Assemble yourselves, and come; draw near together, ye that
are
escaped of the nations
Not that escaped the sword of Cyrus's army, the Chaldeans; nor
the Jews that escaped out of Babylon and other countries, by his
means; but the remnant, according to the election of grace among
the Gentiles; such who were called out of Heathenish darkness
into the marvellous light of the Gospel, and escaped the
idolatries that others continued in; these are called and
summoned together, as to observe the grace of God to themselves,
so to labour to convince others of their gross ignorance and
stupidity in worshipping idols, and to judge and pass sentence on
the obstinate among them: they have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image;
or that "lift up" or "carry the wood of their graven image"
F4; the inside of whose graven image is
wood, though covered with some metal which is graved; and for a
man to carry such an image on his shoulders, either in procession
or in order to fix it in some proper place for adoration, argues
great ignorance and stupidity; such persons can have no knowledge
of deity, that can believe that a log of wood, covered with gold
or silver, graved by art and man's device, and which they are
obliged to carry upon their shoulders, can be a god, or a fit
object of worship: and pray to a god that cannot
save;
itself, nor them; cannot hear their prayers, nor return an answer
to them; cannot help and assist them in distress, nor deliver
them out of their troubles; and therefore it must be the height
of madness and folly to pray unto it.
F4 (Mlop Ue ta Myavwnh) (oi airontev to xulon glumma autwn) , Sept. "qui efferunt", Pagninus; "extollentes", Montanus; "qui gestant", Piscator; "gestantes lignum sculptilis sui", Junius & Tremellius; "qui portant", Cocceius, Vitringa.