Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
And in all vineyards shall be wailing - All joy should be turned into sorrow. Where aforetime was the vintage-shout in thankfulness for the ingathering, and anticipating gladness to come, there, in the source of their luxury, should be wailing, the forerunner of sorrow to come. it was a vintage, not of wine, but of woe.
For I will pass through thee - In the destruction of the firstborn in Egypt, God did not "pass through" but "passed over" them, and they kept, in memory thereof the feast of the Passover. Now God would no longer "pass over" them and their sins. He says, "I will pass through thee," as He then said, "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn of the land of Egypt - and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment" Exodus 12:12. As God says by Hosea, "I will not enter the city" Hosea 11:9, that is, He would not make His presence felt, or take cognizance, when to take cognizance would be to punish, so here, contrariwise, He says, "I will pass through," taking exact and severe account, in judgment. Jerome further says, "so often as this word is used in Holy Scripture, in the person of God, it denotes punishment, that He would not abide among them, but would pass through and leave them. Surely, it is an image of this, that, when the Jews would have cast our Lord headlong from the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, "He passed through the midst of them Luke 4:30, so that they could not see Him nor know Him, "and so went His way." And this, when He had just told them, that none of the widows of Israel were fed by Elias, or the lepers cleansed by Elisha, save the widow of Sarepta, and Naaman the Syrian. So should their leprosy cleave to them, and the famine of the word of God and of the oil of the Holy Spirit abide among them, while the Gentiles were washed by His laver and fed with the bread of life."
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