And it shall be, as with the people, so with the
priest,
&c.] Or, "prince" F16; no order or rank of men will fare
better than another; their dignity, in things civil or
ecclesiastical, will not secure them from ruin; it will be no
better with princes and priests than the common people; they
shall all alike share in the common destruction. Not Jeroboam's
priests, but rather the Romish priests, are here meant, who have
led the people into superstition and idolatry; blind leaders of
the blind, and so both fall into the ditch together: as
with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so
with
her mistress;
there shall be no distinction of superiors and inferiors; as not
of prince and subjects, so not of master and servant, mistress
and maid; no respect will be had to persons, but the one shall be
treated even as the other: as with the buyer, so with the
seller;
the one that bought an estate, and thought to enjoy it, will be
no better off than he that sold it, and perhaps spent the money;
the one will be possessed of no more than the other, seeing what
the one had bought, and the other sold, will now be in the
possession of a third: as with the lender, so with the
borrower;
their condition will be equal; he that was so poor that he was
obliged to borrow to carry on his business, or for the
necessaries of life, and so he that was so rich that he was
capable of lending, now the one will be no richer than the other,
but both on a level; the substance of the lender being taken from
him: as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury
to him;
this was forbidden the Jews by a law, ( Deuteronomy
23:19 Deuteronomy
23:20 ) wherefore not the land of Judea is here meant, but
the antichristian states, among whom this practice has greatly
prevailed.
F16 (Nhkk) "ac praesidi", Junius & Tremellius; "sic gubernator", Piscator.