Cry and howl, son of man As a mark of the vehemence of thy grief. For it shall be upon my people Namely, the devouring sword; upon all the princes of Israel Both princes and people shall be involved in one common destruction. Smite therefore upon thy thigh
Use all the outward expressions of grief and mourning. Because it is a trial As all great calamities are often styled: see the margin.
And what if the sword contemn even the rod? Namely, the sceptre and royal family. The Hebrew, שׁבשׂ מאסת ומה אם נם, it seems, should rather be rendered, And what if even the rod, or sceptre, contemn? That is, if the king and kingdom of Judah despise this trial. It shall be no more, saith the Lord Both shall be destroyed, and be no more. The word rendered rod here, is continually put in Scripture for governor, or government; a rod, staff, or sceptre, being the usual signs of government. God, therefore, here foretels, that if the sceptre of Judah should despise, or not profit by, the correction or punishment brought upon it by the instrumentality of Nebuchadnezzar, it should be entirely broken, and be no more; which came to pass accordingly. The royal family was not amended by this severe judgment, and therefore was laid aside. “The sceptre here only means the kingly power in the house of David, and not that supreme authority which Jacob foretold should not forsake Judah till the coming of the Messiah.”