For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.
Ver. 11. For, behold, the Lord commandeth] Calamities, and they come; the Chaldeans, and they are at hand with their battle axes, but it is he that gives them their commission, and biddeth them fall on.
And he will smite the great house with breaches, &c.] i.e. He will destroy rich and poor together; pale death will knock at both their houses with an even foot (aequo pulsat pede), as in time of plague, earthquake, or the like epidemic evil. The grave is the congregation house of all living, Job 30:23, whereinto men chop often before they think; as a man that walks in the snow may fall into a clay pit. The mortal scythe is master of the royal sceptre; and it mows down the lilies of the crown as well as the grass of the field. Death is the only king "against whom there is no rising up," as Agur phraseth the most absolute predominance, Proverbs 30:31; it levelleth lords and lowlies, and lays all waste; breaking down the greater houses and cleaving the lesser, with an utter extermination of all. Search you therefore, search you, O nation not desired; before the decree come forth, &c., Zephaniah 2:1,2. Being wise after the fact helps not; repentance, though true, may come too late in respect of temporal judgments, as in Moses, Deuteronomy 1:37, and David, 2 Samuel 12:10 .