Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word
The following parable: thus saith the Lord God of
Israel;
what was to be said is prefaced with these words, to show that it
was not a trifling matter, but of moment and importance, and not
to be slighted and despised as it was: every bottle shall
be filled with wine;
meaning every inhabitant of Judea and Jerusalem, comparable to
bottles or earthen vessels, as the Jewish writers interpret it,
for their being empty of all that is good, and for their frailty
and brittleness being liable to be broke to pieces, and to utter
ruin and destruction; these are threatened to be "filled with
wine"; not literally taken, such as they loved; though there may
be an allusion to their intemperance, and so this is a just
retaliation for their sins; but figuratively, with the wine of
divine wrath; and their being filled with it denotes the
greatness of the calamities which should come upon them, and be
around them on all sides: and they shall say unto
thee;
upon hearing the above, and by way of reply to it: do we
not certainly know;
or, "knowing do we not know" F21; can we be thought to be
ignorant of this, that every bottle shall be filled with
wine?
every child knows this; what else are bottles made for? is this
the errand thou art sent on by the Lord? and is this all the
knowledge and information that we are to have by thy prophesying?
or what dost thou mean by telling us that which we and everybody
know? what is designed by this? surely thou must have another
meaning in it than what the words express.