For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the
whirlwind,
&c.] The sense is, the Israelites took a great deal of pains
in the idolatrous worship of the calves, and made a great stir,
bustle, and noise in it, like the wind; were very vainglorious
and ostentatious, made a great show of religion and devotion, and
promised themselves great things from it, peace and plenty,
wealth and riches, all prosperity and happiness, enjoyed by
Heathen nations; but this was lost labour, it was labouring for
the wind, or sowing that; they got nothing by it, or what was
worse than nothing; it proved not only useless, but hurtful, to
them; for, for their idolatry, and continuance in it, the
whirlwind of God's wrath would be raised up against them, and the
Assyrian army, like a vehement storm of wind, would rush in upon
them, and destroy them; so they that sow to the flesh, shall of
the flesh reap corruption, ( Galatians
6:8 ) ; it hath no stalk;
what they sowed did not rise up above ground; or, if it did, it
did not spring up in a blade or stalk, which was promising of
fruit; no real good, profit, and advantage, sprung from their
idolatrous practices: the bud shall yield no
meal;
yea, though it rise up into a stalk, and this stalk produced ears
of corn, yet those so thin, that no meal or flour could be got
out of them, and so of no worth and use: and if so be it
yield:
any meal or flour: the strangers shall swallow it
up;
the Israelites should not be the better for it; it should till
come into the hands of foreigners, the Assyrian army. The meaning
is, that if they did prosper and increase in riches, yet they
should not long enjoy them themselves, but be pillaged and
spoiled of them; as they were by the exactions of Pul, and by the
depredations of Shalmaneser, kings of Assyria. So the Targum,
``if they got substance, the nations shall spoil them of it.''