And because of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
Read Chapter 29
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Curse. Ver. 18. The malediction which has befallen the Jews, "overtake thee. "(Worthington)
Fire, in frying-pans, (see 2 Machabees vii. 5.) or cauldrons of boiling oil. This death shows that these were not the infamous judges who tempted Susanna, (Calmet) as the Jews quoted by (Haydock) St. Jerome, Salien, would infer from ver. 23., and Daniel xiii. 57. They were stoned to death by the people, ibid. lxii. (Calmet)
Yet the king might order their dead bodies to be cut in two and burnt, to express his horror of their wicked conduct, Daniel xiii. 55, 59. (Haydock)
So long as we are held down by this frail body, so long as we have our treasure in earthen vessels, so long as the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, there can be no sure victory. “Our adversary the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” “You make darkness,” David says, “and it is night, in which all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God.” The devil does not look for unbelievers, for those who are outside, whose flesh the Assyrian king roasted in the furnace. It is the church of Christ that he “hurries to spoil.” According to Habakkuk, “His food is the choicest.” Job is the victim of his scheming, and after devouring Judas he seeks power to sift the other apostles. The Savior came not to send peace on the earth but a sword. Lucifer fell, Lucifer who used to rise at dawn, and he who was raised in a paradise of delight had the well-earned sentence passed on him, “T...
Not everyone who prophesies is holy, nor is everyone who casts out devils religious. Even Balaam the son of Beor the prophet did prophesy, though he was himself ungodly, as also did Caiaphas, the falsely named high priest. No, the devil foretells many things, and the demons, about Christ. Yet for all that, there is not a spark of piety in them. They are oppressed with ignorance, by reason of their voluntary wickedness. It is clear, therefore, that the ungodly, although they prophesy, do not by their prophesying cover their own impiety. Nor will those who cast out demons be sanctified by the demons being made subject to them. They only mock one another, as they do who play childish tricks for mirth, and destroy those who give heed to them. For neither is a wicked king any longer a king but a tyrant. Nor is a bishop oppressed with ignorance or an evil disposition a bishop, but he is called so falsely. He is not one sent out by God but by people, as Ananiah and Samoeah in Jerusalem, and Z...
