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Gen_35:4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which [were] in their hand, and [all their] earrings which [were] in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which [was] by Shechem.
Ver. 4. And they gave unto Jacob.] Now they were in danger of destruction, they would do anything. So those false Israelites, when God "slew them, then they sought him." {Psa_78:34} So many, when they are deadly sick, are wondrous good; as William Rufus, who vowed, upon his recovery, to see all vacancies furnished. {a} In the sweating sickness, so long as the ferventness of the plague lasted, there was crying, Peccavi, peccavi: the ministers were sought for in every corner - You must come to nay lord, you must come to my lady, &c. {b} The walnut tree is most fruitful when most beaten. Fish thrive best in cold and salt waters. The most plentiful summer follows upon the hardest winter. David was never so tender as when hunted like a partridge; nor Jonah so watchful, prayerful, as in the whale’s belly. {c} When men suffer for their sin, {Lam_3:39; Lam_3:41} hands and hearts and all are lift up to heaven, that before were as "without God in the world," and thought they could do well enough without him. A lethargy is commonly cured by a fever; worms killed with aloes; so are crawling lusts by bitter afflictions. Israel under the cross, will "defile" the idols that they had deified; {Isa_30:22} and after that they were captives in Babylon, they could never be drawn to that sin, whatever they suffered for their refusal, as under Antiochus. I end, with St Ambrose: Beata anima, quae est instar domus Iacobi, in qua nulla simulachra, nulla effigies vanitatis: Blessed is that soul, that, like Jacob’s house, hath no idol in it.
{a} Daniel’s Chro., fol. 58.
{b} Dike, Of Deceitf., p. 217.
{c} Vigilabat in ceto, qui stertebat in navi.