Behold the day, behold, it is come: the morning is gone forth; the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.
The rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded. The "rod" is the Chaldean Nebuchadnezzar, the instrument of God's vengeance (Isaiah 10:5; Jeremiah 51:20, "Thou art my battle-ax and weapons of war"). The double idea of the rod of punishment and the sceptre of the Babylonian king, who was to be the instrument of punishment, is included. The rod sprouting (as the word ought to be translated), etc., implies that God does not move precipitately, but in successive steps. He, as it were, has planted the ministers of His vengeance, and leaves them to grow until they are ripe for executing His purpose. "Pride" refers to the insolence of the Babylonian conqueror (Jeremiah 50:31-32, "O thou most proud;" Hebrew, 'pride'). The parallelism ("pride," answering to "rod") opposes Jerome's view, that "pride" refers to the Jews, who despised God's threats (also Calvin's, "Phough the rod grew in Chaldea the root was with the Jews'). The "rod" cannot refer, as Grotius thought, to the tribe of Judah, because it evidently refers to the "smiteth" (Ezekiel 7:9), as the instrument of smiting.