John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 4. In that day shall [one] take up a parable against you , etc.] Making use of your name, as a byword, a proverb, a taunt, and a jeer; mocking at your calamities and miseries: or, “concerning you” f99 ; take up and deliver out a narrative of your troubles, in figurative and parabolical expressions; which Kimchi thinks is to be understood of a false prophet, finding his prophecies and promises come to nothing; or rather a stranger, a bystander, a spectator of their miseries, an insulting enemy, mimicking and representing them; or one of themselves, in the name of the rest: and lament with a doleful lamentation ; or, “lament a lamentation of lamentation” f100 : a very grievous one; or, “a lamentation that is”, or “shall be”, or “is done” f101 ; a real one, and which will continue: [and] say, we be utterly spoiled ; our persons, families, and friends; our estates, fields, and vineyards; our towns and cities, and even our whole land, all laid waste, spoiled, and plundered: he hath changed the portion of my people ; the land of Israel, which was the portion of the people of it, given unto them as their portion by the Lord; but now he, or the enemy the Assyrian, or God by him, had changed the possessors of it; had taken it away from Israel, and given it to others: how hath he removed [it] from me ! the land that was my portion, and the portion of my people; how comes it to pass that he hath taken away that which was my property, and given it to another! how strange is this! how suddenly was it done! and by what means! turning away, he hath divided our fields ; either God, turning away from his people, because of their sins, divided their fields among their enemies; “instead of restoring” f102 , as some read it, he did so; or the enemy the Assyrian, turning away after he had conquered the land, and about to return to his own country, divided it among his soldiers: or, “to the perverse”, or “rebellious one f103 , he divideth our fields”; that is, the Lord divides them to the wicked, perverse, and blaspheming king of Assyria; so the word is used of one that goes on frowardly, and backslides, ( Isaiah 57:17 Jeremiah 3:14,22).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-5 - Woe to the people that devise evil during the night, and rise early to carry it into execution! It is bad to do mischief on a sudden thought much worse to do it with design and forethought. It is of great momen to improve and employ hours of retirement and solitude in a prope manner. If covetousness reigns in the heart, compassion is banished and when the heart is thus engaged, violence and fraud commonly occup the hands. The most haughty and secure in prosperity, are commonly mos ready to despair in adversity. Woe to those from whom God turns away Those are the sorest calamities which cut us off from the congregatio of the Lord, or cut us short in the enjoyment of its privileges.
Original Hebrew ביום3117 ההוא1931 ישׂא5375 עליכם5921 משׁל4912 ונהה5091 נהי5092 נהיה1961 אמר559 שׁדוד7703 נשׁדנו7703 חלק2506 עמי5971 ימיר4171 איך349 ימישׁ4185 לי לשׁובב7728 שׂדינו7704 יחלק׃2505
