There is something startlingly modern about this chapter; if you sit down to analyse it, you feel that there is something startlingly up-to-date about the Inventory.
What did this proud people make their boast about?
1. The abundance of their treasure; their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures.
2. Their shipping and their active commerce all the ships of Tarshish.
3. Their military equipment; “their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.”
4. Their natural defences; “all the high mountains, all the hills that are lifted up.”
5. Their artificial defences; “every high tower, every fenced wall.”
6. The wealth of their timber; “all the cedars of Lebanon, all the oaks of Bashan.”
7. They boasted even of the treasures of their art; “all pleasant pictures.” (J. H.Jowett, M. A.)
Gold may shut out the vision of God
An old proverb runs, “The sixpence in the man’s eye prevented him from seeing the sovereign at the end of his nose.” And some men allow the passion money to become so all-absorbing that the coin fills all their vision and shuts out God and His heaven. (W. C. Bonner.)
