Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.
And thy casting down] For ûjyw veyeshchacha, "thy casting down," Newcome, by transposing the j and , reads ûjyw veyechshach, "and it shall be dark;" and this is probably the true reading. The Arabic and Septuagint have read the same. "There shall be calamity in the midst of thee." It shall have its seat and throne among you.
The Syriac version is, “a dysentery shall be in thine intestines;” a secretjudgment wasting and destroying them; and thou shall take hold, but shall not deliver; and [that] which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword ; the sense is, that they should take hold of their wives
and children, and endeavour to save them from the sword of the enemy, and being carried captive: or should “remove” them f208 , as the word is sometimes used, in order to secure them from them; or should “overtake” f209 ; the enemy, carrying them captive; but should not be able by either of these methods to save them from being destroyed, or carried away by them; and even such as they should preserve or rescue for a while, yet these should be given up to the sword of the enemy, the same or another. Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret this of their women conceiving, and not bringing forth; and, if they should, yet what they brought forth should be slain by the sword f210 . But the Targum and Jarchi incline to the former sense.
Verses 9-16 - God, having showed how necessary it was that they should do justly here shows how plain it was that they had done unjustly. This voice of the Lord says to all, Hear the rod when it is coming, before you se it, and feel it. Hear the rod when it is come, and you are sensible of the smart; hear what counsels, what cautions it speaks. The voice of God is to be heard in the rod of God. Those who are dishonest in their dealings shall never be reckoned pure, whatever shows of devotion the may make. What is got by fraud and oppression, cannot be kept of enjoyed with satisfaction. What we hold closest we commonly los soonest. Sin is a root of bitterness, soon planted, but not soo plucked up again. Their being the people of God in name and profession while they kept themselves in his love, was an honour to them; but now being backsliders, their having been once the people of God turns to their reproach __________________________________________________________________
