Woe unto the wicked! [it shall be] ill [with him],.... In time, and to eternity, in times of public calamity, and under all afflictions, and adverse dispensations of Providence; he has no God to go to; all that befalls him is in wrath; at death he is driven away in his wickedness; at judgment he will be bid to depart as cursed, and his portion will be in the lake of fire, with devils and damned spirits for ever. Some l render it, "woe to the wicked, evil"; or who is evil, who is exceedingly bad, a very great sinner, the chief of sinners, such as the Sodomites were, sinners before the Lord exceedingly,
Genesis 13:13 to whom these men are compared, Isaiah 3:9. So the Targum,
"woe to the ungodly, whose works are evil:''
the Jews, as they distinguish between a good man and a righteous man, so between a wicked man and an evil man; there are, say they m, a righteous good man, and a righteous man that is not good; but he that is good to God, and good to men, he is a righteous good man; he that is good to God, and not good to men, he is a righteous man, that is not good; and there are a wicked evil man, and a wicked man that is not evil; he that is evil to God, and evil to men, he is a wicked evil man; he that is evil to God, and not evil to men, he is a wicked man that is not evil. See Romans 5:7
for the reward of his hands shall be given him; in righteous judgment, in strict justice, as a just recompense of reward; nor shall he have reason to complain of unrighteousness in God.
l אוי לרשע רע "vae impio malo", Munster, Vatablus; so Ben Melech. m T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 40. 1.