Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that [it is] an evil [thing] and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear [is] not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Ver. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee.] Erudiat te malitia tua; let thine own wickedness, with the sad consequents thereof, teach thee better things. as Jer 6:8 Let it for shame, let it παθων δε τε νηποις εγνω, let smart make wit. Isa 28:19 Pro 29:15
Know therefore, and see.] Learn at least by sad experience, for thou hast paid for thy learning. Piscator ictus sapiet.
That it is an evil thing and bitter.] So all sin will prove in the issue, and when the bottom of the bag is turned upward. There will be "bitterness in the end," as Abner said to Joab. 2Sa 2:26 Laban will show himself at parting howsoever. Tamar will be more hated than ever she was loved: Amor, amarior; plus aloes quam mellis habet.
“ Laeta venire Venus, tristis abire solet. ”
Drunkenness is sweet, but wormwood is bitter. These inhabitants of Jerusalem were made drunk, but with wormwood; Lam 3:15 they found that sin was a Dulc-acldum, a a bitter sweet - sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the maw, stomach as that book in the Revelation; like Adam's apple, or Esau's pottage, or Jonathan's honey, or Judas's thirty pieces, whereof he would fain have been rid, but could not; they burned like a spark of hell fire in his hand, but especially in his conscience. The devil, with the panther, hideth his deformed head till the sweet scent have drawn other beasts into his danger, and then he devoureth them. Did we but consider what sin will cost us at last, we dare not but be innocent.
a γλυκυπικρον. - Philo.