As for me, I have not hastened from [being] a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was [right] before thee.
Ver. 16. I have not hastened from being a pastor before thee.] I have neither rashly taken up the work of the ministry, quo secundus abs te assam pastor, wherein I have been thine under shepherd, but was rightly called by thee thereunto, and have obeyed thy call; neither have I been over hasty to rid my hands of this so troublesome and thankless an employment. Latimer, in one of his sermons, speaking of a minister who gave this answer why he ceased preaching, Because he saw he did no good, but got the hatred of many: This, saith he, was a naughty, a very naughty answer.
Neither have I desired the woeful day.] The doleful or deadly day, sc., of their desolation, or my denunciation of it. God's ministers take no delight to fling daggers at the faces of graceless persons, whatever they may think, or to terrify them causelessly; but, as "knowing the terror of the Lord," they seek to frighten them by the menaces of God's mouth from such sinful practices as will be their ruin, and hence they are hated,
“ An expectes ut Quintilianus ametur? ” - Juven.
Thou knowest it.] See Jeremiah 12:1; Jeremiah 15:15 2 Corinthians 1:12 .