Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border:
Ver. 13. I will not turn away the punishment thereof] Or I will not turn and reduce him to myself by repentance, that I may show him mercy, as Lam 5:22 Jeremiah 31:18, but harden his heart, and hasten his destruction.
Because they have ripped up the women with child] Immane facinus, et vicinis indignum, saith Mercer, a cruel fact, and the worse because done by so near neighbours and allies; thus to kill two at one blow, and those also innocent and impotent, and such as they ought to have spared by the law of nature and of nations: and all this, merely out of covetousness and ambition.
That they might enlarge their border] But first root out the little ones, that else might hereafter claim and recover their fathers' possessions. So at the Sicilian Vespers they ripped up their own women that were with child by the French; that no French blood might remain among them. See Trapp on " Hos 13:16 " Learn to detest covetousness, that "root of all evil," 1 Timothy 6:10. Better converse with a cannibal than with a truly covetous caitiff; and more courtesy you may expect.