Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord
Either of zeal for the Lord, for the glory of his name, and the honour of his word; or rather of the prophecy of the Lord, as the Targum interprets it, concerning the wrath of God, that should come upon this people for their sins: I am weary with holding it;
the prophecy, the message he was sent with to them, to pronounce the judgments of God upon them; which being a disagreeable task to him, he refrained from doing it as long as he could; but being highly provoked with the sins of the people, and particularly with their contempt of the word of God, and especially he being obedient to the divine will, he could forbear no longer making a full declaration of it; see ( Jeremiah 20:9 ) . I will pour it upon the children abroad;
or, "in the street" F21; that are playing there: and upon the assembly of young men together;
that are met together for their pleasure and diversion; and the sense is, that the prophet would declare in a prophetic manner, and denounce, according to his office and commission, the wrath of God, which should come upon persons of every age, and of every relation in life, as follows: though the words may be rendered, "pour it upon the children" F23; and so it is a prayer of the prophet's to the Lord, that he would execute the vengeance on them which he had threatened them with by him: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken;
and carried captive: the aged with him that is full of days;
the old and the decrepit, such as are advanced in years, and also those that are just upon the brink of the grave, ready to die: the meaning is, that children should not be spared for their tender age, nor young men for their strength, nor husbands and wives on account of their relation, nor any because of their hoary hairs; seeing the corruption was so general, and prevailed in persons of every age, and of every station.