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Ver. 6. For lo, they are gone, because of de∣struction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; the pleasant places for their sil∣ver, nettles shall possesse them; thornes shall be in their tabernacles.
A fifth branch of their misery, (clearing yet more of their ex∣ile, and how they should be deprived of these Ordinances, and therefore comes in with the particle, for) is, that they should
not only go into exile, but should miserably perish there. When they should seek to run away from the destruction of their own land, by going to Egypt, with whom Hosea was confederate, 2 Kings 17.4. their exile there should be of long continuance; For they should die and be buried in Egypt, and the Cities there∣of, and their own pleasant places, where they had laid up their treasures, should be desolate, and over-grown with nettles and thornes. He instanceth the condition of the exiles only in these who thought it best to flee to Egypt, rather then be carried to Assyria; that he might shew, that if this were the case of them who took the best course, (as they thought,) what should be the lot of others? And to shew in particular, what ill issue their course took, who thought they would do well enough for them∣selves, even when the utter most extremity had befallen their own Land. Doct. 1. A people against whom God is angry, when they seek to avoid one calamity, will readily run upon another: For, lo, (saith he, warning men to behold the issue of their course) they are gone, that is, they will not certainly flee because of de∣struction in their own land, and yet they meet with it in Egypt, and Memphis, a chief City in Egypt. 2. When a people have entered into trouble and captivity, they are not to resolve to have presently done with it, (especially, when as God in hot anger hath sent it on, so the sins procuring it, do continue,) but that they may have much more to go through, & may die in that con∣iditon; For, Egypt shall gather them up, (to wit, for burial, as is after explained,) Memphis shall bury them. 3. Though the earth and fulnesse thereof be the Lords, and he will prove so to all his own; yet not only to be driven into exile, but to die there without restitution, is a sad affliction, and an affliction the Church may look for, when she provokes God till there be no remedie; For, so much doth this instance teach us. 4. Albeit the Lord ought to be acknowledged for mens pleasant habitations, and for their treasures, yet these ought not to be much doated on: For, when men do place their delight in them, and the Lord is provoked, he can drive men farre from these comforts, and lay them desolate, as a spectacle of his anger: For, the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possesse them, &c. whereby it appeareth that the Nations whom the Assyrians sent into their roomes, 2 Kings 17.24, &c. did not at first people all that Countrey.