, and
gladness, and joy, and honour.   17 And in every province, and
in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree
came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And
many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the
Jews fell upon them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Esth.ix-p9">It was but a few days ago that we had
Mordecai in sackcloth and all the Jews in sorrow; but here is a
blessed change, Mordecai in purple and all the Jews in joy. See
<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.30.5 Bible:Ps.30.11 Bible:Ps.30.12" parsed="|Ps|30|5|0|0;|Ps|30|11|0|0;|Ps|30|12|0|0" passage="Ps 30:5,11,12">Ps. xxx. 5, 11, 12</scripRef>. 1.
Mordecai in purple, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.15" parsed="|Esth|8|15|0|0" passage="Es 8:15"><i>v.</i>
15</scripRef>. Having obtained an order for the relief of all the
Jews, he was easy, he parted with his mourning weeds, and put on
the <i>royal apparel,</i> which either belonged to his place or
which the king appointed him as a favourite. His robes were rich,
<i>blue and white, of fine linen and purple;</i> so was his
coronet: it was <i>of gold.</i> These are things not worth taking
notice of, but as they were marks of the king's favour, and
<i>that</i> the fruit of God's favour to his church. It is well
with a land when the ensigns of dignity are made the ornaments of
serious piety. The <i>city Shushan</i> was sensible of its
advantage in the preferment of Mordecai, and therefore <i>rejoiced
and was glad,</i> not only pleased in general with the advancement
of virtue, but promising itself, in particular, better times, now
that so good a man was entrusted with power. Haman was hanged;
<i>and, when the wicked perish, there is shouting,</i> <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:Prov.11.10" parsed="|Prov|11|10|0|0" passage="Pr 11:10">Prov. xi. 10</scripRef>. Mordecai was preferred;
and, <i>when the righteous are in authority, the people
rejoice.</i> 2. The Jews in joy, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Esth.8.16-Esth.8.17" parsed="|Esth|8|16|8|17" passage="Es 8:16,17"><i>v.</i> 16, 17</scripRef>. The Jews, who awhile ago
were under a dark cloud, dejected and disgraced, now had <i>light
and gladness, joy and honour, a feast and a good lay.</i> If they
had not been threatened and in distress they would not have had
occasion for this extraordinary joy. Thus are God's people
sometimes made <i>to sow in tears</i> that they may <i>reap in</i>
so much the more <i>joy.</i> The suddenness and strangeness of the
turn of affairs in their favour added much to their joy. They were
<i>like those that dream; then was their mouth filled with
laughter,</i> <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p9.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.126.1-Ps.126.2" parsed="|Ps|126|1|126|2" passage="Ps 126:1,2">Ps. cxxvi. 1,
2</scripRef>. One good effect of this deliverance was that <i>many
of the people of the land,</i> that were considerate, sober, and
well inclined, became Jews, were proselyted to the Jewish religion,
renounced idolatry, and worshipped the true God only. Haman thought
to extirpate the Jews, but it proves, in the issue, that their
numbers are greatly increased and many added to the church.
Observe, When <i>the Jews had joy and gladness</i> then <i>many of
the people of the land became Jews.</i> The holy cheerfulness of
those that profess religion is a great ornament to their
profession, and will invite and encourage others to be religious.
The reason here given why so many became Jews at this time is
because <i>the fear of the Jews fell upon them.</i> When they
observed how wonderfully divine Providence had owned them and
wrought for them in this critical juncture, (1.) They thought them
great, and considered those happy that were among them; and
therefore they came over to them, as was foretold, <scripRef id="Esth.ix-p9.6" osisRef="Bible:Zech.8.23" parsed="|Zech|8|23|0|0" passage="Zec 8:23">Zech. viii. 23</scripRef>. <i>We will go with
you, for we have heard,</i> we have seen, <i>that God is with you,
the shield of your help, and the sword of your excellency,</i>
<scripRef id="Esth.ix-p9.7" osisRef="Bible:Deut.33.29" parsed="|Deut|33|29|0|0" passage="De 33:29">Deut. xxxiii. 29</scripRef>. When the
church prospers, and is smiled upon, many will come into it that
will be shy of it when it is in trouble. (2.) They thought them
formidable, and considered those miserable that were against them.
They plainly saw in Haman's fate that, if any offered injury to the
Jews, it was at their peril; and therefore, for their own security,
they joined themselves to them. It is folly to think of contending
with the God of Israel, and therefore it is wisdom to think of
submitting to him.</p>
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