2:5-14 The prophet reads the doom of all proud and oppressive powers that bear hard upon God's people. The lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, are the entangling snares of men; and we find him that led Israel captive, himself led captive by each of these. No more of what we have is to be reckoned ours, than what we come honestly by. Riches are but clay, thick clay; what are gold and silver but white and yellow earth? Those who travel through thick clay, are hindered and dirtied in their journey; so are those who go through the world in the midst of abundance of wealth. And what fools are those that burden themselves with continual care about it; with a great deal of guilt in getting, saving, and spending it, and with a heavy account which they must give another day! They overload themselves with this thick clay, and so sink themselves down into destruction and perdition. See what will be the end hereof; what is gotten by violence from others, others shall take away by violence. Covetousness brings disquiet and uneasiness into a family; he that is greedy of gain troubles his own house; what is worse, it brings the curse of God upon all the affairs of it. There is a lawful gain, which, by the blessing of God, may be a comfort to a house; but what is got by fraud and injustice, will bring poverty and ruin upon a family. Yet that is not the worst; Thou hast sinned against thine own soul, hast endangered it. Those who wrong their neighbours, do much greater wrong to their own souls. If the sinner thinks he has managed his frauds and violence with art and contrivance, the riches and possessions he heaped together will witness against him. There are not greater drudges in the world than those who are slaves to mere wordly pursuits. And what comes of it? They find themselves disappointed of it, and disappointed in it; they will own it is worse than vanity, it is vexation of spirit. By staining and sinking earthly glory, God manifests and magnifies his own glory, and fills the earth with the knowledge of it, as plentifully as waters cover the sea, which are deep, and spread far and wide.

Verse 8. - The law of retaliation is asserted. All the remnant of the people (peoples) shall spoil thee. The remnant of the nations subjugated and plundered by the Chaldeans shall rise up against them. The downfall of Babylon was brought about chiefly by the combined forces of Media, Persia, and Elam (Isaiah 21:2; Jeremiah 1:9, etc.); and it is certain that Nebuchadnezzar, at one period of his reign, conquered and annexed Elam; and there is every probability that he warred successfully against Media (see Jeremiah 25:9, 25; Judith 1:5, 13, etc.); and doubtless many of the neighbouring tribes, which had suffered under these oppressors, joined in the attack. Because of men's blood. Because of the cruelty and bloodshed of which the Babylonians were guilty. For the violence of (done to) the land, of the city (see ver. 17). The statement is general, but with special reference to the Chaldeans' treatment of Judaea and Jerusalem, as in Isaiah 43:14; Isaiah 45:4; Jeremiah 51:4, 11. Jerome takes "the violence of the land," etc., to mean the wickedness of the Jews themselves, which is to be punished. He is led astray by the Septuagint, which gives, διὰ... ἀσεβείας γῆς, "through... the iniquity of the land."

Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee,.... Those that survived the persecutions of the Roman emperors; those that were left of the great numbers put to death by them; those under Constantine rose up, and by just retaliation spoiled them of all their power and wealth:

because of men's blood; the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, of those under the altar, whose blood cried for vengeance, Revelation 6:9, which was shed under the ten bloody persecutions: or, "because of the blood of a man": of Adam (f), as it may be rendered; the blood of Christ the second Adam, which, though shed at the instance of the Jews, yet by the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor:

and for the violence of the land, and of the city, and of all that dwell therein: that is, for the violence and injuries done to the land of Israel and city of Jerusalem, and the inhabitants thereof, as the Targum, and so Jarchi; and which were done by the Romans to those places and people, under Titus Vespasian, when he invaded the country of Judea, and made it desolate; besieged and took Jerusalem, and burnt it with fire; destroyed great numbers of its inhabitants, and carried them captive, and sent great multitudes of them to the mines; as well as for what were done to the Christians in every country and city where they dwelt; and to the city of the living God, the church, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the citizens of it, who were used by them in a very cruel and inhuman manner, and for which vengeance would be, and was, taken upon them.

(f) "propter sanguinem hominis", i. e. "Christi, qui est secundus Adam", Cocceius, Van Till.

8. the remnant of the people—Those remaining of the peoples spoiled by thee, though but a remnant, will suffice to inflict vengeance on thee.

the violence of the land … city—that is, on account of thy violent oppression of the lands and cities of the earth [Grotius] (compare Hab 2:5, 6, 12). The same phrase occurs in Hab 2:17, where the "land" and "city" are Judea and Jerusalem.

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