So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.
Ver. 15. So shall Bethel do unto you] i.e. The idolatry that you have committed at Bethel, by a synedoche of the place, this shall undo you. Or, So shall he do unto you, O inhabitants of Bethel. Bethel shall be made a Betharbel. They that take not example by others shall be made an example to others. Lege historiam, ne fias historia.
Because of your great wickedness] Heb. the wickedness of your wickedness, the iniquity of your sin, the foolishness of your madness, Ecclesiastes 7:25, your idolatry especially, that wickedness with a witness. Let us (by God's example) learn to lay load upon our sins, and not to extenuate, but to aggravate them against ourselves.
In a morning shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off] This was fulfilled in Hoshea, the last king of Israel, 2 Kings 17:6, cut off in a morning, that is, in a moment, as foam, or a bubble upon the waters. The morning light lasteth not long, but shineth on to the perfect day. Or, in a morning, when some hope appears, and some comfort is expected, as Psalms 30:6, it is but a lightning before death.
“ Accidit in puncto, quod non speratur in anno. ”
“It happend in a monbecause it was not kfor in that year.”
Contrarily, the saints at evening time have light, Zechariah 14:7. See Trapp on " Zec 14:7 "