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Zep_1:12 And it shall come to pass at that time, [that] I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
Ver. 12. I will search Jerusalem with candles] Which yet he needs not do, sith the "darkness hideth not front him, but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are to him alike," Psa_139:12 cf. Job_34:22 Jer_23:24. Deo obscura lucent, muta respondent, silentium confitetur, Night will convert itself into noon before God, and silence become a speaking evidence. His eyes also are "a flaming fire," that needs no outward light, but sees by sending out a ray; but when Jerusalem is threatened to be searched with lights, the meaning is, that it shall be set all upon a light fire, and the inhabitants ferreted out of their lurking holes, their princes and potentates pulled out of privies and sepulchres by the pursuing enemy, as Jerome out of Josephus here affirmeth they once were. Besides that, they shall be brought to a particular and punctual account for their sins; God will be very exact and accurate with them that way; setting all their evil deeds in order before their eyes, Psa_50:21, and bringing wrath upon them to the utmost, 1Th_2:16. This is fearful, Psa_130:3, and shall be fulfilled especially at the last day, when wicked men shall give an account of every detail, of all their atheistical thoughts, Psa_14:1, ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him, Jdg_1:15, with the whole world flaming about their ears, 2Pe_3:7; 2Pe_3:10; 2Pe_3:12 1Co_4:5 2Th_1:8.
And punish the men that are settled on their lees] Coagulati, curded or thickened, congealed and condensed; that are habituated and hardened in their evil practices; that have got a sward, nay, a hoof upon their hearts; that have brawny breasts and horny heartstrings; that stick stiffly in the mire of their sins, as Moab, Jer_48:11, and being deeply drowned in the world, are desperately divorced from God, whom they basely fancy to be a God of clouts. one that, however he speak big words, yet will do neither good nor hurt.
That say in their heart] As that sapless fellow doth, Psa_14:1, ðáì . Some set their mouths against heaven, and shame not to utter their reasonings and resolutions of this kind. These are Epicuri de grege porci; such as was Lucretius, Diagoras, Horace with his
-- credat Iudaeus Apella.
Non ego, namque deos didici securum agere aevum.
Let the Jews believe a providence; not I, &c., saith that profane poet. But behold here were Jews, yea, and that in good Josiah’s days, that said in their hearts (those feculent hearts of theirs, full of dregs and dross),
The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil]
“ Nec bene pro meritis capitur, nee tangitur ira. ”
Of such practical atheists, that say in their hearts there is no God, and live thereafter, there are great store even among us; of such dust-heaps we may find in every corner. And when men are once arrived at this Terra del Fuego, this desperate degree of atheism, what wonder though they run riot in all sinful licentiousness.