For when they shall say
Or men shall say, that is, wicked and ungodly men, persons in a
state of unregeneracy:
peace and safety;
when they shall sing a requiem, to themselves, promise themselves
much ease and peace for years to come, and imagine their persons
and property to be very secure from enemies and oppressors, and
shall flatter themselves with much and long temporal happiness:
then sudden destruction cometh upon them;
as on the men of the old world in the times of Noah, and on the
inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot; for as
these, will be the days of the Son of man, as at the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem, so at the last day; see ( Luke
17:26-30 ) and as was the destruction of literal Babylon, so
of Babylon in a mystical sense, or antichrist and his followers:
and which will be
as travail upon a woman with child;
whose anguish and pains are very sharp, the cause of which is
within herself, and which come suddenly upon her, and are
unavoidable; and so the metaphor expresses the sharpness and
severity of the destruction of the wicked, thus the calamities on
the Jewish nation are expressed by a word which signifies the
sorrows, pangs, and birth throes of a woman in travail, (
Matthew
24:8 ) , and likewise that the cause of it is from
themselves, their own sins and transgressions; and also the
suddenness of it, which will come upon them in the midst of all
their mirth, jollity, and security; and moreover, the
inevitableness of it, it will certainly come at the full and
appointed time, though that is not known:
and they shall not escape;
the righteous judgment of God, the wrath of the Lamb, or falling
into his hands; to escape is impossible, rocks, hills, and
mountains will not cover and hide them; before the judgment seat
of Christ they must stand, and into everlasting punishment must
they go.