Wesley Corpus

They then - Such is the natural effect of unsanctified prosperity. Ye - Ye Babylonians, go execute my vengeance on them. Battlements - Lay her and all her fortifications level with the ground. For - I disown them. Belied - Not believing that these words of the prophet were God's word. Became wind - A proverbial expression, all the prophet's threats shall come to nothing. The word - The prophet's words are not from God. Thus - It shall fall upon their own heads that have thus threatened us. It - The Chaldean army, shall consume and eat them up like fire. Israel - By these are meant Judah; for Israel were in captivity before: called the house of Israel, not only because they descended from Jacob, but because they were the chief of that stock. Nevertheless - I have not done with you yet. Judah - By Judah and Jacob we are to understand the two tribes only. And hear not - They are wilfully blind, and obstinately deaf, will neither see, nor hear the word, will, or works of God, of which he giveth two instances in the two following verses. The sand - That need not make rocks for walls unto it, but can give a check to it by so small a matter as the sand. Gone - From me. The former rain - The former to prepare the ground for sowing, and the latter to prepare the corn for ripening. Reserveth - He gives seasonable harvests according to his appointment. God would let them know what a foolish, as well as wicked thing it is to set themselves against that God, that keeps the whole order of nature at his own disposal, which he can order as he sees men behave towards him. They catch - Such a trap did Jezebel lay for Naboth, 1Kings 21:9,10. Such an one was that conspiracy of more than forty men against Paul, Acts 23:13 - 15. Their houses - They fill their houses with the goods of those they deceive, and over - reach. Overpass - They go beyond the Heathens themselves in wickedness. The land - Heb. This land: aggravating the greatness of the wonder, that such a thing should be in such a land.