| Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation,.... Meaning one and the same person, Zedekiah not being able to save himself and his people; and who falling into the hands of the king of Babylon, his children were slain before him; then his own eyes put out, and he bound in chains, and carried captive to Babylon, Jeremiah 39:6; and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled; weakened through fear and distress; incapable of business, and unable to help themselves and others; and the more so, when they found their case desperate; which was manifest by the mourning and desolation of their king, in whom their confidence had been placed: I will do unto them after their way; or, "for their way" (p); because of their evil ways and works: and according to their deserts will I judge them; take vengeance on them, as the Targum: or, "in their judgments will I judge them" (q); the same measure they have meted out to others shall be measured out to them, Matthew 7:1, and they shall know that I am the Lord; the only Lord God, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, true and faithful, holy, just, and good. (p) "pro viis ipsorum", Calvin; "pro via ipsorum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus, (q) "et in", sive "pro judiciis eorum judicabo eos", Calvin, Polanus, Cocceius. Geneva Study BibleThe king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them after their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD. Wesley's Notes 7:27 The king - Zedekiah. The prince - Every magistrate. Troubled - Hang down, and melt away. What can men contrive or do for themselves, when God is departed from them? All must needs be in tears, all in trouble, when God comes to judge them according to their deserts, and so make them know, that he is the Lord, to whom vengeance belongeth. King James Translators' Notesaccording...: Heb. with their judgments Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary27. people of the land-the general multitude, as distinguished from the "king" and the "prince." The consternation shall pervade all ranks. The king, whose duty it was to animate others and find a remedy for existing evils, shall himself be in the utmost anxiety; a mark of the desperate state of affairs. clothed with desolation-Clothing is designed to keep off shame; but in this case shame shall be the clothing. after their way-because of their wicked ways. deserts-literally, "judgments," that is, what just judgment awards to them; used to imply the exact correspondence of God's judgment with the judicial penalties they had incurred: they oppressed the poor and deprived them of liberty; therefore they shall be oppressed and lose their own liberty. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary7:23-27 Whoever break the bands of God's law, will find themselves bound and held by the chains of his judgments. Since they encouraged one another to sin, God would dishearten them. All must needs be in trouble, when God comes to judge them according to their deserts. May the Lord enable us to seek that good part which shall not be taken away. |