EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS (3)

Verse 9.—“The fire shall devour them.” Being troubled by the vengeance of the Lord, after the accusation of their conscience, they shall be given up to eternal fire to be devoured.—Augustine.

Verse 9.—I have read that a frown of Queen Elizabeth killed Sir Christopher Hatton, the Lord Chancellor of England. What then shall the frowns of the King of nations do? If the rocks rend, the mountains melt, and the foundations of the earth tremble under his wrath; how will the ungodly sinner appear when he comes in all his royal glory to take vengeance on all that knew him not, and that obeyed not his glorious gospel.—Charles Bradbury.

Verse 10.—“Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.” A day is coming when all the “fruits” of sin, brought forth by sinners in their words, their writings, and their actions shall be “destroyed;” yea, the tree itself, which had produced them, shall be rooted up, and cast into the fire. The “seed” and posterity of the wicked, if they continue in the way of their forefathers, will be punished like them. Let parents consider, that upon their principles and practices may depend the salvation or destruction of multitudes after them. The case of the Jews, daily before their eyes, should make them tremble.—George Horne.

Verse 11.—“They intended,” or warped. Hebrew, have bent or stretched. A similitude taken from weavers, who warp their yarn before they weave: or from archers, who, when they have bent their bow and put in their arrow, do take their aim.—John Diodati.

Verse 12.—“Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back,” or, thou shalt set them as a butt, “when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.” The judgments of God are called his “arrows,” being sharp, swift, sure, and deadly. What a dreadful situation, to be set as a mark and “butt” at which these arrows are directed! View Jerusalem encompassed by the Roman armies without, and torn to pieces by the animosity of desperate and bloody factions within! No farther commentary is requisite upon this verse.—George Horne.