540. Lodgings

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The prophet probably refers to those temporary lodging-places for travelers in the open country which private charity or municipal law sometimes provides in the East; or he may refer to the temporary hospitality which is considered in the East as a religious duty to be extended toward strangers. See note on Job 31:1717Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; (Job 31:17) (#419) and see Jeremiah 14:88O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? (Jeremiah 14:8). His idea is that the wilderness is better than the place where his people live, and the hospitality of strangers preferable to the society of his wicked friends. Roberts thinks there may here be reference to a custom he has noticed in India. When a man becomes angry with his family it is not uncommon for him to threaten to leave them and dwell in the wilderness. This threat is not always empty sound; for there are many in every town and village who thus leave their families and are absent for months or years, and some never return. The wilderness has many ascetics, who, from this and other causes, live retired from the haunts of men.