And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth.
Ver. 16. And he took the elders of the city, and thorns, &c.] Wherewith he tore them, as well as taught them what it was to be so barbarous, and that he had not threatened them in terrorem only. God also chastiseth his children, and thereby "teacheth them," but after another manner, "out of his law, that he may give them rest from the day of adversity." Psa 94:12-13 He whippeth them, but it is with sweetbrier. But let scorners of God and his people, deriders and discouragers of the good, look for a Gideon to torture them, with briers and thorns, with scourges and scorpions.