26:3–5; Deut. 28:5). Evidently they had departed from that law. And now the presence of the godly in the land cannot avert the evil, as at Sodom. The fact that there are children in the households of Israel does not stay the Divine hand as at Nineveh. No place is exempt, not even Bethlehem. The rich suffer with the poor, for Elimelech belonged to a wealthy and honourable family. See in this, I. Designed punishment. Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? God has many arrows
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