| Geneva Study Bible They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the {f} east wind, and they shall gather the captives {g} as the sand. (f) For the Jews most feared this wind, because it destroyed their fruits. (g) They will be so many in number. Wesley's Notes 1:9 For violence - To enrich themselves by making a prey of all. Their faces - Their very countenances shall be as blasting as the east - wind. King James Translators' Notes their...: or, the supping up of their faces, etc: or, their faces shall look (Heb. the opposition of their faces) toward the east Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 9. all for violence-The sole object of all is not to establish just rights, but to get all they can by violence. their faces shall sup up as the east wind-that is, they shall, as it were, swallow up all before them; so the horse in Job 39:24 is said to "swallow the ground with fierceness and rage." Maurer takes it from an Arabic root, "the desire of their faces," that is, the eager desire expressed by their faces. Henderson, with Symmachus and Syriac, translates, "the aspect." as the east wind-the simoon, which spreads devastation wherever it passes (Isa 27:8). Gesenius translates, "(is) forwards." The rendering proposed, eastward, as if it referred to the Chaldeans' return home eastward from Judea, laden with spoils, is improbable. Their "gathering the sand" accords with the simoon being meant, as it carries with it whirlwinds of sand collected in the desert. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 1:1-11 The servants of the Lord are deeply afflicted by seeing ungodliness and violence prevail; especially among those who profess the truth. No man scrupled doing wrong to his neighbour. We should long to remove to the world where holiness and love reign for ever, and no violence shall be before us. God has good reasons for his long-suffering towards bad men, and the rebukes of good men. The day will come when the cry of sin will be heard against those that do wrong, and the cry of prayer for those that suffer wrong. They were to notice what was going forward among the heathen by the Chaldeans, and to consider themselves a nation to be scourged by them. But most men presume on continued prosperity, or that calamities will not come in their days. They are a bitter and hasty nation, fierce, cruel, and bearing down all before them. They shall overcome all that oppose them. But it is a great offence, and the common offence of proud people, to take glory to themselves. The closing words give a glimpse of comfort. | 
