O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
Ver. 10. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor.] That is, O my church and people, whom by so many tribulations I have hitherto been threshing, that I might sunder thee from the chaff, and make thee the "corn of the floor," or, as the Hebrew here hath it, "my son of the floor," and may lay thee up as pure grain in my garner. a See Isaiah 28:27 .
That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts,] viz., That you, my poor countrymen, shall be threshed for a while, and winnowed by Babylon. See Isaiah 25:10; Isaiah 41:15 Jer 51:33 Micah 4:13. Ut cum triturando e gluma, et follibus suis utriculisque, triticum educitur, and that you shall at length be delivered from this grievous affliction; all this you may write upon as certain and infallible. I have herein told you not the dreams of mine own heart, but the very undoubted words of God himself.
a Non ut perdam, sed ut probem et purgem. Frumentum Dei sum, &c. - Ignat.