And I will lay it waste
Or "desolate", as it was by the Romans: the whole land of Judea, as well as the city and temple ( Matthew 23:38 ) , it shall not be pruned nor digged;
as vineyards are, to make them more fruitful; but no care shall be taken of it, no means made use of to cultivate it, all being ineffectual: but there shall come up briers and thorns;
sons of Belial, wicked and ungodly men; immoralities, errors, heresies, contentions, quarrels, &c. which abounded about the time of Jerusalem's destruction, and before: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon them;
by "the clouds" are meant the apostles of Christ, who were full of the doctrines of grace, from whom they dropped as rain upon the mown grass; these, when the Jews contradicted and blasphemed the Gospel, and judged themselves unworthy of it, were commanded by Christ to turn from them, and go to the Gentiles, ( Acts 13:45-47 ) ( Zechariah 14:17 Zechariah 14:18 ) ( Revelation 11:6 ) agreeably to this sense is the Targum,
``and I will command the prophets, that they do not prophesy upon them prophecy.''