Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand;
Ver. 1. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion] Idem aliis verbis repetit, saith Mercer here. The prophet repeats the same as in the former chapter, only in other words, more at large, and after another manner; pressing the people further to the practice of repentance by many sweet promises of the blessings of this and a better life. Our prophet may seem to be of the same mind with Tertullian, who said that he was nulli rei natus nisi poenitentiae, born for no other end but to repent, and to call upon others so to do. Tot autem verbis et figuris utitur, saith Luther, he useth so many words and figures, because he had to do with a people that were harder than rocks, Jeremiah 5:8; as also, because there is an absolute necessity of repentance. Aut poenitendum, aut pereundum, as our Saviour tells his disciples twice in a breath, Luke 13:2; Luke 13:5. The prophet had urged them hereunto from the evils they felt or feared, Joel 1:1,20. Pain and penitence are words of one derivation. God plagueth men that he may make them cry peccavi; I have sinned, not peril only, I am undone, as Cain; but peccavi, I have done very foolishly, as David. The first seventeen verses of this chapter are hortatory, the rest consolatory. The day of the Lord cometh, therefore repent. This is the sum of the exhortation. It cometh, and that instantly: give warning therefore. God loveth to foresignify, saith the heathen historian, and to admonish before he punish, Fιλει ο Yεος προσημαινειν (Herod.). He dealt so with Cain, to whom he read the first lecture of repentance, Genesis 4:9,15, as he had done of faith to his father Adam, in the chapter before. He dealt so with the old world, with the Sodomites, Ninevites.
Sound an alarm in my holy mountain] Ring the bells backwards (as among us they do), the house is on fire, the enemy is at hand.
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble] And take course to prevent or mitigate the ensuing mischief, to cut the cart ropes of sin that pull down wrath upon the land.
For the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand] "An end is come, is come, is come," as Ezekiel hath it, Ezekiel 7:6,7 "I will overturn, overturn, overturn," as the same prophet hath it elsewhere, Ezekiel 21:27, "Should we then make mirth?" as it is in the same chapter, Ezekiel 21:10; should we sleep upon a mast pole, dance upon a weather cock, go hallooing and whooping to the place of execution?