I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye [turned] not to me, saith the LORD.
Ver. 17. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail] Pugnis pluvi, colaphis grandinavi, I have followed you close with one judgment upon another; and all to bring you back into mine own bosom; that as ye had run from me by your sins, so ye might return to me by repentance; but, behold, I have lost my labour, and ye have lost the fruit of your sufferings, which indeed is a very great loss, were ye but soundly sensible of it, Perdidistis fructum calamitatis (Aug.). These Jews were sensible of their calamities and disasters abroad and at home, but they did not wisely inquire into the cause thereof; as David did into the cause of the famine that fell out in his days, 2 Samuel 21:1. God had not hitherto "given them a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear," as it is Deuteronomy 29:4. And as Isaiah 9:13 "The people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts." But after their hardness and impenitent heart treasured up wrath, &c., Romans 2:5. They could not but see themselves grievously crossed, and cursed in all the labours of their hands. Neither were they so blind as not to see God in that they suffered. They had learned that out of Psalms 78:47,48; Psalms 29:3, &c. Cicero indeed thought that God minds not mildew, or hail, &c. Nec si uredo aut grando quippiam nocuit, id Iovi animadvertendum fuit: neque enim in regni reges omnia minima curant, &c. As kings take not notice of smaller businesses in their kingdoms, saith he, so neither doth God of these ordinary occurrences. But the Jews (for the generality) had learned better things. And the apostle tells those heathens too, Acts 14:15,17, that God had not left himself without witness among them, in that he did good and gave rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, &c. Cicero himself likewise, another time, could say, Curiosus est et plenus negotii Deus, God taketh care of all, and is full of business. And oh that this truth were as fruitfully improved as it is generally acknowledged! Oh that men would turn at God's reproof; his real reproofs, his vocal rods, Micah 6:9; and not put him to his old complaint, "Why should ye be smitten any more? Ye revolt more and more," Isaiah 1:5. This we may wish, but God alone can effect. For till he please to thrust his holy hand into men's bosoms, and pull off the foreskin of their hearts; afflictions (those hammers of his) do but beat cold iron. See Jeremiah 2:30,31; Jeremiah 6:29,30; Leviticus 26:41. Plectimur a Deo, nec flectimur tamen: corripimur sed non corrigimur (Salvian.). We are put to pain, but to no profit, Jeremiah 12:13, as Ahaz, that stiff stigmatic, 2 Chronicles 28:23, and Ahaziah, who sent a third captain to surprise the prophet, after two before consumed with fire from heaven, 2 Kings 1:13; as if he would despitefully spit in the face of God, and wrestle a fall with the Almighty.