You have offended in number, worshipping a multitude, a troop of idols; there shall be a great number of you perish by the sword; or possibly the term number may refer to all in the next phrase, to let them know that none of them should escape. God saith he will number them, tell them out one by one to the sword. You shall all bow down to the slaughter; as you have bowed down to idols, Isaiah 44:17, (which are mine enemies,) I will make you bow down to your enemy's swords. I called you by my prophets, Malachi 7:7,11,12: you did not answer by doing the things which I by them spoke to you for; but not considering that I saw you, or if considering it, yet not regarding it, you impudently did evil; yea, you sinned deliberately, choosing sinful courses, the things which I hated, which are (here as often) expressed by it meiosis, and called the things in which God delighteth not. In matters of worship we ought to choose nothing wherein God delighteth not; and reason as well as Scripture will assure us he can delight in nothing of that nature which himself hath not directed. It is observable, that ruin is here threatened to this people, not for their immoralities or lewd lives, but for their errors and superstitions in Divine worship. Other sins provoke God to wrath, but those of this nature alone are enough to ruin souls and nations.

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