But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath: the sword shall devour you because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

“The ministers of the grace of God have, by the Holy Spirit, spoken of repentance; and the Lord of all things has himself declared with an oath regarding it, "As I live, says the Lord, I desire not the death of the sinner, but rather his repentance;" [Ezekiel 33:11] adding, moreover, this gracious declaration, "Repent, O house of Israel, of your iniquity." [Ezekiel 18:30] Say to the children of my people, Though your sins reach from earth to heaven, and though they be redder than scarlet, and blacker than sack-cloth, yet if you turn to me with your whole heart, and say, Father! I will listen to you, as to a holy people. [2 Chronicles 7:14] And in another place He speaks thus: "Wash you and become clean; put away the wickedness of your souls from before my eyes; cease from your evil ways, and learn to do well; seek out judgment, deliver the oppressed, judge the fatherless, and see that justice is done to the widow; and come, and let us reason together. He declares, Though your sins be like crimson, I will make them white as snow; though they be like scarlet, I will whiten them like wool. And if you be willing and obey me, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse, and will not hearken unto me, the sword shall devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things." [Isaiah 1:16-20] Desiring, therefore, that all His beloved should be partakers of repentance, He has, by His almighty will, established [these declarations].”

“And that expression, "The sword shall devour you," does not mean that the disobedient shall be slain by the sword, but the sword of God is fire, of which they who choose to do wickedly become the fuel. Wherefore He says, "The sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." And if He had spoken concerning a sword that cuts and at once despatches, He would not have said, shall devour.”

“Moreover, we know that even holy people have been given over bodily to Satan or to great sufferings on account of some slight sins. For the divine clemency does not permit the least blemish or stain to be found in them on the day of judgment. According to the words of the prophet, which are in fact God's, he purges away all the dross of their uncleanness in the present so that he may bring them to eternity like fire-tried gold or silver, in need of no penal cleansing.”

“You shall be devoured with the sword. That is to say, If you be obedient you shall eat the good, and if you rebel you shall be devoured with the sword. Supply before חֶרֶב ‘ the sword,’ either the verbal noun אֲכִילַת. ‘ a devouring of,’ or the preposition ב ‘ with ’ ; comp. בבית = בית ‘ in the house ’ (2 Kings 18:15). For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Be sure that this prediction will be fulfilled, for the mouth, etc.”

“The new moon and the sabbath. Here he removes the celebrations of solemnities. And first, as to the future, he sets down the intent of the prohibition, saying, The new moon. Psalm 80: Blow the trumpet in the new moon, as a sign of your solemn day. The sabbath. Exodus 20: other festivities. Leviticus 23: these are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall call most solemn and most holy. Your assemblies are wicked. Below, 58: behold, in the day of your fast your own will is found, and you exact all your debtors. Second, at your Kalends, as to the present he sets down hatred, saying: Kalends, which above is the new moon. Whence in another Psalter: Sound the trumpet at the beginning of the month. Lamentations 2: the Lord hath delivered over to oblivion in Sion the festival and the sabbath, and to reproach and to the indignation of his fury the king and the priest. Third, as to the past, he sets down weariness, saying: they are become troublesome to me: and he sets down two things: the heaviness of the burden: they are become troublesome, Psalm 37: as a heavy burden they are become heavy upon me: second, the labor of the one who bears it: I have labored in enduring. Isaiah 43: thou hast made me to labor in thy iniquities. And he speaks of God after the manner of men: because it is said to be burdensome for a man to labor at what does not please him. And when you shall stretch forth. He reproves their prayers: and first he sets down the reproof; second the reason for the reproof, at, for your hands. Concerning the first he does two things. First he reproves as to the sign of devotion, at, and when you shall stretch forth. Lamentations 3: let us lift up our hearts with our hands to heaven, to God. And below, 65: all the day I have spread forth my hands to an unbelieving people, who walk in a way that is not good. Second, the prolixity of prayer (at: and when you shall multiply), Proverbs 28: he who turns away his ear that he may not hear the law, his prayer shall be execrable. For your hands are full of blood, which you have shed. Psalm 13: their feet are swift to shed blood. Proverbs 1: keep back thy foot from their paths: for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. Wash yourselves. Here he sets down wholesome counsel; and concerning this he does three things. First he sets down the efficacious remedy; second the effect of the remedy, at, come; third the punishment against contempt, at, but if you will not. The remedy consists in two things: in the flight from evil and the following of good, at, learn. Evil is put to flight in two ways. By the purging of the past; and as to this he says, wash yourselves, Jeremiah 4: wash thy heart from malice, Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee? Second, by caution as to the future: and this comes about in three ways. That he not think evil in his heart: be clean. Proverbs 22: he who loves cleanness of heart, for the grace of his lips shall have the king for his friend. That he not fulfill in deed what he has thought: Micah 2: woe to them that devise that which is unprofitable, and work evil in their beds: in the morning light they do it. Take away the evil, namely, the deed. That he not complete what he has begun: cease to act perversely. Jeremiah 2: keep back thy foot from being bare, and thy throat from thirst. A swift runner explaining his ways, in the same, 2. Learn to do well. Here he sets down the remedy as to the following of good: and first that they may learn it; second that they may fulfill it in deed, at, relieve the oppressed. For one works good in ordering himself; and as to this he says, learn to do well. Jeremiah 6: be instructed, Jerusalem, lest perhaps my soul depart from thee, lest perhaps I make thee a desert land, and uninhabitable. In relation to one's neighbor; and this is what he says, seek judgment. Job 29: the cause which I knew not, I searched out most diligently. Jeremiah 6: stand upon the ways, and see, and ask concerning the ancient paths. Relieve the oppressed. Here he sets down the fulfilling of the work in relieving the wretched. Now what makes one wretched is either violence: and as to this he says, relieve the oppressed: Proverbs 24: deliver them that are led to death, and cease not to free them that are drawn to destruction: or the ignorance of youth: judge for the fatherless: Ecclesiasticus 4: be to the fatherless as a father in judging: or the weakness of sex: defend the widow. Job 29: the ear that heard blessed me, and the eye that saw gave witness to me. And come. Here he promises the effect: and concerning this three things are set down. First, the obligation of the one who promises, when he says, come; as if he were to say: if you do what I say, and what I promise does not follow, I bind myself to this, that you may accuse me. This Job lamented, 9: there is none that can reprove both, and lay his hand between the two. Second, the cessation of evils: if your sins be. And he promises specifically the cleansing from sins: because when the cause ceases, the effect ceases; he touches on two kinds of sin. That which is from burning love, which is noted in the scarlet on account of its intense redness, against which he sets the whiteness of cold snow. Job 9: if I shall be washed as it were with snow waters, and my hands shall shine ever so clean, et cetera. And that which is sin from deadening fear, which is noted in the crimson, whose color approaches whiteness: against which he sets wool: Ezekiel 27: in the multitude of divers riches, in wools of the best color; Matthew 28: his countenance, etc.; Daniel 7: his garment white as snow, and his hair like white wool. Third, the restitution of good things is set down: if you be willing, and will hearken, the good things of the land. Psalm 26: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. You shall eat. Below, 65: behold my servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry. But if you will not. He sets down the punishment against contempt. And first he sets down the contempt, saying: but if you will not, Zechariah 8: I thought to afflict you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath. Second, he threatens the sword of vengeance; the sword shall devour you. Ezekiel 5: I will draw the sword after them, and I will accomplish my fury, and I will cause my indignation to rest upon them. Third, he shows the judgment to be unchangeable: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. Numbers 23: God is not as a man, that he should lie, nor as the son of man, that he should be changed.”

“But if ye refuse and rebel,.... The Targum is, "and do not receive my Word"; the Messiah, when come, neither his person, nor his doctrines and ordinances: ye shall be devoured with the sword; of the Roman armies, as they were under Titus Vespasian; see Mat 22:7. for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it; now, by Isaiah, as well as in former times, Lev 26:25.”