8 For this clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn't turned back from us.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The Prophet seems not yet to exhort his own nation to repent: a more gracious doctrine will presently follow; but here he only reminds them that a most grievous mourning was nigh at hand; for he saw that they were hypocrites, immersed in their own delusions, and could not be assailed by any fear. Hence he says, that they were greatly mistaken, if they thought themselves safe while God was angry with them. Gird yourselves in sackcloth, he says, lament and howl; and then follows the reason, because the fury of God's wrath was not turned away from them. We indeed know, that the ungodly are wont to make God subservient to themselves, as though they could by their perverseness turn aside or drive afar off his judgment, and restrain, as it were, his hand from acting. As, then, hypocrites are insolent towards God, the Prophet says expressly that the fury of his wrath was not turned away: and thus he warns them, that they would be in every way miserable until they were reconciled to God. We now understand the design of the Prophet; for he confirms what the last verse contains, when he said that a lion had come forth, and that a desolator was already nigh; yea, he confirms what he had said, for there was no hope to them without having God propitious, and he declares that God was angry. Hence it follows, that all things would prove infelicitous to them.
Is not turned - As long as their sins are unrepented of, so long must their punishment continue.
Lament and howl - הילילו heililu. The aboriginal Irish had a funeral song called the Caoinian, still continued among their descendants, one part of which is termed the ulaloo: this is sung responsively or alternately, and is accompanied with a full chorus of sighs and groans. It has been thought that Ireland was originally peopled by the Phoenicians: if so, this will account for the similarity of many words and customs among both these people.
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl,.... That is, because of this destruction threatened, which was so near at hand, and so sure and certain:
for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it "from you" and some render it "from it" (u); from his purpose and design to destroy the Jews. Jarchi interprets this of Josiah, and his times, who, though he turned to the Lord with all his heart, yet the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his wrath and anger against Judah, 2-Kings 23:25.
(u) "ab illo", i.e. "ab illo proposito", Cocceius; "ab eo", Montanus.
Nothing is left to the Jews but to bewail their desperate condition.
anger . . . not turned back-- (Isaiah 9:12, Isaiah 9:17, Isaiah 9:21).
For this calamity the people was to mourn deeply. For the description of the mourning, cf. Joel 1:13; Micah 1:8. For the wrath of the Lord has not turned from us, as in blind self-delusion ye imagine, Jeremiah 2:35. The heath of Jahveh's anger is the burning wrath on account of the sins of Manasseh, with which the people has been threatened by the prophets. This wrath has not turned itself away, because even under Josiah the people has not sincerely returned to its God.
*More commentary available at chapter level.