Verse 1

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

An end — An end of God's patience, and of the peace and welfare of the people.

Verse 4

And mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity: but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Recompense — The punishment of them.

Verse 5

Thus saith the Lord GOD; An evil, an only evil, behold, is come.

An evil — An evil and sore affliction, a singular, uncommon one.

Verse 6

An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come.

An end — When the end is come upon the wicked world, then an only evil comes upon it. The sorest of temporal judgments have their allays; but the torments of the damned are an evil, an only evil.

Verse 7

The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains.

The morning — The fatal morning, the day of destruction.

Sounding — Not a mere echo, not a fancy, but a real thing.

Verse 10

Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

Is come — Of your wickedness; pride and violence in particular.

Verse 11

Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness: none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs: neither shall there be wailing for them.

None — They shall be utterly wasted for their sins.

Wailing — The living shall not bewail their dead friends, because they shall judge the dead in a better case than the living.

Verse 12

The time is come, the day draweth near: let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

Mourn — Men usually part with their estates grieving that they must transmit their right to others; but let them now think how little a while they could have kept them, and how little time they shall keep them who have bought them.

Verse 13

For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

Yet alive — For if any should survive the captivity, yet the conqueror wasting and destroying all, would confound all ancient boundaries.

Touching — The evils threatened are designed against all the multitude of Israel.

Strengthen — Nor shall any one man of them all he able to secure himself, by any sinful contrivance.

Verse 14

They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.

They — The house of Israel have summoned in all fit for arms.

None — There is not a man going to the war.

Wrath — That displeasure which takes away their courage.

Verse 15

The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

Without — In the countries.

Within — The besieged city.

Field — Whoever is in the field.

Verse 16

But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.

Iniquity — Either for the punishment of their iniquity, or for their iniquity itself.

Verse 18

They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads.

Baldness — Either by pulling off the hair amidst their sorrows, or cutting it off in token of mourning.

Verse 19

They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

Cast — That they may be the lighter to fly.

Removed — Carried away into Babylon.

Not satisfy — They shall afford them no comfort.

Stumbling-block — This silver and gold they coveted immeasurably, and abused to pride, luxury, idolatry and oppression; this that they stumbled at and fell into sin, now they stumble at and fall into the deepest misery.

Verse 20

As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set it far from them.

The beauty — The temple, and all that pertained to it, which was the beauty and glory of that nation.

He set — God commanded it should be beautiful and magnificent.

Images — Their idols.

Far from them — I have sent them far from the temple.

Verse 21

And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it.

It — My temple.

Verse 22

My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

Turn — Either from the Jews, or from the Chaldeans, neither relieving the one nor restraining the other.

Secret place — The temple, and the holy of holies.

Robbers — The soldiers.

Verse 23

Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

A chain — To bind the captives.

Verse 24

Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.

The pomp — The magnificence and glory, wherein they boasted; or the temple that the Jews gloried in.

Verse 26

Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumour shall be upon rumour; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

Seek — But in vain.

The priest — He shall have no words either of counsel or comfort to say to them.

Ancients — Nor shall their senators know what to advise.

Verse 27

The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

The king — Zedekiah.

The prince — Every magistrate.

Troubled — Hang down, and melt away. What can men contrive or do for themselves, when God is departed from them? All must needs be in tears, all in trouble, when God comes to judge them according to their deserts, and so make them know, that he is the Lord, to whom vengeance belongeth.