Thirdly, The stretching forth of the line upon a place, with some addition, notes the destruction of it, or the pulling of it down (2 Kings 21.13.) I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: That is, I will make her desolate, as Ahab and Samaria were; and so the latter part of the verse expounds it; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping and turning it upside down. Again (Isa. 34.11.) I will stretch forth upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness: That is, It shall be utterly ruined. And (Isa 18.2, 7.) Woe to the land shadowing with wings, &c. that saith, Go ye swift messengers to a Nation meted out and trodden down. The Hebrew is,1 Go to a Nation of line, (as you have it in the Margin) that is, to a Nation who have the line stretched ou• upon them for desolation; not a line stretched upon them to build them, but to destroy them; a Nation who are or shall be broken down, as it were by line; they shall come to perfect ruin, or ruin shall come on them in full perfection. As when the Lord will build, he doth it by line, that is, exactly and fully, even with a divine ⟨p. 64⟩skill; so when he will destroy fully, he is said to mete out for destruction. We have the word used both with respect to destruction and edification, to building up, and pulling down, in that one place (2 Sam. 8.2.) where it is said, that David smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he, to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive; and so the Moabites became Davids servants, and brought gifts. Some understand this act of David in measuring the Moabites with a line, strictly and literally; that David having made a full Conquest of their Country, did cause it to be measured with a line, and then appointed or allotted two thirds of the Land, together with the inhabitants, to ruin and destruction; receiving only the third of the people to mercy, and reserving only a third part of the Land to be planted by them. Others take it only allusively, that having conquered them, he used them and their Country at his own pleasure, as we do that which we measure out by line. But whether we take Davids measuring the Moabites with a line in the one sense or in the other, it fully reaches this third notion of it under hand.
Thirdly, The stretching forth of the line upon a place, with some addition, notes the destruction of it, or the pulling of it down (2 Kings 21.13.) I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: That is, I will make her desolate, as Ahab and Samaria were; and so the latter part of the verse expounds it; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping and turning it upside down. Again (Isa. 34.11.) I will stretch forth upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness: That is, It shall be utterly ruined. And (Isa 18.2, 7.) Wo to the land shadowing with wings, &c. that saith, Go ye swift messengers to a Nation meted out and trodden down. The Hebrew is,1 Go to a Nation of line, (as you have it in the Margin) that is, to a Nation who have the line stretched ou• upon them for desolation; not a line stretched upon them to build them, but to destroy them; a Nation who are or shall be broken down, as it were by line; they shall come to perfect ruin, or ruin shall come on them in full perfection. As when the Lord will build, he doth it by line, that is, exactly and fully, even with a divine ⟨p. 64⟩skill; so when he will destroy fully, he is said to mete out for destruction. We have the word used both with respect to destruction and edification, to building up, and pulling down, in that one place (2 Sam. 8.2.) where it is said, that David smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he, to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive; and so the Moabites became Davids servants, and brought gifts. Some understand this act of David in measuring the Moabites with a line, strictly and literally; that David having made a full Conquest of their Country, did cause it to be measured with a line, and then appointed or allotted two thirds of the Land, together with the inhabitants, to ruin and destruction; receiving only the third of the people to mercy, and reserving only a third part of the Land to be planted by them. Others take it only allusively, that having conquered them, he used them and their Country at his own pleasure, as we do that which we measure out by line. But whether we take Davids measuring the Moabites with a line in the one sense or in the other, it fully reaches this third notion of it under hand.
- 1Ad gentem quae conculcatur & destruitur a deo lineatim, i. e. paulatim destinitur cum modo & ordine.
