Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
Ver. 20. Whoso curseth his father, &c.] See Trapp on " Exo 21:17 " See Trapp on " Mat 15:4 " Parents usually give their children sweet and savoury counsel; but they, for want of grace, listen rather to flatterers and whisperers, vilipending their parents' advice, and vilifying them for the same, as Eli's sons did.
His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.] Heb., In blackness of darkness. These are those "raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." Jdg 1:13 All exquisite torment such are sure of in hell, whom the Holy Ghost curseth in such an emphatic manner, in such exquisite terms; besides the extreme misery they are likely here to meet with, who, when they ought to be "a lamp" to their parents, 1Ki 15:4 as Abner was, or by his name should have been - do seek to put out their lamp, to cast a slur upon them, and to "quench their coal that is left," as she said, 2 Samuel 14:7. It may very well be that the temporal judgment here threatened, is, that such a graceless child shall die childless, and that there shall be Nullus cui lampada tradat.