In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate
with
it
Or, "when he sendeth it forth" F24; when God sends forth an
affliction on his people, or gives it a commission to them, as
all are sent by him, he does it with moderation; he proportions
it to their strength, and will not suffer them to be afflicted
above what they are able to bear; and as, in afflicting, he
debates and contends with his people, having a controversy with
them, so he contends with the affliction he sends, and debates
the point with it, and checks and corrects it, and will not
suffer it to go beyond due bounds; and in this the afflictions of
God's people differ from the afflictions of others, about which
he is careless and unconcerned: he stayeth his rough wind
in the day of his east wind:
when afflictions, like a blustering and blasting east wind,
threaten much mischief, and to carry all before them, Jehovah,
from whom they have their commission, and who holds the winds in
his fist, represses them, stops the violence of them, and
gradually abates the force of them, and quite stills them, when
they have answered the end for which they are sent: or "he
meditateth" F25; or speaketh, as Jarchi interprets
it, "by his rough wind in the day of his east wind"; God
sometimes meditates hard things against his people, and speaks
unto them by the rough dispensations of his providence,
admonishes them of their sins, and brings them to a sense and
acknowledgment of them, which is his view in suffering them to
befall them; or, "he removes by his rough wind" F26; their
fruit, so Kimchi interprets it; as a rough wind blows off the
blossoms and fruits, so the Lord, by afflictions, removes the
unkind blossoms and bad fruit from his people, their sins and
transgressions, as it follows.