Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders [and] all the inhabitants of the land [into] the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
Ver. 14. Sanctify ye a fast] Having humbled yourselves, preach repentance to others. That is the best sermon that is digged out of a man's own breast. "Sanctify yourselves first, and then prepare your brethren," saith Josiah to the priests of his time, 2 Chronicles 35:6. A religious fast (for that the prophet intends here by sanctify), rightly observed and referred to religious ends, is both a testimony of true repentance, and a furtherance thereunto; for it tames the rebel flesh, 1 Corinthians 9:27, which else will wantonize and overtop the spirit, Deuteronomy 32:15. And it giveth wings to our prayers, which before grovelled on the ground, as it were. Fasting inflameth prayer; and prayer sanctifieth fasting.
Sanctify therefore a fast, call a solemn assembly] Heb. a day of restraint, separating yourselves, as Zechariah 8:19, from all fleshly delights; amercing and punishing yourselves in that sort by a holy revenge, as Psalms 35:18, and afflicting your souls with voluntary sorrows for your sins and miseries.
Gather the elders] Both those qui canis et annis sunt tales, who are full of days and so of sins; and also those that are in place of authority, whose offences have soared higher on the wings of example and scandal.
And all the inhabitants of the land] For as all are sin guilty, so your unanimity and charity will further the service. All should get together in this case, and bring their buckets to quench a common fire; the more public and general the humiliation is, the more pleasing and prevalent, Judges 20:26 2 Chronicles 30:8; 3 John 1:3 :5; John 3:7,8 .
Into the house of the Lord your God] Which house was a type of Christ (in whom God heareth his), and had made many promises to prayers there put up in faith, 1 Kings 18:37,39 2 Chronicles 6:28,29 .
Of the Lord your God] Yours still by virtue of the covenant: be sure to keep faith in heart, when we are at the greatest under.
And cry unto the Lord] With the heart, at least, as Moses did at the Red Sea, when yet none heard him but the ear of heaven only (Moses egit vocis silentio ut magis audiretur); and as Hannah did when she uttered no audible voice, and yet poured forth her soul to the Lord with such a strange and unwonted writing of her lips, that Eli thought she had been drunk, 1 Samuel 1:15 .