Lecture Eighteenth

WE stated, yesterday, what the Prophet meant by the scarlet clothing, by the golden ornaments, and by the painting, which he mentions, even those delusive crafts, which the princes and the people employed in forming confederacies; for they ever acted perfidiously. But it was also said, that the Prophet refers to the spiritual marriage which God had formed with the people of Israel; for a kind of adultery was committed, when they sought foreign alliances; as they thus denied God, being not satisfied with his protection. As a wife considers herself sufficiently protected by her husband, so the Israelites ought to have depended on God only: but inasmuch as they ran here and there, following their own vagrant desires, the Prophet justly compares them to adulterous women.

But he says, that they would be an abomination to their lovers; and not only so, but that both the Egyptians and the Assyrians, in whom they foolishly trusted, would be their worst enemies: Hate thee, he says, shall thy lovers; ¹ yea, they will seek thy life; that is, those aids, by which thou thinkest to become safe and secure, will be for thy destruction. It then follows --