3  Great confusion on both people and rulers for their sin and impudence in it, Isa 3:1-9.
Peace to the righteous, and misery to the wicked, Isa 3:10-11.
The oppression and covetousness of the rulers, Isa 3:12-15.
The pride of women, and its judgments, Isa 3:16-26.

3:2 The judge - The civil magistrates. The ancient - Whose wisdom was increased by long experience.

3:5 Oppressed - By thy command or permission of such childish rulers.

3:6 Thou hast - We are utterly undone, and have neither food nor raiment; but thou hast something left to support the dignity which we offer to thee. Under thine hand - To heal it.

3:7 An healer - A repairer of the ruins of the state.

3:9 The shew - Their pride, and wantonness, and impiety m manifestly shews itself in their very looks. They declare - They act it publickly, casting off all fear of God and reverence to men. Rewarded - Procured a fit recompense for their wickedness, even utter ruin.

3:10 Say ye - O ye priests and Levites, that God will be their safeguard and portion.

3:12 Women - Weak and effeminate rulers. They - Thy rulers civil and ecclesiastical.

3:13 Standeth - He will shortly and certainly stand up as a judge, to enquire into the cause, and to give sentence. To judge - To defend and deliver them.

3:14 Ancients - The princes or rulers; such were commonly chosen out of those who were in ripe years. Eaten - Destroyed instead of preserving the church and commonwealth of Israel. Spoil - The goods which you have violently taken away from the poor.

2 This chapter is an appendix to the history of the creation, explaining, and enlarging on that part of it, which relates immediately to man.We have in it,

1. The institution of the sabbath, which was made for man, to further his holiness and comfort, Gen 2:1-3.
   
2. A more particular account of man's creation, as the summary of the whole work, Gen 2:4-7.
   
3. A description of the garden of Eden, and the placing of man in it under the obligations of a law and covenant, Gen 2:8-17.
   
4. The creation of the woman, her marriage to the man, and the institution of the ordinance of marriage, Gen 2:18-25.
   

2:21 This was done upon the sixth day, as was also the placing of Adam in paradise, though it be here mentioned after an account of the seventh day's rest: but what was said in general, Gen 1:27, that God made man male and female is more distinctly related here, God caused the sleep to fall on Adam, and made it a deep sleep, that so the opening of his side might be no grievance to him: while he knows no sin, God will take care he shall feel no pain.See note at Gen 2:21

2:23 And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones - Probably it was revealed to Adam in a vision, when he was asleep, that this lovely creature, now presented to him, was a piece of himself and was to be his companion, and the wife of his covenant - In token of his acceptance of her, he gave her a name, not peculiar to her, but common to her sex; she shall be called woman, Isha, a She - man, differing from man in sex only, not in nature; made of man, and joined to man.

2:24 The sabbath and marriage were two ordinances instituted in innocency, the former for the preservation of the church, the latter for the preservation of mankind. It appears by Mat 19:4-5, that it was God himself who said here, a man must leave all his relations to cleave to his wife; but whether he spake it by Moses or by Adam who spake, Gen 2:23 is uncertain: It should seem they are the words of Adam in God's name, laying down this law to all his posterity.The virtue of a divine ordinance, and the bonds of it, are stronger even than those of nature. See how necessary it is that children should take their parents consent with them in their marriage; and how unjust they are to their parents, as well as undutiful, if they marry without it; for they rob them of their right to them, and interest in them, and alienate it to another fraudulently and unnaturally.

2:25 They were both naked, they needed no cloaths for defence against cold or heat, for neither could be injurious to them: they needed none for ornament. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Nay, they needed none for decency, they were naked, and had no reason to be ashamed. They knew not what shame was, so the Chaldee reads it. Blushing is now the colour of virtue, but it was not the colour of innocency.

3 The general contents of this chapter we have Rom 5:12.
By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.More particularly, we have here,

1. The innocent tempted, Gen 3:1-5.
   
2. The tempted transgressing, Gen 3:6-8.
   
3. The transgressors arraigned, Gen 3:9-10.
   
4. Upon their arraignment convicted, Gen 3:11-13.
   
5. Upon their conviction sentenced, Gen 3:14-19.
   
6. After sentence, reprieved, Gen 3:20-21.
   
7. Notwithstanding their reprieve, execution in part done, Gen 3:22-24,
   and were it not for the gracious intimations of redemption, they and all their race had been left to despair.

3:1 We have here an account of the temptation wherewith Satan assaulted our first parents, and which proved fatal to them. And here observe,

1. The tempter, the devil in the shape of a serpent. Multitudes ofthem fell; but this that attacked our first parents, was surely the prince of the devils. Whether it was only the appearance of a serpent, or a real serpent, acted and possessed by the devil, is not certain.The devil chose to act his part in a serpent, because it is a subtle creature. It is not improbable, that reason and speech were then the known properties of the serpent. And therefore Eve was not surprised at his reasoning and speaking, which otherwise she must have been.
2. That which the devil aimed at, was to persuade Eve to eatforbidden fruit; and to do this, he took the same method that he doth still. 1. He questions whether it were a sin or no, Gen 3:1. 2. He denies that there was any danger in it, Gen 3:4. 3. He suggests much advantage by it, Gen 3:5. And these are his common topics.

As to the advantage, he suits the temptation to the pure state theywere now in, proposing to them not any carnal pleasure, but intellectual delights.

1. Your eyes shall be opened - You shall have much more of thepower and pleasure of contemplation than now you have; you shall fetch a larger compass in your intellectual views, and see farther into things than now you do.
2. You shall be as gods - As Elohim, mighty gods, notonly omniscient but omnipotent too:
3. You shall know good and evil - Thatis, everything that is desirable to be known. To support this part of the temptation, he abuseth the name given to this tree. 'Twas intended to teach the practical knowledge of good and evil, that is, of duty and disobedience, and it would prove the experimental knowledge of good and evil, that is, of happiness and misery. But he perverts the sense of it, and wrests it to their destruction, as if this tree would give them a speculative notional knowledge of the natures, kinds, and originals of good and evil. And,
4. All this presently, In the day you eat thereof - You will find a suddenand immediate change for the better.

3:6 Here we see what Eve's parley with the tempter ended in: Satan at length gains his point. God tried the obedience of our first parents by forbidding them the tree of knowledge, and Satan doth as it were join issue with God, and in that very thing undertakes to seduce them into a transgression; and here we find how he prevailed, God permitting it for wise and holy ends.

[1.] We have here the inducements that moved them to transgress. Thewoman being deceived, was ring - leader in the transgression, Ti1 2:14

1. She saw that the tree was - It was said of all the rest of thefruit trees wherewith the garden of Eden was planted, that they were pleasant to the sight, and good for food.
2. She imagined a greaterbenefit by this tree than by any of the rest, that it was a tree not only not to be dreaded, but to be desired to make one wise, and therein excelling all the rest of the trees. This she saw, that is, she perceived and understood it by what the devil had said to her. She gave also to her husband with her - 'Tis likely he was not with her when she was tempted; surely if he had, he would have interposed to prevent the sin; but he came to her when she had eaten, and was prevailed with by her to eat likewise. She gave it to him; persuading him with the same arguements that the serpent had used with her; adding this to the rest, that she herself had eaten of it, and found it so far from being deadly that it was extremely pleasant and grateful. And he did eat - This implied the unbelief of God's word, and confidence in the devil's; discontent with his present state, and an ambition of the honour which comes not from God. He would be both his own carver, and his own master, would have what he pleased, and do what he pleased; his sin was in one word disobedience, Rom 5:19, disobedience to a plain, easy and express command, which he knew to be a command of trial. He sins against light and love, the clearest light and the dearest love that ever sinner sinned against. But the greatest aggravation of his sin was, that he involved all his posterity in sin and ruin by it. He could not but know that he stood as a public person, and that his disobedience would be fatal to all his seed; and if so, it was certainly both the greatest treachery and the greatest cruelty that ever was. Shame and fear seized the criminals, these came into the world along with sin, and still attend it. The Eyes of them both were opened - The eyes of their consciences; their hearts smote them for what they had done Now, when it was too late, they saw the happiness they were fallen from, and the misery they were fallen into. They saw God provoked, his favour forfeited, his image lost; they felt a disorder in their own spirits, which they had never before been conscious of; they saw a law in their members warring against the law of their minds, and captivating them both to sin and wrath; they saw that they were naked, that is, that they were stripped, deprived of all the honours and joys of their paradise state, and exposed to all the miseries that might justly be expected from an angry God; laid open to the contempt and reproach of heaven and earth, and their own consciences. And they sewed or platted fig leaves together, and, to cover, at least, part of their shame one from another, made themselves aprons. See here what is commonly the folly of those that have sinned: they are more solicitous to save their credit before men, than to obtain their pardon from God. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day - Tis supposed he came in a human shape; in no other similitude than that wherein they had seen him when he put them into paradise; for he came to convince and humble them, not to amaze and terrify them. He came not immediately from heaven in their view as afterwards on mount Sinai, but he came in the garden, as one that was still willing to be familiar with them.He came walking, not riding upon the wings of the wind, but walking deliberately, as one slow to anger. He came in the cool of the day, not in the night, when all fears are doubly fearful; nor did he come suddenly upon them, but they heard his voice at some distance, giving them notice of his coming; and probably it was a still small voice, like that in which he came to enquire after Elijah. And they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God - A sad change! Before they had sinned, if they heard the voice of the Lord God coming towards them, they would have run to meet him, but now God was become a terror to them, and then no marvel they were become a terror to themselves.

3:9 Where art thou? - This enquiry after Adam may be looked upon as a gracious pursuit in order to his recovery. If God had not called to him to reduce him, his condition had been as desperate as that of fallen angels.

3:10 I heard thy voice in the garden: and I was afraid - Adam was afraid because he was naked; not only unarmed, and therefore afraid to contend with God, but unclothed and therefore afraid so much as to appear before him.

3:11 Who told thee that thou wast naked? - That is, how camest thou to be sensible of thy nakedness as thy shame? Hast thou eaten of the tree? - Tho' God knows all our sins, yet he will know them from us, andrequires from us an ingenuous confession of them, not that he may be informed, but that we may be humbled. Whereof I commanded thee not to eat of it, I thy maker, I thy master, I thy benefactor, I commanded thee to the contrary. Sin appears most plain and most sinful in the glass of the commandment.

3:13 What is this that thou hast done? - Wilt thou own thy fault?Neither of them does this fully. Adam lays all the blame upon his wife: She gave me of the tree - Nay, he not only lays the blame upon his wife, but tacitly on God himself. The woman thou gavest me, and gavest to be with me as my companion, she gave me of the tree.Eve lays all the blame upon the serpent; the serpent beguiled me.The prisoners being found guilty by their own confession, besides the infallible knowledge of the Judge, and nothing material being offered in arrest of judgment, God immediately proceeds to pass sentence, and in these verses he begins (where the sin began) with the serpent. God did not examine the serpent, nor ask him what he had done, but immediately sentenced him, (1.) Because he was already convicted of rebellion against God. (2.) Because he was to be for ever excluded from pardon; and why should any thing be said to convince and humble him, who was to find no place for repentance?

3:14 To testify a displeasure against sin, God fastens a curse upon the serpent, Thou art cursed above all cattle - Even the creeping things, when God made them, were blessed of him, Gen 1:22, but sin turned the blessing into a curse. Upon thy belly shalt thou go - No longer upon feet, or half erect, but thou shalt crawl along, thy belly cleaving to the earth. Dust thou shalt eat - Which signifies a base and despicable condition.

3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman - The inferior creatures being made for man, it was a curse upon any of them to be turned against man, and man against them. And this is part of the serpent's curse.

1. A perpetual reproach is fastened upon him. Under the cover of theserpent he is here sentenced to be, (1.) Degraded and accursed of God.It is supposed, pride was the sin that turned angels into devils, which is here justly punished by a great variety of mortifications couched under the mean circumstances of a serpent, crawling on his belly, and licking the dust. (2.) Detested and abhorred of all mankind: even those that are really seduced into his interest, yet profess a hatred of him. (3.) Destroyed and ruined at last by the great Redeemer, signified by the bruising of his head; his subtle politics shall be all baffled, his usurped power entirely crushed.
2. A perpetual quarrel is here commenced between the kingdom of God,and the kingdom of the devil among men; war proclaimed between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent, Rev 12:7. It is the fruit of this enmity, (1.) That there is a continual conflict between God's people and him. Heaven and hell can never be reconciled, no more can Satan and a sanctified soul. (2.) That there is likewise a continual struggle between the wicked and the good. And all the malice of persecutors against the people of God is the fruit of this enmity, which will continue while there is a godly man on this side heaven, and a wicked man on this side hell.
3. A gracious promise is here made of Christ as the deliverer offallen man from the power of Satan. By faith in this promise, our first parents, and the patriarchs before the flood, were justified and saved; and to this promise, and the benefit of it, instantly serving God day and night they hoped to come. Notice is here given them of three things concerning Christ. (1.) His incarnation, that he should be the seed of the woman. (2.) His sufferings and death, pointed at in Satan's bruising his heel, that is, his human nature. (3.) His victory over Satan thereby. Satan had now trampled upon the woman, and insulted over her; but the seed of the woman should be raised up in the fulness of time to avenge her quarrel, and to trample upon him, to spoil him, to lead him captive, and to triumph over him, Col 2:15.

3:16 We have here the sentence past upon the woman; she is condemned to a state of sorrow and a state of subjection: proper punishments of a sin in which she had gratified her pleasure and her pride.

1. She is here put into a state of sorrow; one particular of whichonly is instanced in, that in bringing forth children, but it includes all those impressions of grief and fear which the mind of that tender sex is most apt to receive, and all the common calamities which they are liable to.It is God that multiplies our sorrows, I will do it: God, as a righteous Judge, doth it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God as a tender Father doth it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from it.
2. She is here put into a stateof subjection: the whole sex, which by creation was equal with man, is for sin made inferior.

3:17 Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife - He excused the fault, by laying it on his wife, but God doth not admit the excuse; tho' it was her fault to persuade him to eat it, it was his fault to hearken to her. Cursed is the ground for thy sake - And the effect of that curse is, Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee - The ground or earth, by the sin of man, is made subject to vanity, the several parts of it being not so serviceable to man's comfort and happiness, as they were when they were made. Fruitfulness was its blessing for man's service, Gen 1:11-29, and now barrenness was its curse for man's punishment.

3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread - His business before he sinned was a constant pleasure to him; but now his labour shall be a weariness. Unto dust shalt thou return - Thy body shall be forsaken by thy soul, and become itself a lump of dust, and then it shall be lodged in the grave, and mingle with the dust of the earth.

3:20 God having named the man, and called him Adam, which signifies red earth, he in farther token of dominion named the woman, and called her Eve - That is, life. Adam bears the name of the dying body, Eve of the living soul. The reason of the name is here given, some think by Moses the historian, others by Adam himself, because she was - That is, was to be the mother of all living. He had called her Isha, woman, before, as a wife; here he calls her Evah, life, as a mother. Now, 1. If this was done by divine direction, it was an instance of God's favour, and, like the new naming of Abraham and Sarah, it was a seal of the covenant, and an assurance to them, that notwithstanding their sin, he had not reversed that blessing wherewith he had blessed them, Be fruitful and multiply: it was likewise a confirmation of the promise now made, that the seed of the woman, of this woman, should break the serpent's head. 2. If Adam did of himself, it was an instance of his faith in the word of God.

3  An exhortation to be steadily religious, Pro 3:1-4.
To trust God, Pro 3:5-6.
To fear him, Pro 3:7-8.
To honour him with our substance, Pro 3:9-10.
To bear affliction well, Pro 3:11-12.
The praise of wisdom, Pro 3:13-20.
The good effects of adhering to it, Pro 3:21-26.
Caution, against uncharitableness, strife, envy; if we would avoid a curse and inherit a blessing, Pro 3:27-35.

3:19 Wisdom - Either by Christ, or by that Divine perfection of wisdom, which is the fountain of wisdom in man.

3:20 The depths - That great abyss contained in the bowels of the earth, breaks forth into fountains and rivers.

3:21 Eyes - The eyes of thy mind. Constantly and seriously meditate upon them.

3:22 Grace - Like a beautiful chain or ornament.

3:25 Be not - Thou shalt not be afraid. Sudden - For sudden and unexpected evils are most frightful. And fear is here put for the evils feared. Desolation - Which cometh upon the wicked.

3:26 Shall be - A sure ground of confidence to thee. Taken - In the snares either of sin or mischief.

3:27 With - hold not - Do not deny it, but readily and chearfuly impart it. Good - Any thing which is good, either counsel, comfort, reproof, or the good things of the present life. Due - That is, to all men, by that great and sovereign law of love.

3:28 Say not - The former verse forbad the denial, and this forbids the delay of this duty.

3:29 Securely - Relying upon thine integrity.

3:31 Envy not - For his impunity and success.

3:32 Abomination - Therefore sooner or later he must be miserable.The righteous - They are God's friends, to whom he imparts the favours and comforts to which other men are strangers.

3:33 The house - Not only upon his own person, but also upon his posterity.