Woe unto the wicked! [it shall be] ill [with him]: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
Ver. 11. Woe to the wicked.] This sentence should ever sound in the wicked man's ears for a powerful retentive from wickedness, considering the evil consequence thereof, that doleful ουαι ουαι; woe and alas for evermore! And when thou art making, saith one, a covenant with sin, say to thy soul, as Boaz said to his kinsman, "At what time thou buyest it, thou must have Ruth with it." Rth 4:4 If thou wilt have the pleasure of sin, the ways of wickedness, thou must also have the vengeance and wrath of God with it, and let thy soul answer as he here doth: No, I may not do it; I shall mar and spoil a better inheritance; I shall inherit a curse, &c. Look, saith Mr Bradford, a martyr, to the tag tied to God's law, the malediction, which is such as cannot but make us to cast our currish tails between our legs, if we believe it.
It shall go ill with him.] Utcunque sibi de rebus praesentibus gratuletur. b Though he stroke himself on the head, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imaginations of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. Deu 29:19 Tell him from me, saith God, Evil, sc., shall betide him; yea, "an evil, an only evil," awaiteth him, Eze 7:5 let him look for it.
The reward of his hands shall be given him.] He shall reap as he sowed, drink as he brewed. Gal 6:7-8
“ Mox ant poena manet miseros, ant palma beatos;
Quisque sum vitae semina iacta metet. ”
a Serm. of Repentance, pp. 57, 58.
b Jun.