And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.
Ver. 2. And he said, The Lord will roar] This is spoken for the terror of the wicked, as the like was, Joel 3:16, for the comfort of the godly. See Trapp on " Joe 3:16 " The word, as Moses, saves the Israelite, slays the Egyptian; and is as the fragrance of precious ointment, of which Oecumenius tells us that it refresheth the dove but killeth the beetle, Columbam vegetat, scarabaeum necat. See 2 Corinthians 2:16. See Trapp on " 2Co 2:16 " The prophet here tells idolatrous Israel to their teeth that God will no longer deal fairly with them, as a shepherd, but fiercely, as a lion; he will not only roar upon them, but rend the caul of their hearts; as the lion, together with his roar, lays his paws upon the prey; and that ye may know that these are not hobgolbin terms, devised on purpose to frighten silly people, and that I shoot not popguns at you.
The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, &c.] That is, all your bravery shall down; all your wealth and worldly greatness shall wither; the top of your Carmel, the zenith of your prosperity, shall be blasted, and the scene soon altered. All this the prophet, used to shepherdy, expresseth accordingly, artis sum usus sermonibus (as it is natural for all artists to do), but with a great deal of life and boldness. Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator. Verbis vivis, animatis sententiis, et spiritus fervore flagrantissimus, as Bucholcer saith of Savonarola's Meditations upon Psalms 51 .