Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.
Ver. 15. Thou shall sow, but thou shalt not reap] This had been long since threatened by Moses, Deuteronomy 28:38,40, and was now over seven hundred years after to receive its accomplishment in this people. There is an infallibility in all the menaces of God's mouth. Men are apt to think that they were uttered in terrorem in fear only; and to put them off, as those in the Gospel did, with a God forbid: "Who knows if the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that is evil may pass from us?" Jeremiah 21:2. But what saith the prophet Zephaniah? "The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth be bring his judgment to light, he faileth not: but the unjust knoweth no shame," Zephaniah 3:5; sin hath wended such an impudence in his face, that he shuns no sin, dreads no danger.