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.