Lecture Twenty-second

We were not able in the last lecture to finish what the Prophet has said in the seventh verse; that is, that whatever hope the Israelites entertained would be deceptive and fruitless; for they imagined many deliverances as arising from nothing. He had before condemned their wandering and perverse circuitous courses, now flying to Egypt, then to Assyria, in order to seek assistance, and at the same time overlooking and neglecting God. He therefore says now, that they would have to gather fruit corresponding with what was sown: They had sown the wind, they shall reap, he says, the whirlwind. And by this figure he signifies that their confidence was vain, that their counsels were frivolous.

He afterwards adds, that there would be no stalk; and pursuing the same similitude, he says, The bud shall yield no meal; if so be it yields, strangers shall swallow it up. The meaning is, that the Israelites went astray in their counsels, and had nothing real; it was the same as if one had sown the wind. Then follows the harvest of the whirlwind; for their seed would not spring up, no corn would grow which would yield meal; but if their counsels attained any fruit, or if they reaped any thing, strangers would devour it; for the Lord would at length cause that their enemies would scatter whatever they thought that they had attained. It further follows --