Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD [is] at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Ver. 15. Alas, for the day, &c.] Gr. Alas, Alas, Alas; the Vulgate Latin A, A, A, which a Lapide makes much ado about, to little purpose.
For the day of the Lord] That is, the day of the greatest evils and miseries that ever hitherto they had suffered, if repentance prevent not. That they had suffered much already appeareth Joel 2:25, but those were but the beginnings of their sorrows, if they yet went on in their sins.
For as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come] An elegant alliteration there is in the original; together with an allusion to that tremendis title of God, Shaddai. The Jews (probably) boasted much and bare themselves overly bold upon their interest in God Almighty. The prophet therefore tells them that God's greatest power should be little to their profit while impenitent; for that it should be put forth and exercised for their utter destruction. Aben Ezra interpreteth Shaddai a conqueror, others a destroyer, which a conqueror must needs be. And hereto this text and that Isaiah 13:6, do allude, when they say Shod shall come from Shaddai, Destruction from the Almighty. Here, also, we may learn when we are under affliction to ascend to the first cause thereof, Amos 3:6, as David did in that three years' famine, 2 Samuel 21:1. See James 3:3,8 .