Heis a common character. There is the political oppressor, the social oppressor, the ecclesiastical oppressor.
I. His character is not to be envied.
1. Because envy is in itself an evil.
2. Because there is nothing in the oppressor to be desired.
II. His conduct is not to be followed. Stand aloof (Psa_37:1). (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The oppressor not to be envied
Whether public or private, the man who “grinds the faces of the poor” by severity and extortion, may succeed, may prosper; may, by this means, amass a fortune, and rise to still higher honour. He is not to be envied; not only because envy is in itself wrong, but also because there is really nothing in his character and career to produce it. His prosperity is not to be envied even by the poorest and most suffering victim of his oppression. And while he is not to be envied, far less are his ways to be imitated for the sake of obtaining the envied results--the same wealth, the same greatness, the same power.(R. Wardlaw, D.D.)
