A dreadful sound [is] in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
Ver. 21. A dreadfid sound is in his ears] Heb. A sound of fear and terror. Not one, but many at once, so that he is a Magormissabib, factus a corde sua fugitivus (Tertul.), as Cain, that wretch, and those Hivites, with their hornets of a clamorous conscience, worse to them than if their bodies had been tormented with stings or torn with stripes, Exodus 23:28. What a sound of terror in their ears frighted those Syrians! 2 Kings 7:6; and those Persians and Saracens overcome by Theodosius! Panico terrore incusso, saith the historian, afraid of their own shadows, they desperately cast themselves into the river Euphrates, and there perished above a hundred thousand of them, A.D. 394. The wicked flee when none pursueth, Proverbs 28:1; the sound of a shaken leaf chaseth him, Leviticus 26:36, when the righteous is bold as a lion, and not dismayed at evil tidings, Psalms 112:7. His heart is balanced with the fear of God; and thence it is that he floateth steadily; blow what wind it will, he sails to the port; storms and tempests do but beat him into it.
In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him] Heb. In peace, when he shall say, Peace and safety, 1 Thessalonians 5:3. When he is at the highest he shall be destroyed, Daniel 4:30,31. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits, Job 20:22. His short spring shall have an eternal winter, Psalms 92:7. Ultimus sanitatis gradus est morbo proximus, say physicians, The utmost degree of health is nearest to sickness; so the wicked when nearest misery have greatest prosperity.