Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
Ver. 3. Therefore shall the land mourn] Here the Lord proceeds to give sentence; and it is dreadful indeed. Lugebit terra, languebit incola, &c. You will not mourn, therefore your land shall; the ugly face of your sin shall appear in the miserable desolation of your country. "There is no truth, mercy, or knowledge of God in your land"; which even groans under your burden, its axle spokes being ready to break; therefore it shall be eased of you, by my sore, and great, and strong sword, which shall soon make work among you, and lay all waste. And as God's red horse of war is followed by the black horse of famine, and that black one by the pale horse of pestilence, Revelation 6:4,5; Revelation 6:8, so shall it be here. As by swearing and lying, &c., you have broke out, so shall my whole wrath break out upon you as a mighty torrent. As blood hath touched blood, so punishment shall follow hard upon sin; for these two are knit together with chains of adamant, saith the poet. "If thou do evil, sin lies at the door," saith God, Genesis 4:7, that is, supplicium imminer, idque proximum et praesentissimum, saith Junius there. Evil shall hunt the wicked man to destroy him: his sin shall find him out as a blood hound, and haunt him as a hell hag. Where iniquity breaks fast calamity will be sure to dine; to sup where it dines, and to lodge where it sups. No sooner had man sinned but the earth was cursed for his sake, Genesis 3:17,18. It was never beautiful nor cheerful since. At this day it lies bedridden, and looks to be burnt up shortly with her works, 2 Peter 3:10. Here it is brought in as a mother in mourning, bewailing the loss of all her children, and refusing to be comforted. And surely though the land be eased of a very heavy burden, as I have said, when purged by God's just judgments of her ungrateful and wicked inhabitants; yet because she lies under the dint of Divine displeasure at such a time, therefore is she rightly said to mourn in this case, and to be in a sad, disconsolate condition, see Jer 12:4 she becomes a very Ahil (that is the word here used, see Jdg 11:33), a Bochim, a Hadadrimmon, an Irisland; and being desolate, she mourneth unto thee: for she seeth that her convulsions are like to end in a deadly consumption.
And every one that dwelleth therein shall languish] Heb. shall wither as a flower, Nahum 1:4. Or, shall be weakened. Those that now stand upon their tip toes, and face the very heavens, stouting it out with God, shall then be weak as water, withered as a flower, strengthless as a moth eaten cloth, Psalms 39:11, low spirited and crest fallen, as the king of Sodom (erst man good enough to look four kings in the face, but a non-suppliant to Abraham, a forlorn foreigner, Gen 14:21). Manasseh, that sturdy rebel, in trouble basely hides his head among the bushes, 2 Chronicles 33:11. Caligula in time of thunder ran under beds and benches. Affliction will tame, and take down the proudest spirits: they break in adversity that bore their heads on high in prosperity: they speak out of the ground, and whisper out of the dust, Isaiah 29:4, that look to be brought into the dust of death, Psalms 22:15. It is the pestilence that here seemeth to be threatened (as before sword and famine), and a universal pestilence too; reaching not only to men, but to other creatures made for man's uses, which shows the greatness of the wrath: like as when a king not only executeth the traitor, but also pulleth down his house, confiscateth his goods, and disinheriteth his children, &c. But what have those sheep done? the beasts, birds, and fishes, that they must suffer also? It is but reason they should, since, first, they are part of men's enjoyments: secondly, they are many times (though harmless in themselves, yet) instruments of men's sin (Pareus); and therefore well doth the Chaldee here paraphrase Diminutionem patientur propter hominum peccata, they shall suffer for man's sin: who may therefore well say to them, as Judah did to Tamar, "Thou art more righteous than I"
With the beasts of the field] Which shall die by the murrain.
And the fowls of the air] Which shall catch the contagion, and fall down dead; as those birds do that attempt to fly over the Dead Sea.
And the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away] Colligentur, conficientur, they shall be gathered together, as seeking help one of another in a common danger: and yet they shall be destroyed, the very waters being pestilential, as they were here in King Edward III's days; so that the very fowls and fishes had botches upon them. This was a heavier judgment than that which befell the old world; for then the fishes perished not, though the Jewish doctors would persuade us that these also died in the flood; for that the waters thereof were boiling hot.