Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid [hands] on their substance in the day of their calamity;
Ver. 13. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate, &c.] But have looked upon them as my people, though under a cloud of calamity; which will soon blow over. To enter, therefore, into their gates for prey and spoil is to burden yourselves with that burdensome stone that shall break you; to drink of that poisonous cup that shall bane you; to lay your hands upon that hearth of fire that will burn you, Zechariah 12:2,3; Zechariah 12:6. Look to it, hands off, keep you far from so evil a matter, lest it prove as that gold of Toulouse, Aurum Tholosanum, a mischief to all that meddle with it.
Thou shouldest not have looked] See Obadiah 1:12. The repetition shows the heinousness of the sin. The Holy Ghost doth not open his mouth in vain (whatever Job did, Job 35:16), nor multiply words without reason.
In the day of their calamity] This is thrice mentioned, to show how sensible God was of this savage dealing of theirs with his poor people, who now lay under the strokes and stripes of a displeased mercy. The Hebrew word here rendered calamity signifieth a fog, vapour, or misty cloud, Genesis 2:6 Job 36:27; and by a metaphor, it is put for affliction and misery, as it is also in Latin. Tempera si fuerint nubila, solus eris (Ovid.). Nubecula est, cito transibit, said Athanasius.