They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 5. Going out. Septuagint “coming in.” Both designate the same gates, ( Bible.) or the ends of roads and streets. Matthew 22. Menochius.—Top. The doors of the temple were very lofty. The idolatrous ensigns were fixed there, as on an eminence, to give notice of an invasion, (Isaiah 11:12) while the soldiers plundered all, before they set fire to the city and temple. 4 Kennicott. 25:9. Calmet.—Prot. “a man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.” The text is very obscure, insomuch that S. Jerom’s version is unintelligible. Bert.—Yet it may signify, “they have placed their ensigns for a trophy, manifest upon the entrance aloft; their hatchets in the wood of trees; and now its sculptures together they have defaced with axe and hatchets, dolatoriis.” Not content with these excesses, they at last set fire to the fabric, ( Bible.) which was easily reduced to ashes, as there was so much wood about it, and in the very walls. Calmet.—Saint John Chrysostom contemplates the like havoc, which is made by sin. Bert.—In false religions, some external shew, festivals, and altars, are opposed to the true ones. Worthington.