[2.] In this they had but acted like themselves,
like men, who are generally false and fickle, and in whose nature (their corrupt nature) it is to deal treacherously;
all men are liars, and they are like the rest of that degenerate race,
all gone aside,
Ps. 14:2, 3. They have
transgressed the covenant like
men (like the Gentiles that transgressed the covenant of nature), like
mean men (the word here used is sometimes put for
men of low degree); they have dealt deceitfully, like base men that have no sense of honour. [3.] Herein they trod in the steps of our first parents:
They, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant (so it might very well be read); as he transgressed the covenant of innocency, so they transgressed the covenant of grace, so treacherously, so foolishly;
there in paradise he violated his engagements to God, and there in Canaan, another paradise, they violated their engagements. And by their treacherous dealing they, like Adam, have ruined themselves and theirs. Note, Sin is so much the worse the more there is in it of the
similitude of Adam’s transgression,
Rom. 5:14. [4.] Low thoughts of God and of his authority and favour were at the bottom of all this; for so some read it:
They have transgressed the covenant, as of a man, as if it had been but the covenant of a man, that stood upon even ground with them, as if the commands of the covenant were but like those of a man like themselves, and the kindness conveyed by it no more valuable than that of a man. There is something sacred and binding in
a man’s covenant (as the apostle shows,
Gal. 3:15), but much more in the covenant of God, which yet they made small account of; and
there in that covenant they
dealt treacherously, promised fair, but performed nothing. Dealing treacherously with God is here called dealing treacherously against him, for it is both an affront and an opposition. Deserters are traitors, and will be so treated; the revolting heart is a rebellious heart.
).
