Talk no more so exceeding proudly
At such an high rate, in such an overbearing manner, as if above
everyone; this may have respect to Peninnah, and all that joined
with her to provoke Hannah to anger, and make her fret, insulting
and triumphing over her, because she had not children, as they
had; but now their mouths would be stopped, and their talk over,
and not give themselves the haughty airs they had done, at least
there would be no occasion for them:
let not arrogancy come out of your mouth;
arrogating to themselves, and to their merits, what they enjoyed,
as children, riches when all come from the Lord; or what is
"hard" F9, intolerable, which bears so hard on
those to whom it is said, that it cannot be bore with; or what is
"old" F11, and trite, old sayings concerning
barren women, as if of no use in the world, and disagreeable to
God, and as having no share in his favour. The Targum renders the
word by reproaches, or blasphemies:
for the Lord is a God of knowledge;
or knowledges F12: of perfect knowledge; he knows all
persons and things; he knows himself, his perfections, purposes,
thoughts, words and works; he knows all his creatures, animate
and inanimate, rational and irrational, angels and men; the
hearts of all men; all that they say, all their hard sayings, all
their proud, haughty, overbearing expressions, calumnies, and
reproaches, as well as all they think and all they do, good or
bad; and God will sooner or later convince them of and punish
them for their hard speeches against his people: and he is the
author of all knowledge, natural, civil, spiritual, and
evangelical:
and by him actions are weighed:
his own actions; his works "ad intra"; his purposes and decrees,
the counsels of his will, and the thoughts of his heart, the
things his mind is set upon; all his appointments and designs,
his whole will and pleasure; all are pondered by him, and are
formed with the utmost wisdom, and for the best ends and
purposes: and all, his actions and works without, whether of
creation, providence, and grace, all are weighed and done
according to infinite wisdom, unerring justice and truth; all
respecting things temporal or spiritual, what relate to the
outward estate of men, or to their everlasting happiness: all the
actions of men, as they are known unto him, they are weighed and
examined by him, whether they proceed from a right principle to a
right end or not; upon which, many actions, thought to be good,
are not found to be so, and others, though good, yet not found
perfect before God; so that there is no justification nor
salvation by the best: or the sense is, such actions as are done
well, they are "directed to him" F13; as they are ordained by him
that men should walk in them, they are for his use, and are done
with a view to his glory. There is a double reading of these
words; the marginal, which we follow, is "to" or "by him" actions
are directed or weighed; but the textual reading is a negative,
"actions are not weighed" F14, or numbered; the works of
God cannot be comprehended, or the actions of men are not
disposed and ordered without his will and pleasure, or cannot be
performed unless he wills or permits; and all are disposed of,
overruled, and directed, to answer his own ends and purposes.