The Lord commandeth and He will smite - Jerome: "If He commandeth, how doth He smite? If He smiteth, how doth He command? In that thing which He "commands" and enjoins His ministers, He Himself is seen to "smite." In Egypt the Lord declares that He killed the first-born, who, we read, were slain by "the destroyer" Exodus 12:23. The "breaches" denote probably the larger, "the cleft" the smaller ruin. The greater pile was the more greatly destroyed.

He will smote the great house with breaches - The great and small shall equally suffer; no distinction shall be made; rich and poor shall fall together; death has received his commission, and he will spare none. Horace has a sentiment precisely like this, Carm. Lib. i., Od. iv., 5:13.

Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum

Tabernas, Regumque Turres.

With equal pace impartial fate

Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate.

But this may refer particularly to the houses of the poor in Eastern countries; their mud walls being frequently full of clefts; the earth of which they are built seldom adhering together because of its sandiness.

For, behold, the Lord commandeth,.... Hath determined and ordered the judgment before, and what follows: Kimchi paraphrases it, hath decreed the earthquake, as in Amos 3:15; of which he understands the following:

and he will smite the great house with breaches; or "droppings" (h); so that the rain shall drop through:

and the little house with clefts; so that it shall fall to ruin; that is, he shall smite the houses both of great and small, of the princes, and of the common people, either with an earthquake, so that they shall part asunder and fall; or, being left without inhabitants, shall of course become desolate, there being none to repair their breaches. Some understand, by the "great house", the ten tribes of Israel; and, by the "little house", the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; to which sense the Targum seems to incline,

"he will smite the great kingdom with a mighty stroke, and the little kingdom with a weak stroke.''

(h) "guttis, seu stillis", Piscator; "quae est minuta et rorans pluvia", Drusius.

For, behold, the LORD commandeth, and he will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts.

6:11 For behold - It seems to be the continued speech of him who took care of the dead, ver.10, God hath sent out war, famine, and pestilence. The great house - The palaces of great men shall have great breaches made in them, and the cottages of poor men shall, by lesser strokes, be ruined.

breaches: or, droppings

11. commandeth, and he will smite-His word of command, when once given, cannot but be fulfilled (Isa 55:11). His mere word is enough to smite with destruction.

great house . little house-He will spare none, great or small (Am 3:15). Jerome interprets "the great house" as Israel, and "the small house" as Judah: the former being reduced to branches or ruins, literally, "small drops"; the latter, though injured with "clefts" or rents, which threaten its fall, yet still permitted to stand.

6:8-14 How dreadful, how miserable, is the case of those whose eternal ruin the Lord himself has sworn; for he can execute his purpose, and none can alter it! Those hearts are wretchedly hardened that will not be brought to mention God's name, and to worship him, when the hand of God is gone out against them, when sickness and death are in their families. Those that will not be tilled as fields, shall be abandoned as rocks. When our services of God are soured with sin, his providences will justly be made bitter to us. Men should take warning not to harden their hearts, for those who walk in pride, God will destroy.