When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be
broken
off
This city is compared to a tree, whose branches are not only
gnawed and consumed by cattle, as in the former verse ( Isaiah 27:10
) ; but which, in a hot dry summer, are withered and dried up,
and so are easily broken, and are fit for nothing but the fire;
hence it follows: the women come [and] set them on
fire;
or "gather" them F6 in order to burn them; as is
commonly done with withered branches, ( John 15:6 ) it may design
the burning of the whore of Rome by the kings of the earth; for
as antichrist is signified by a woman, so the ten kings that
shall hate her, and burn her flesh with fire, may be signified by
women; see ( Revelation
17:16 ) . The word here used signifies to illuminate, or give
light, which is done when wood is set on fire; hence the Vulgate
Latin renders it, "women coming, and teaching it"; and so the
Targum,
``women shall come into the house of their gods, and teach them;''as the woman Jezebel does, ( Revelation 2:20 ) the former sense is best: for it [is] a people of no understanding;