And behold at eveningtide trouble; [and] before the morning he [is] not. This [is] the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.
Ver. 14. And behold at eventide trouble.] Or, Terror - sc., within Jerusalem, besieged by Sennacherib's forces. But this mourning lasted but till morning. The time of affliction is ordinarily short; a day, or night; a piece of a night, as here; a "moment"; Isa 54:8 "a small moment." Isa 54:7 Or if longer, yet (1.) There are some breathing time between; (2.) There is much good got by it; (3.) It is nothing to eternity.
Before morning he is not.] He and his forces are all gone. The wicked, saith Oecolampadius here, at the eventide of their death have a hard tug of it; and in the morning of the resurrection they are not, or could wish they were not.
This is the portion of them that spoil us.] Epiphonema ad populum Dei. He closeth up his discourse with a word of comfort to all God's people; for whose sake also it is that all this is said against Assyria, Syria, and other foreign states, enemies to the Church.