And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.
Ver. 7. And he knew their desolate places.] He had made them desolate, and bereft them of their right owners, whom he had devoured, and then seized them for himself. Some read and render it, He knew their desolate widows - i.e., He first killed up their husbands, and then lay with the widows: the men he devoured, the women he deflowered. Such work this wicked prince made, till God took him in hand; as he did also the other three here lamented, of whom may be said, as Plutarch doth of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, emperors, that they were like kings in a tragedy, which last no longer than the time that they are represented on the stage.