For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver [them].
Ver. 6. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land] Or, surely I will no mere, &c. A fearful sentence, written in blood, and breathing out nothing but utter destruction. David knew what he did when he chose rather to fall into the hand of the Lord than of men. For his mercies are many, and it soon repents him concerning his servants; "but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel," Proverbs 12:10. Those shepherds in the former verse were grievous wolves, Acts 20:29; what wonder therefore that they spared not the flock? But yet while God pitied them there was "hope in Israel concerning this thing," as he said, Ezra 10:2; whereas now that God's soul is disjointed from them, and his bowels shut up, desolation must needs be at next door, by Jeremiah 6:8 "Be not thou a terror unto me, O Lord," said that prophet, Jeremiah 17:17, and then I care not though all the world frown upon me and set against me. But woe be to Loruamah, the people of God's wrath and of his curse. I have noted before, out of Jeremiah 16:13, that God's I will show you no favour was worse than I will cast you out of this land.
I will deliver the men] Heb. I will make them to be found, pulling them out of their starting holes and lurking places. "Evil shall hunt the violent man to destroy him," Psalms 140:11 .
Every one into his neighbour's hand] As into the hangman's hand. This was fulfilled, especially during the siege by the seditious within the walls of Jerusalem, one man proving a wolf, nay, a devil to another.
And into the hand of his king] The Roman emperor, who disclaimed indeed the name of a king to avoid the hatred of the people, and yet exercised the full power of kings both at home and abroad. These Jews, first subdued by the Romans and reduced into a province, did afterwards rebel (though they had once, in opposition to Christ, cried out, We have no king but Caesar), and were, therefore, after five months' siege, utterly ruined: for what with extremity of famine and what with the fury of the sword, there perished in Jerusalem, and in the province adjoining, as Eusebius affirms, about 60,000 able men to bear arms. Or, as Josephus holds, who was an eyewitness, and present in the war, there died 1,100,000, besides others taken captive, to the number of 97,000.
And I will smite the land] So that it hath lain as it were, bedridden ever since.