They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.
Ver. 20. They were confounded because they had hoped, &c.] Heb. They blushed, or they were abashed, because disappointed and defeated of their hope and expectation. See Jer 14:3-4 Joel 1:10,11. God's people have a promise, that hoping in him they shall never be ashamed, Joe 2:26 Romans 10:11. Their hope is infallible, Romans 5:5, because founded upon faith unfeigned, 1 Timothy 1:5. Hence they are commanded to rejoice in hope, Romans 12:12, and to conceive gaudium in re, gaudium in spe, gaudium de possessione, gaudium de promissione, &c., joy for what they have in hand, and in present possession; joy also for what they have in hope, and in reversion. Wicked men's hopes may hope headless (as the proverb is, and as these troops of Tema experimented), they come to the world's felicities as they do to a lottery, with heads full of hopes, but return with hearts full of blanks: not so the saints; God will be better to them than their hopes; and when at worst, they can confidently say, it is well for the present, and it will be better hereafter.