For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up [like] the lifting up of smoke.
Ver. 18. For wickedness burneth as a fire.] God will burn up these wicked Israelites, as once he did those sinful Sodomites; for unregenerate Israel is to him as Ethiopia, Amo 9:7 when once scelera abierunt in mores, and there is a general defection of all sorts and states, God will make an utter riddance of them; he will fire the whole forest.