The woe against Philistia.
Gaza was one of the capitals of Philistia, and is put for the country as a whole. Its wealth and strength and special activity against Israel fitted it to be the representative of all the other capitals which are afterwards (Amos 1:8) enumerated as sharing its punishment. The outrage charged against Gaza is probably that recorded in 2 Chronicles 21:16 and Joel 3:6, and which occurred in the time of Jehoram. The crime denounced was—
I. THE CROWNING ACT OF A LONG SERIES. Israel and Philistia were hereditary foes. In the history of their feud were many bloody acts, which culminated in this wholesale deportation. In the judgment provoked by it, however, these acts would all be punished. So the murders of the prophets, throughout a series of ages, remained unavenged till they culminated in the death of Christ, and then it and they were all avenged together (Luke 11:49-51). Thus vicarious is much of human suffering. God visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children generally (Exodus 20:5), and specially on those like minded with the fathers (Matthew 23:1-39 :84-36). The sufferings of each age are largely an inheritance from the ages before.
II. AN ACT OF WHOLESALE DESTRUCTION. "Because they carried away captives in full number." This cruelty was gratuitous, as many captives could have given their captors no offence; and it was senseless as well, for many would be utterly worthless as slaves. It indicated deep and indiscriminating hate of the entire people, and a fixed purpose to root out and utterly exterminate them. Such hatred, directed doubtless against Israel in their character as the people of God, is specially criminal, and calls for special punishment (see Matthew 10:40, Matthew 10:41).
III. AN ACT OF AGGRAVATED CRUELTY. Not satisfied with the suffering they could inflict themselves, they called in the help of Israel's bitterest foe. They sold the people to the Edomites, and so became responsible for the intolerable cruelties to which they were handed over. We are in God's sight as guilty of the crime we procure as of the crime we commit. The Church's mediaeval device of condemning heretics, and handing them over to the civil power to be executed, was as vain as the washing of Pilate's hands. The blood shed at our instigation, and with our connivance or through our indifference, is blood that will be required of us in the great day (Ezekiel 3:18-20).
IV. A PUNISHMENT IN WHICH THE CAPITAL CITIES ARE SPECIALLY PROMINENT. Of the five capitals of Philistia, four are mentioned by name, and the fifth is included under the word "remnant" Capitals are centres of opinion, and are largely responsible for the moulding of the national sentiment. They are centres of power, and take the lead in determining the national policy. They were in this case centres of commerce, and so took a prominent part in the work of bartering Israel to the Edomites. Moreover Gaza, the one singled out and emphasized, was through its character and position the chief sinner in this business, and so is the chief sufferer. They were also the seats of as many different idols—Ashdod of Dagon, Ashkelen of Derceto, Eron of Baalzebub, and Gaza of Marua—and therefore centres of national sin (see Pusey). Add to this that they were the national depots and strongholds, and therefore the places which it would most weaken the nation to destroy.
V. A PUNISHMENT TO BE FRAMED AFTER THE FASHION OF THE CRIME. "The remnant of the Philistines shall perish." As they had spared none, so none of them would be spared. This is God's way often. That it may be adequate, and all may be able to recognize it, punishment often comes in the likeness of the crime. The rule, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," embodies the principle that like will be the punishment of like. It reappears in the gospel dictum, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Not only will sin be punished, it will all be punished, and punished fully. When God's last word has been spoken, the criminal shall be even as his victim, and be God's enemy besides.
The woe against Tyre.
Tyre stands for Phoenicia, of which it was the capital. It was a renowned and very ancient city. Greatest, richest, proudest, and most luxurious, perhaps, of all the cities of its time, it passed through vicissitudes which were equally beyond the common lot. As with most ancient capitals, there were points at which its path and that of Israel crossed, involving that there should be corresponding points where they would recross, and on these the prophet has intently fixed his eye. Of the denunciation against it observe—
I. IT SINNED IN CHARACTER. The Phoenicians were a commercial people, and theirs was a commercial sin. "They delivered up the whole captivity to Edom." They did not make war, nor take prisoners, but they traded in them as slaves—bought them probably from the Syrians and sold them to the Ionians ("Grecians," Joel 3:6). For this their woe is denounced; and thus early was branded with condemnation "the wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold a property in man." The image of God is not a thing to be trafficked in. "The law" is against men stealers (1 Timothy 1:10) among other criminals. A man's liberty is precious to him next to life itself. Slavery is the intolerable theft of his manhood and moral agency, and is contrary to the entire spirit of the Bible.
II. IT SINNED AGAINST A COVENANT. This was no doubt the covenant between Hiram and Solomon (1 Kings 5:12). It was a covenant of peace, of which the trading in Hebrew captives was a flagrant violation. This circumstance made the detestable traffic doubly guilty. It was two sins in one—perjury added on to oppression. And all Christian sin is in this red, poet its counterpart. The believer is in covenant with God. He has said, "This God is my God forever and ever," etc. Any after sin is, therefore, a breach both of God's Law and his own vow. The believing sinner has broken through more restraints and violated more laws than the unbelieving, and so is double dyed in guilt. The difficulty of bringing such to repentance again (Hebrews 6:4-6) is no doubt closely connected with this fact.
III. THE FORGOTTEN COVENANT WAS A BROTHERLY COVENANT. This circumstance aggravated the guilt of the violation. Ties are strong in proportion as they are amicable. The electric core of friendship in the cable of a mutual tie gives it a character all its own. The breaking of it means to both parties more of change and loss in proportion as this core is relatively large. The Phoenicio-Israelitish covenant was brotherly:
1. In its origin. It was the outcome of brotherly feeling and affection previously existing. "Hiram," we read, "was ever a lover of David" (1 Kings 5:1), and in token of it he had voluntarily sent materials and workmen, and had built him a house (2 Samuel 5:11). And the feeling was evidently transferred to Solomon. Hiram and he were on such cordial terms that he asked for, and Hiram readily sent him, skilful Sidonian woodmen to hew trees, and an accomplished Tyrian graver to act as foreman over his own workmen in carving, engraving, embroidery, and doing other cunning work for the temple (2 Chronicles 2:3-16). Solomon in turn gave Hiram wheat and oil in liberal measure for provisioning his house, and the outcome of these cordial relations was that "they two made a league together" (1 Kings 5:11, 1 Kings 5:12), the brotherly Covenant referred to. The covenant was brotherly also:
2. In its working. It was renewed from time to time with various additions, and was long kept by both parties. Israel never made war against Tyre, nor broke the letter or spirit of their fraternal league. The heartless sin of Tyre was, therefore, not only a violation of the covenant provisions, but of the intimate and cordial relations which it both expressed and fostered. It was a sin against both vows and close relations, and put on thus an aspect of double criminality.
3. The covenant had even a religious aspect. Hiram grounds the good will and help, extended to Solomon, on the facts that the people he ruled and the house he was going to build were God's, as well as on the fact that he had a special gift of wisdom from above (2 Chronicles 2:11, 2 Chronicles 2:12). His covenant was thus made with Israel as God's people, and in testimony of his belief in Jehovah as the true God, and his desire to advance his glory. This fact adds much to the significance and solemnity of the covenant, and so of the breach of it. What is done in God's name and as an act of homage to him is done under the highest sanctions possible. The commonest act is glorified, the smallest act becomes great in the greatness of its underlying principle. And as is the doing so is the undoing. The higher the promiser has risen, the lower has the violator fallen. Tyre's sin implied and sealed a large amount of previous deterioration, and so the more emphatically sealed her doom.
The woe against Edom.
We have here an inspired description of an ideal hate. It is loaded with every quality, and emphasized by every circumstance, and stained by every act, which could conspire to establish for it an "unbeaten record" in the emulation of evil passions.
I. IT RESTS ON A BROTHER. Over and above the brotherhood arising out of their common humanity (Acts 17:26; Genesis 9:5), Israel and Edom were bound by the nearer tie of descent from the twin sons of their common ancestor Isaac. And on the basis of this relation they are spoken of as brothers in a special sense (Deuteronomy 23:5). To the relation of brotherhood belongs the duty of love (1 John 2:10), which must be distinctive in proportion as the relation is close (1 Peter 2:17). And the breach of this law of love is great in proportion to its normal strength. It is bad to hate an enemy, but it is worse to hate a friend, and worse still to hate a brother. It is against nature, for "no man hateth his own flesh" (Ephesians 5:29). It is against our innate tendency to love them that love us. And it is against the popular sentiment which expects us to "love as brethren." Hatred of a brother is the grossest hate there is.
II. IT IS AGGRESSIVE. "He pursues his brother with the sword." It is hard for hatred to be still. It is a restless devil in the heart. It wants to inflict injury. It actually inflicts it the first opportunity. If opportunity does not come, it seeks it and makes it. In the presence of the hated one it can no more be quiescent than fire in contact with fuel. Edom's hatred of Israel did not fail thus to express its intensity. On every opportunity it broke out into offensive and cruel action (2 Chronicles 28:17; Psalms 137:7; Ezekiel 25:12). Rapine, outrage, and murder, and the incitement of others to these, are fitting credentials to an ideal hate.
III. IT IS MURDEROUS. "Tears in pieces." It inflicts not injury only, but deadly injury. It must have blood. And it not only kills, but murders. Unable to fight Israel in battle, Edom always played the part of "wrecker," and spoiled the dead, and murdered the wounded, after some stronger enemy had defeated them (Psalms 137:7). Then it murdered with an excess of truculence and savage cruelty that were natural to weakness rather than to strength. Hatred is a passion "blood alone can quell." "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer;" a murderer in fact if opportunity offers, in any case a murderer in heart. Let hatred enter your heart, and from the moment it settles you wear the brand of Cain.
IV. IT IS PITILESS. "Did cast off all pity." No special occasion or act is mentioned, because the thing was habitual. A traditional and inordinate hate of Israel was fostered till it became a first principle of the Edomite's creed, and was gratified till it ate all his humanity out. Too weak to be a soldier, he became a murderous looter, and when the Assyrian or Philistine had vanquished Israel in battle, the Edomite came vulture-like on the scene to butcher the living, and pillage and mangle the dead (Obadiah 1:10-14). There is a pity proper to the human heart on the platform of mere nature. Of the "flowers of Eden we still inherit" is a ruth that shrinks from murder in cold blood. Where the crime is committed, this feeling has previously been choked out. The power to do this, to harden and deaden his own nature, is one of man's most fatal gifts. He disregards the voice of pity till it becomes dumb. He fights against the movings of passion till at lass they are felt no more.
V. IT IS INSATIABLE. "His anger endures forever." The persistence of Edom's hate was matter of contemporary notoriety (Ezekiel 35:5), and it was precisely what one might expect. There is an infinity that belongs to the human soul, and which imparts itself to all its affections. Love is not exhausted by indulgence, but strengthened. It goes on and grows forever, and so with hate. One who knew well has said -
"Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure;
Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure."
(Byron.)
Hate is fed by indulgence as a fire is fed by fuel. Do not think your hatred will be appeased when you have got what you consider a just revenge. It will only then begin to burn with normal fierceness. Such feelings grow by what they feed on. The only way to banish them is to cut off the supplies. Starve a hungry hate, by giving it neither outlet nor audience, and it will soon atrophy and die.
VI. IT IS ALL ON ONE SIDE. Israel's relation to Edom as friendly, considerate, and disinterested, was laid down in explicit terms (Deuteronomy 23:7; Deuteronomy 2:4, Deuteronomy 2:5), whilst the brotherhood of the two nations was emphasized (Numbers 20:14; Deuteronomy 2:8). Cruel things were done in spite of this (1 Samuel 14:47; 2 Samuel 8:14; 1 Kings 11:15, 1 Kings 11:16), but they were done in defensive wars, and after Edom's enmity had proved itself incurable. It is a robust and thoroughly malignant hate that beats down and burns in spite of others' friendly attitude and feeling. Such hate belongs to a nature utterly inverted, and no longer human but devilish. And in proportion as it is such it becomes impossible of cure. The fire that burns without fuel, and in spite of water, has the elements of perpetuity in it. It is the beginning of the fire that shall never be quenched.