This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Ver. 19. This shall be the punishment of Eyypt, and the punishment] Or sin; indeed, the sin of sins, to slight God's ordinances and offers of grace; and to neglect so great salvation as is tendered by Christ. This very sin is its own punishment. This is condemnation, or hell beforehand, John 3:19. This brought Capernaum down from heaven to hell, Matthew 11:23. Pagans that never heard of Christ shall have an easier judgment than such, Matthew 11:24, for they shall have a double condemnation. One from the law, which they had broken, wherein Christ found them; another from the gospel, for rejecting Christ and the bath of his blood, to the which even princes of Sodom are invited, Isaiah 1:10. See Joh 12:48 Matthew 21:44. It is with such as with a malefactor, that being dead in law, doth yet refuse a pardon. Danaeus observeth here that mention is made of the feast of Tabernacles especially, 1. Because this feast was now most solemnly kept among the Jews, Nehemiah 8:16,18, and secondly, Because it was a most evident testimony of the first gathering together of the people of Israel, that is, of a free ordained Church; therefore it was better liked of the people, and a more evident sign of their uniting or knitting together within themselves, as is unto us the holy supper of our Lord Jesus Christ.