ix. 12), of One who hast power most terrible, of One who has always

visited this sin with penalty. The presence of such an Authority ought surely to make the adulterer quake at the very thought of his sin.

+II. Because, though the sinner may not be apprehended by human law, he shall be laid hold of and bound by his own deeds+ (verse 22). Many sinners of this kind go at large in the world, and are never reached by human law. No officer of justice will ever lay his hand upon them, and no material chains will ever bind them. But they are already taken and imprisoned by their own evil habits, which have bound them in chains of increasing thickness as the acts of sin have been repeated. This is a thraldom from which escape can come in only two ways. A man must either _cease to be,_ or he must _repent,_ before he can be free. Annihilation would set him free, because in ceasing to be he would cease to sin. But the repentance demanded by God is the only thing which will break his chains and permit him to retain his existence. We have no proof that there will ever be any way of escape by the first means, but we have abundant proof that the second is open to all men on this side of death.

+III. Because the unrepentant adulterer will die as he has lived--a fool+ (ver. 23). A fool is a man without knowledge, one who acts from impulse rather than from reason. The sinner here pourtrayed is not a fool because he had not had instruction, but because he has not heeded it. Nature, History, Revelation and Conscience were his instructors, but he has disregarded them all. If he had listened to them he would have gained an experimental knowledge of the blessedness of godliness and purity, of which he must now go out of the world as ignorant as he entered it.

_OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS._

Verse 21. Practical atheism is the root of human depravity. The eye, even of a child, is a check upon a man, but the thought of an all-seeing God inspires no alarm.--_Bridges._

The sin is not against man, nor dependent on man's detection only. The secret sin is open before the eyes of Jehovah. In the balance of His righteous judgement are weighed all human acts, this not excepted. There is a significant emphasis in the recurrence of the word used of the harlot herself in verse 6: "She ponders not, but God does."--_Plumptre._

Because the ways of a sinful man are not before his own eyes, therefore are they before the eyes of God: because sinful man doth not ponder his goings, therefore the Lord pondereth them; because man doth not look on his ways with the eye of care, therefore the Lord looketh on them with the eye of wrath; because man doth not weigh his goings in the balance of due consideration, therefore God doth weigh them in the balance of severe justice. The opening of our eyes over our sins is the shutting of God's eye towards them; the shutting of our eyes upon them is the opening of God's eyes against them. For though we hide our ways from ourselves, we cannot hide them from God. We hide Him from ourselves; we do not hide ourselves from Him.--_Jermin._

The meaning is, that directly in God's eyes are the ways of every man, as though there were no other creature in the universe; as though the wise man were saying, "Why, because the way seems smooth, and you seem helped in your folly, do you go on in your impenitency, and embrace the bosom of this wanton?" "For" the way of every man is directly in the sight of God. He takes the most emphatic interest in our schemes, whether we are doing well or ill. He helps us either in sinning or doing right, for "He levels all (one's) paths" (see Critical Notes). Not that we are to involve Him in the folly of any sin, but if a man desires to drink, He levels the way for Him. If he wishes liquor, He gives it; if he desires to steal, He gives the eye and the nerve. . . . The Divinity seems to help the struggling, whether saint or sinner, but the impenitent must not therefore imagine that it is righteous to go on.--_Miller._

Verse 22. The licentious flatter themselves that in old age, when the passions are less fiery, they will easily extricate themselves from the dominion of their lusts, and repent and seek salvation. But Job