Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 5

Introduction

CHAP. V.

Under the parable of a vineyard, God defendeth his severe judgment: his judgments upon covetousness, upon lasciviousness, upon impiety, and upon injustice. The executioners of God's judgments.

Before Christ 760.

Verse 1

Isaiah 5:1. Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song— The third prophetic discourse is contained in this chapter; which, being partly parabolical, and partly proper, naturally divides itself into two principal parts. The first contains the parable, Isa 5:1-6 the other the explanation of the parable, Isaiah 5:7-30. In the former part we have, first, the exordium, placed as a kind of title before the song, in part of the first verse; then the parable itself, Isa 5:1-6 in which the chosen nation, Israel, is compared to a vine: and this also is threefold. The state and attributes of this mystical vine is first described, Isa 5:1-2 then the consequence of that state is set forth, its unfruitfulness; thirdly, the divine judgment concerning it, after the preceding conviction, Isaiah 5:3-6. The exposition of the parable contains, 1st, its interpretation, Isaiah 5:7. 2nd, a twofold declaration, in which six grievous crimes of the Jewish people are enumerated, with a woe prefixed to them, Isa 5:8-23 and the sentence of God is declared concerning the punishment to be inflicted on these ungrateful covenant-breakers, Isaiah 5:24-30. If the destruction of the Jewish polity by the Chaldeans be primarily meant, the total destruction of that polity under the Romans seems secondarily and more emphatically foretold. It is supposed that Isaiah delivered this prophesy at the end of the reign of Uzziah. See Micah 3:12.Matthew 21:41; Matthew 21:41.Luke 20:16; Luke 20:16.

My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill— The author of the Observations remarks, that the land of Israel is here called by the prophet, (as we have it in the margin of our Bibles) a vineyard in the horn of the son of oil. Vitringa seems to suppose, that it is so represented on account of its height; and such seems to have been the opinion of our translators in rendering it, a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. Hills are undoubtedly the most proper places for planting vineyards; and God might justly upbraid Israel with the goodness of the country in which he had placed them, its mountains themselves being very fertile: but, if that was the sole intention, is it not somewhat strange that the prophet should on this occasion use an expression so extremely figurative? especially as the same prophet elsewhere often speaks of the hills with simplicity. I will not deny, that it is agreeable enough to the eastern style to express a hill by the term horn; for the supposition of Bishop Pococke seems to be by no means unnatural, who tells us, that there is a low mountain in Galilee, which has both its ends raised up in such a manner as to look like two mounts, which are called the horn of Hutin, and, as he thinks, from this circumstance, the village of Hutin being underneath it. But then it is to be remembered, that the term horn may equally at least be understood in a different sense. So Sir John Chardin informs us, that a long strip of land, which runs out into the Caspian sea, is called the middle-sized horn; and D'Herbelot tells us, that the place where one of the branches of the Euphrates falls into the Tygris is called the horn. By the horn then of the son of oil, the prophet might mean Syria, which is bordered on one side by the sea, and on the other by the most barren desart, and stretches out from its base to the south like a horn; and so these words will be a geographical description of Judaea of the poetic kind; representing it as seated in particular in the fertile country of Syria, rather than in a general and indeterminate way, as situated in a fertile hill. The propriety of describing Syria as a country of oil, no one will, I suppose, contest, as we find that oil was wont anciently to be carried from thence to Egypt; (Hosea 12:1.) and as we find the celebrated croisade historian, William of Tyre, describing Syria Sobal, as all thickly set with olive trees, so as to make prodigious woods, which covered the whole country, affording its inhabitants in those times, as they did their predecessors, a livelihood, and the destruction of which must have been their ruin.

Verse 2

Isaiah 5:2. And he fenced it, &c.— The state of the vineyard, with respect to the benefits conferred upon it by God, is described in the latter part of the first, and the former part of this verse; the consequence of that state, the expectation of fruit, and the disappointment of that expectation, are described in the latter part of it. The whole is expressive, by allegory, of the advantages, privileges, and blessings conferred by God upon the Jewish state and people.

Verse 7

Isaiah 5:7. For the vineyard, &c.— Or, Now, the vineyard, &c. We have in this verse the interpretation of the preceding parable; first, in general, which the history of the Jewish people, especially in the time of our Saviour, and before their destruction by the Romans, fully verifies. The word משׂפח mispach, which we render oppression, is literally a scab; and it refers to that spiritual leprosy, that total corruption, wherewith the Jews were infected: Men totally corrupt in mind. See 1 Timothy 6:5.

Verse 8

Isaiah 5:8. Woe unto them that join house to house— The unfolding of the parable, after the general key in the preceding verse, comprehends two things, according to the argument of the parable: the crimes of these ungrateful people, and the punishment decreed to their crimes. The first crime condemned is avarice and rapacity; which is strongly described in this verse, and which prevailed remarkably among the Jews. Its punishment,—even the desolation of those houses which they coveted, and the devastation of those fields which they obtained so rapaciously, is set forth in the 9th and 10th verses. In mine ears said the Lord, Isa 5:9 signifies, It was revealed in mine ears: see chap. Isaiah 22:14. Vitringa, and Leviticus 27:16.

Verses 11-14

Isaiah 5:11-14. Woe unto them that rise up, &c.— Another vice which the prophet reproves in these verses, is luxury or intemperance; whose companion and daughter is Inconsideration of the works of God, whose child also is Ignorance. See the beginning of the 13th verse. The work of the Lord, and the operation of his hands, may signify, in their greatest extent, all that God has done, as well in the creation of the world as in the establishment and rule of his church from the beginning of time; but more particularly it may here refer to the study of the divine law, and God's peculiar dispensations toward the Jewish people. Isaiah 5:13-16. We have in these verses the punishment of the preceding crime, and Isa 5:17 the consequences of that punishment. To luxury, abundance, revelling, intemperance in the use of earthly, goods, are opposed poverty, famine, thirst, a want of necessaries, a total abolition of all glory, magnificence, and pomp; and the like. The allusion in the beginning of the 14th verse is, according to Bishop Lowth, to the form of the ancient sepulchres, which were subterraneous caverns hollowed out of a rock; the mouth of which was generally closed by a great stone. The Hebrew, נפשׁה שׁאול הרחיבה לכן laken hirchiibah sheol napshah, might be tendered literally, Wherefore the grave hath enlarged her soul. The prosopopoeia is extremely fine and expressive, and the image is fraught with the most tremendous horror. Vitringa supposes that, according to the letter, some powerful prince, the terrible messenger of death and hell, is here described; who, armed by the divine judgment, spreads death and devastation around him. Nebuchadnezzar and the Roman princes are thus well characterized.

Verse 17

Isaiah 5:17. Then shall the lambs feed, &c.— Vitringa is of opinion, that this verse refers to the first disciples of Jesus Christ, who, seeing and deploring the destruction of the Jews, should rest safely under the protection of God; while, according to the next clause, the Gentiles should be brought into the communion of the church, and rejoice in those benefits, prerogatives, and privileges, whereof the carnal, rich, and luxurious Jews were deprived. See John 10:16. If this interpretation should not be approved, the verse may signify in general, that while severe judgments should fall upon the wicked, the righteous should enjoy the full protection of God, their great shepherd.

Verses 18-19

Isaiah 5:18-19. Woe unto them that draw iniquity, &c.— The third crime is, the pretence of false and wicked reasonings, by which the profane bring their minds to perpetrate the most abominable crimes against the calls and admonitions of conscience; which is expressed metaphorically in this verse, and literally in the next, as is very usual with the prophet. By העון משׁכי moshkei heavon, drawing iniquity, he alludes, according to the force of the Hebrew, to drawing it along like a plough; i.e. keeping it in perpetual action; promoting or encouraging the practice of it. By cords of vanity, are meant idle pretexts and specious arguments: such as these; that God does not regard human affairs; that many of the greatest sinners often go unpunished: that we see no proofs of the divine interposition, &c. See 2Pe 3:3-4 and Vitringa. We cannot have a fairer comment on these words than the state and disposition of the Jews, as described in the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who scoffed at all his divine offers, and those of his apostles, and would not regard the counsel of the holy One of Israel, till their own destruction overwhelmed them.

Verse 20

Isaiah 5:20. Woe unto them that call evil good, &c.— The fourth crime alleged is, the subversion of all the principles of truth, and of equity in judgment. A most corrupt condition of a church and state is here described, in which men accustomed to vices begin, with the things themselves, to lose also the true names of them, and to draw a vail, as it were, over their impieties, by sanctifying their crimes with the name of virtues. Thucydides pathetically describes this evil in the third book of his history; and was not this remarkably the case with those Jews who called the holy and the temperate Jesus a glutton and a wine-bibber?

Verse 21

Isaiah 5:21. Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, &c.— The fifth crime imputed to the Jews is, an arrogant presumption of the stability of their state, founded in carnal reason, with a contempt of the divine wisdom, and of the faithful admonitions of the ministers of God. See Romans 11:25; Romans 12:16. This was remarkably the characteristic of the Pharisees in our Saviour's time. See Mat 11:25 and John 9:39; John 9:41.

Verses 22-23

Isaiah 5:22-23. Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine— This troop of vices is closed by drunkenness, joined with injustice and iniquity in judgment. This crime is distinct from that luxury and intemperance in feasts, which is attended with inconsideration of the works of God; Isaiah 5:11-12. It is no wonder if men of this kind, whose reason and understanding are drowned in wine, pervert judgment, and are greedy of the mammon of unrighteousness to satisfy their lusts and appetites.

Verse 24

Isaiah 5:24. Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble— The latter part of the parabolic song which is contained in the 6th verse, here begins to be more fully explained; and to the end of the chapter we have an account of that total destruction of the Jewish polity which should be brought upon it by a people most skilful in war, and coming from a very distant country. First, the punishment of this threatened destruction and most grievous vengeance is explained in general in this and the following verse. Secondly, the instruments of the destruction, the executors of the divine judgment, a fierce and warlike people, are described: Isaiah 5:26-29. Thirdly, the consequence of the destruction, and the desperation and troubled conscience of those who remained from this slaughter, are set forth. In the present verse the punishment is denounced, and the impelling cause of that punishment is related; the divine Spirit so directing the discourse, that with the punishment of men the justice of God might immediately appear. The metaphor in this verse is taken from a tree, whose root and flower being wholly consumed, nothing remains but useless wood. It expresses the total destruction of the Jewish state. See Hebrews 6:7-8. The law of the Lord, and the word of the holy One of Israel, refer more immediately to the divine word of grace offered by Jesus Christ. Vitringa.

Verse 25

Isaiah 5:25. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled, &c.— The meaning is, that God, before the time of that final vengeance concerning which the prophesy treats principally, had afflicted this rebellious people with the most grievous calamities; or rather, would afflict and chastise them: that those calamities should consume many, who, slain in the wars, should be trod upon by their enemies like the dung in the streets; most certain indications of the divine justice and severity; while they, unawakened by these chastisements, would not attempt to appease the divine wrath, but would provoke it still more by repeated crimes; so that at length it should come upon them to the utmost. See 1Th 2:16 and Daniel 9:26. The expression, the hills did tremble, is metaphorically, "They were struck with grievous slaughters and calamities, the fame of which extended itself widely." See Psa 18:7 and Jeremiah 4:24. The phrase His hand is stretched out still, which is familiar to our prophet, (see chap. Isaiah 9:12; Isaiah 9:17; Isaiah 9:21; Isaiah 10:4.) signifies that there is no end of slaughters, miseries, calamities, punishment; but that the chastising God, with extended hand, still keeps the scourge ready to add stroke to stroke. See Vitringa.

Verse 26

Isaiah 5:26. And he will lift up an ensign— That decree of the divine severity, which had been spoken of in general in Isa 5:24 is here explained: particularly God is shewn to be the supreme general or leader of the people which were to come from far to execute his vengeance; they were to assemble at his setting up his ensign as a signal, and at his hissing,—a metaphor taken from bees, (see on chap. Isaiah 7:18.) which by hissing, whistling, or some sound of that kind, used to be drawn out of their hives, as Bochart has fully shewn. Hieroz. pars 2: lib. 4 cap. 10. And the meaning is, that God would collect the people like bees, by the slightest indication of his will, and bring them into Judaea to execute his vengeance. We have next the place from which they should be brought: from far, and the ends of the earth; and the manner of their expedition, or execution of the divine wrath; that they should come with speed swiftly: in all which, though the Chaldeans may be understood, yet it is most undoubted that the prophesy is with peculiar force applied to the Romans. See Nahum, chap. Isaiah 3:1, &c.

Verses 27-29

Isaiah 5:27-29. None shall be weary, &c.— We have in these verses a description of the quality of the forces which should come against Jerusalem; their vigour, activity, and diligence: Isa 5:27 their military expedition, readiness, skilfulness, and apparatus; Isa 5:28 their fortitude and undaunted courage; Isaiah 5:29. Particulars for which the Romans were remarkably eminent.

Verse 30

Isaiah 5:30. And if one look unto the land— Isaiah here closes this prophesy with a strong and eloquent description of the consequences of this calamity; setting forth, in the most emphatical terms, the utter confusion, blackness, and desperation of the miserable Jews. See chap. Isaiah 8:22. Nothing can more exactly agree with the state of the Jews after their destruction by Titus, than these words. Vitringa.

REFLECTIONS.—1st, To bring these sinners to a sense of their guilt and danger, they have line upon line, and precept upon precept; every winning means is tried, whether by affecting parables or plain address. The prophet here warns them in poetic measure and parabolic figure. God the Father calls it a song of his well-beloved, of Christ, the beloved Son of the Father, and the object of chief regard and affection to every true believer. Under the parable of a vineyard, the prophet shews,

1. The peculiar care God had taken of them. He had placed his vineyard in a very fruitful hill, where corn, wine, oil, and every earthly blessing abounded; fenced it in from the rest of the world, and protected them night and day by his Almighty power; gathered out the stones thereof, the Canaanites hard and obdurate as stones; planted it with the choicest vine, the seed of Abraham his chosen, and gave them the knowledge of his true religion and pure worship; and he built a tower in the midst of it, the temple where his presence rested in the midst of them, their glory and defence; and also made a wine-press therein, his altar, on which their oblations might be poured out, and their sacrifices offered. Note; In all our privileges and blessings, whether temporal or spiritual, God's hand should be acknowledged by us.

2. The reasonable expectations that he entertained, and the disappointment he met with. He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes; instead of the fruits of righteousness, it produced poisonous principles, hypocritical professions, or openly infamous practices. Note; (1.) If God hath given us outward privileges, he justly expects suitable returns. It is not merely the leaves of profession, nor the green grape of future purposes, but the sound fruit of purity and holiness, that he demands. (2.) When God is said to be disappointed, it means not that he did not foresee or know what would be the event, but this is spoken after the manner of men, according to what we, in a like case, should have expected. (3.) They who produce the wild grapes will set an edge on their own teeth, when God's righteous vengeance awakes to punish the transgressors.

3. He appeals to the men of Judah and Jerusalem. In a case so very evident, he might rest it on their own consciences what more could have been done? what greater advantages, civil and religious, could they desire to have enjoyed? wherefore then have they acted so vile a part, and made such unsuitable returns? Note; (1.) The sinner acts most unreasonably, as well as most ungratefully, and will in the day of God appear without excuse. (2.) When we consider our mercies, who must not tremble for his own unprofitableness? (3.) Though God's patience last long, it will not endure for ever: when the wicked are incorrigible, their ruin is near.

4. God pronounces judgment upon them. I will take away the hedge thereof, remove their defence, and give them for a prey to their enemies; and it shall be eaten up by wild beasts, such as were the Roman soldiers, massacring without pity; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down, when the besiegers entered at the wide breaches, utterly destroying all before them, laying both city and people in the dust. And I will lay it waste, without inhabitants; it shall not be pruned nor digged, neither magistrates, prophets, nor ministers, should any longer attempt to cultivate it; but there shall come up briers and thorns, errors and immoralities, fatal as universal: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it, no dew of heavenly influence shall descend upon them, but they shall be left to their hard and impenitent hearts. Note; The nation and people from whom God in displeasure withdraws his ordinances and his ministers, are in a miserable way indeed.

5. The prophet applies the parable to the Jewish people; the commonwealth of Israel was the vineyard, and the members of it the once pleasant plants, but now become the degenerate plants of a strange vine. The fruits that God expected were, righteousness and judgment, honesty and impartial administration of justice; but, instead thereof, the cry of oppression went up to God, and called down vengeance on the guilty land. Note; Men's sins pass not unnoticed: God sees, and will assuredly visit for these things.

2nd, We have two heavy woes denounced against two crying sins, worldly-mindedness and sensuality; the common iniquities, not of the Jews only, but of our own days, and which will as assuredly now bring down the wrath of God as then.
1. They were insatiable, and ever coveting to enlarge their possessions, to engross every spot around; and, while they might gratify their own covetousness, careless what inconveniencies others suffered thereby, or what injuries they sustained, so that themselves might but be accommodated. Therefore God threatens them by a revelation made to his prophet: Many, or great houses shall be desolate, when their avaricious princes and chief men went into captivity, or were slain by the sword, and none left to dwell in those gorgeous palaces which they with so much solicitude had raised; and, instead of the plenty they expected from joining field to field, such a curse should be upon the land, that ten acres of vineyard should not produce half so many gallons of wine, nor their ground yield scarcely a tenth of the feed they had sown. Note; (1.) They who set their hearts on worldly things are sure to be disappointed. (2.) Though it be no sin to purchase what our neighbour is willing to part with, yet to be ever contriving how to increase our stores, to have a greedy eye on every adjoining field in order to make our own estate more complete; O si angulus ille proximus accedat, qui nunc denormat agellum;* this is to provoke God to smite our possessions with a curse.

*O that yon neighbouring angle, which now spoils the regularity of my field, could be joined to it!

2. They were sunk in sensuality and pleasure. Eager to quench, or rather inflame, their raging thirst, they rose early, and began the day with strong drink, and protracted their carousals till night; flushed with wine, no evil was too much for them; rage, revelling, lust, reigned uncontrolled. Music, prostituted, served to heighten their passions; drunken, lewd, the song, with pleasing sound, stole deeper into the heart; and no place was left for serious recollection—God, his judgments, works and ways, and his Messiah were utterly disregarded. Note; (1.) Drunkenness is not only a vice most brutal and odious in itself, but the pregnant author of every abomination. (2.) The most innocent things are liable to grievous abuse; even music may lull the soul into eternal ruin. (3.) When the mind is enslaved by lust and pleasure, God is forgotten, and every thought of him and his judgments thrust out as irksome intruders. Woe therefore unto them! a judgment near and terrible approaches; therefore my people are gone, or are going into captivity, by the Babylonians first, and afterwards by the Romans, because they have no knowledge, by their sins are become brutish, insensible of their danger, and wilfully blind to their impending ruin: their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst, a just judgment on those who wasted so much in rioting and drunkenness: and dreadful, even to read of, were their sufferings during the sieges they sustained, so far that many of them ate their own children. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, a pit, deep like Tophet, is dug to receive the corpses, perishing so numerously by famine, pestilence, and the sword; or the place of torment yawns to ingulph their polluted souls, and hath opened her mouth without measure, insatiate to devour the wicked; and their glory, the nobles, and their multitude, the populace, or the rulers, though never so many as well as mighty; and their pomp, their rich ones who lived in splendor, and he that rejoiceth in careless gaiety and carousing, shall descend into it, into the grave, or afterward into hell together; where, instead of mirth and riot, their everlasting portion will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Thus shall the mean and mighty perish together, and leave a warning to others, of the danger of their ways. Let the drunkard solemnly peruse this judgment; let the careless pleasure-loving world behold their appointed end, that before it be too late they may consider their ways, and prevent so fearful a destruction.

3. By the execution of such just judgment would God be glorified; his holiness, and hatred of sin, appear; his righteousness in executing vengeance be manifested. Then also shall the lambs feed after their manner, or according as they are led; the lambs of Christ's flock, fed by his word, and walking in all his holy ways; and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat, the Gentiles shall both possess the country of Israel, and partake of those gospel blessings which the proud and self-righteous Jews despised and rejected. Note; (1.) God will not want a people; if some be obstinate, others will hear and obey him. (2.) If sinners will not glorify God's mercy by their humble acceptance of his grace in a Redeemer, they must glorify his justice in the place of torment.

3rdly, Two woes are denounced, but there are others yet to come equally grievous, and all dating their origin from sin, which then was, now is, and ever will be, the cause of all our misery. Happy, did we but take warning by others' woes, and flee their iniquities.
1. Their sins are many.
(1.) They draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope, strain every nerve, use every argument to accomplish their wicked purposes; rushing into temptation, and bent on gratifying their evil desires at all events.

(2.) They defied God, despised the warnings of his prophets, and when his Son appeared, treated his pretensions with contempt. They say, let him make speed, and hasten his work; the men of that generation said, where are the threatened judgments? deriding their prophets who brought the message: the Jews said, if he be the Son of God, let him come down from the cross; and the infidel sinner continues thus to treat God's warnings in every age.

(3.) They sought to confound good and evil, wilfully misrepresented truth as falsehood, branding the ways of godliness as miserable, and boasting that the paths of sin are the only substantial bliss. Note; The devil and wicked men ever study to dress up religion and its professors in the most forbidding colours, while every glaring vice is palliated with some soft name, or pleaded for as commendable. Seriousness and singularity are termed pride and moroseness, while a life of dissipation is called the indulgence of a little innocent pleasure; a debauch, the enjoyment of good company; sordid parsimony, frugality; and daring infidelity, free-thinking: but names alter not things, nor change their nature; the sweetness of God's good ways abides the same, and all the glosses of sinners will not prevent their feeling the bitterness of the flames of hell.

(4.) They were proud and self-sufficient, wise in their own eyes, though so infatuated, and prudent in their own sight, valuing themselves on their understanding and management. Thus the Pharisees said, we see, when most deeply their sin remained. Note; Conceit of our own wisdom is among the most fatal of errors.

(5.) They were mighty to drink wine, of strong heads, and gloried in the quantity of liquor they could carry off; and men of strength to mingle strong drink, delighting in being able to drink others down, as it is termed by the debauchees. Note; (1.) They who are mighty to drink wine, shall shortly drink the wine of the wrath of God, unless they repent. (2.) The strength of a man's constitution will not exculpate him from the guilt of drunkenness. To sit long at the cups and delight in them, is as evil as to fill the table with vomit, or stagger in their walk. (3.) They who glory now in their shame, of having out-drank their companions, in hell will find small joy in these exploits.

(6.) They barely perverted justice for gain. Their magistrates justified the wicked for reward, money covered all crimes; while they take away the righteousness of the righteous from him, the poor who cannot bribe, or the upright that dare not, however just their cause, are sure to be cast: for iniquities like these God will visit, and his soul be avenged of such a people as this. Therefore,

2. He denounces their doom. Because they have cast away the law of the Lord, the doctrine sent them by his prophets, and the Gospel preached by his Son, and despised the word of the holy One of Israel, treated it with contempt and disregard; therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so sudden, terrible, resistless, and irreparable, should their destruction be; so that their root shall be as rottenness, and therefore the whole political tree must perish; and their blossom go up as the dust, all their pomp, riches, and glory be dispersed, as withered blossoms before the wind. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, once his chosen, now apostate from him, and exposed to his wrath. Present judgments were upon them, their princes slain in their streets, and none to bury them; yet these were but the beginning of sorrows: God's anger was far from being turned away, and greater woes were approaching, his hand being stretched out still. He will lift up an ensign, as the signal for marching, to the nations from far; the Romans, composed of various people, and bringing their troops from distant provinces: he will hiss unto him, or them, the army, or the general, as a shepherd whistles to his dog to come. Instantly they will obey, marching speedily; no weariness shall retard, or difficulties stumble them: so eager would they be to hasten to the siege, that they would march day and night, and not even undress themselves, or loose their shoes, to lie down to sleep by the way; expressions denoting their indefatigable diligence. Their archers should be ready to shoot, their cavalry strong, their chariots of war swift, and come thundering along. Fierce as lions, their roar should intimidate; strong as lions, their defenceless prey would fall, and none be able to deliver the devoted people of Judaea from the ravening Roman soldiers. In that day of the siege of Jerusalem, they should roar with their shouts and battering engines, as the tempestuous sea; and the land of Judaea should be ravaged and sunk under its distress, as if the luminaries of heaven were extinguished, Mat 24:29 their whole polity, civil and ecclesiastical, be utterly dissolved; and priests, princes, and people, sink in one promiscuous ruin. Note; (1.) When sinners reject the counsel of God against their own soul, they bring upon themselves swift destruction. (2.) God never wants instruments to execute his vengeance upon a guilty nation. (3.) When the Lord gives the word, the damnation of the wicked no longer slumbers. (4.) They who have fled from the light of truth to the darkness of sin, are justly consigned to the eternal darkness.