Verse 15. I will smite the winterhouse with the summerhouse] I will not only destroy the poorhabitations and villages in the country, but I will destroy those of the nobility and gentry as well as the lofty palaces in the fortified cities in which they dwell in the winterseason, as those light and elegant seats in which they spend the summerseason. Dr. Shaw observes that "the hills and valleys round about Algiers are all over beautified with gardens and country seats, whither the inhabitants of better fashion retire during the heats of the summerseason. They are little white houses, shaded with a variety of fruit trees and evergreens, which beside shade and retirement, afford a gay and delightful prospect toward the sea. The gardens are all well stocked with melons, fruits, and potherbs of all kinds; and (which is chiefly regarded in these hotcountries) each of them enjoys a great command of water." And the houses of ivory] Those remarkable for their magnificence and their ornaments, not built of ivory, but in which ivoryvessels, ornaments, and inlaying abounded. Thus, then, the winterhouses and the summerhouses, the great houses and the houses of uncommon splendour, shall all perish. There should be a total desolation in the land. No kind of house should be a refuge, and no kind of habitation should be spared. Ahab had at Samaria a house that was called the ivoryhouse, 1 Kings xxii. 39. This may be particularly referred to in this place. We cannot suppose that a house constructed entirely of ivory can be intended.
Ver. 15. And I will smite the winterhouse with the summerhouse , etc.] Both the one and, the other shall fall to the ground, being beat down by the enemy, or shook and made to fall by the earthquake predicted, ( Amos 1:1); as Kimchi thinks: kings and great personages had houses in the city in the winterseason, in which they lived for warmth; and others in the country in the summertime, to which they retired for the benefit of the air; or they had, in one and the same house, a summer and a winter parlour; (see Judges 3:20Jeremiah 36:22); it signifies that the destruction should reach city and country, and deprive them of what was for their comfort and pleasure: and the houses of ivory shall perish ; or “of the tooth” f107 ; the elephant’s tooth, of which ivory is made. Ahab made a house of ivory; and perhaps more were made by others afterwards, following his example, ( 1 Kings 22:39); not that these houses were made wholly of ivory, only “covered” with it, as the Targum here paraphrases it; or they were cieled or wainscotted with it, or were inlaid and covered with it, and were reckoned very curiouswork; but should be demolished, and perish in the general ruin: and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord ; the houses of princes, nobles, and other persons of figure and distinction; houses great in building, or many in number, as Kimchi observes, and as the word will bear to be rendered; these, which the builders and owners of them thought would have continued many ages, and have perpetuated their names to posterity, should now be thrown down, and be no more; of which they might assure themselves, since the Lord had said it.
Verses 9-15 - That power which is an instrument of unrighteousness, will justly be brought down and broken. What is got and kept wrongfully, will not be kept long. Some are at ease, but there will come a day of visitation and in that day, all they are proud of, and put confidence in, shal fail them. God will inquire into the sins of which they have bee guilty in their houses, the robbery they have stored up, and the luxur in which they lived. The pomp and pleasantness of men's houses, do no fortify against God's judgments, but make sufferings the more grievou and vexatious. Yet a remnant, according to the election of grace, wil be secured by our great and good Shepherd, as from the jaws of destruction, in the worst times __________________________________________________________________
