Because it is a trial,.... As all afflictions and calamities are, especially to the people of God they try their faith and patience, and every other grace; and also to wicked men, they try them, whether they will repent or not:
and what if the sword contemn even the rod? the sceptre: the king of Judah, and his family; not only come upon and cut off the people and the princes, but the royal family also; and even overturn the tribe of Judah, as the word also signifies; and subvert the government of it, of which the rod or sceptre is an ensign; this would be a sore trial indeed, and yet it is intimated that so it should be:
it shall be no more, saith the Lord God; the rod or sceptre shall be no more in one of David's line, of the tribe Judah, until the Messiah comes, Ezekiel 21:27. I should choose to render the words thus, "for it is a trial, but what?" w what an one is it? or for what is it? what will be the fruit, effect, and issue of it?
if also the sceptre despises; the king despises the trial, the affliction, the calamity, and is not brought to repentance by it:
it shall be no more, or "it shall not be" x,
saith the Lord God; it, the sceptre, shall be taken away, and not restored to the house of David, until the Messiah comes.
w כי בחן ומה "quum fuit probatio quid tandem fuit?" Junius & Tremellius, Polanus. x לא יהיה, "non erit", V. L. "scilicet sceptrum", Mariana.