And it shall be, [that] whoso will not come up of [all] the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
Ver. 17. Even upon them shall be no rain] i.e. Nullam misericordiam assequentur, saith Theodoret; They shall get no good at God's hand. Judea was sumen totius orbis, bread basket of the whole world, as one saith, a very fat and fertile country; but yet so as that her fruitfulness depended much upon seasonable showers, the former and latter rain; and the prophet seemeth here to allude to that of Moses, Deuteronomy 11:10,11, &c. If God did not hear the heaven, and the heaven the earth, the earth could not hear the grain, wine, and oil, nor those hear Jezreel, Hosea 2:22. Judea was not like that country in Pliny, ubi siccitas dat lutum, imbres pulverem, where drought made dirt, rain made dust; but if the heaven were iron over them, the earth would soon be brass under them, and not yield her increase, Psa 65:9 Isa 30:23 and then where would they be quickly? since animantis cuiusque vita in fuga est, life would be lost if not maintained by daily food. Rain is in Scripture put, 1. Properly, for water coming out of the clouds, Deu 11:11 Proverbs 16:15, nourishing the herbs and trees. 2. Metaphorically, for Christ, his gospel and his graces, wherewith the souls of men are made fruitful in good works, Isa 45:8 Deuteronomy 32:2 Hosea 6:3. The want of rain is, on the contrary, made here and Revelation 11:5 a sign of a curse. It waiteth not for the sons of men, Micah 5:7, but it accomplisheth what God appointeth, Isaiah 55:10,11. Why it falleth here and now we know not, and wonder.