Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.
Ver. 9. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke] Correptionis, vel Correctionis, ut Pagmnus; " When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity," &c., Psalms 39:11. God hath a day for such sharp rebukes, or ahidings by way of conviction or argument (as the word signifieth), wherein he will be sure to carry it, with a great deal of sound reason and evident demonstration; so that Ephraim shall have nothing to say, why he should not be desolated; yea, so desolated as to make the beholders amazed thereat, as the Hebrew word importeth (לצפה Vastari ita ut videntes obstupescant). God will not now dally with Ephraim, or deal favourably with him as heretofore; he will not shake his rod at him only, but wait it to the very stumps; he shall be utterly destroyed from being a people; the day that now comes is a black day indeed, a day not of instruction, but of destruction, not of correction, but of execution; a very doomsday, wherein God will bring them into the furnace, and there leave them, Ezekiel 22:20. And that none may think this sentence overly severe, or not so sure but that it might be avoided or vacated, see what followeth in the text:
Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be] i.e. either, I have forewarned them sufficiently, but they would take no warning, which is both a just presage and desert for their ruin; or else thus: I am now fully resolved upon their ruin, neither is there cause that any man should deceive himself with a vain hope, as if these evils that I foretell should not befall you. Experience, the mistress of fools, shall teach you, that the sentence I now pronounce is precise and peremptory, not conditional, as heretofore, but absolute, and unchangeable; and this I here assure you of by this solemn contestation.