I have long time holden my peace... — The change of person indicates that Jehovah is the speaker. “Long time,” literally, for an age, or an eternity. What is actually meant is the period of the exile, during which, till the advent of the deliverer, there had been no interposition on behalf of Israel. To the exiles this had seemed endless in its weariness. Now there were the travail-pangs of a new birth for the nation. (Comp. Matthew 24:8.) Was it strange that there should be the convulsions and catastrophes which are as the thunder-roaring of the voice of Jehovah?
I will destroy and devour. — Better, I pant and gasp. The verbs express strong emotion, the cries of the travailing woman rather than destructive acts.