All thy strong holds [shall be like] fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.
Ver. 12. All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees] i.e. Tam infirma ac si ficulnea essent. Look how the fig tree casteth her untimely (or green) figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind, Revelation 6:13; yea, though it be but of a gentle wind, if the figs be ripe, as here, they fall with little ado; so shall thy munitions, wherein thou trustest.
They shall even fall into the mouth of the eater] That is, of the Chaldean, who gape for thy destruction, and desires nothing more than to revel in thy ruins. They shall take thy fortresses as easily as Timotheus did towns, which were said to come into his toils while he slept, Aemuli ipsius dormientem pinxerant, &c. (Plut. in Sulla). Or, as Charles V, who in twenty-eight battles in America, waged by his Generals Cortez and Pizarro, won twenty-eight kingdoms.