Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
Ver. 3. Therefore the showers have been withholden.] Drought and dearth have ensued upon thy sin. By showers here understand the former rain, called also the seeds' rain. Isa 30:23
And there hath been no latter rain.] That commonly came a little before harvest, and was much desired.
And thou hadst a whore's forehead.] Quam pudet non esse impudentem; a that can blush no more than a sackbut. We have heard, saith a reverend writer, of virgins, which at first seemed modest, blushing at the motions of an honest love, who, being once corrupt and debauched, have grown flexible to easy entreaties to unchastity, and from thence boldly lascivious, so as to solicit others, so as to prostitute themselves to all comers, yea, as the casuists complain of some Spanish brothels, b to an unnatural filthiness. The modest beginnings of sin will make way for immodest proceedings. Let men take heed of that αδιατρεψια, i.e., inverecundia, shamelessness, that Caligula liked so well in himself, and that the heretics, called Effrontes, professed. It is a hard thing to have a brazen face and a broken heart.
a Augustine.
b Dr Hall's Remedy of Profan., p. 179.