And I will cast abominable filth upon thee - Alb.: "like a weight, that what thou wouldest not take heed to as sin, thou mayest feel in punishment." "Abominable things had God seen" Jeremiah 13:27 in her doings; with abominable things would he punish her. Man would fain sin, and forget it as a thing past. "God maketh him to possess the iniquities of his youth" Job 13:26, and binds them around him, so that they make him to appear what they are, "vile" (compare Wisd. 4:18), "These things hast thou done and I kept silence; - I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes. And will set thee as a gazing-stock" Psalm 50:21, that all, while they gaze at thee, take warning from thee (compare 2 Chronicles 7:20). "I will cast thee to the ground; before kings will I give thee, for them to gaze upon thee" Ezekiel 28:17. : "Whoever does not amend on occasion of others, others shall be amended on occasion of him."

I will cast abominable filth upon thee - I will set thee as a gazing-stock. This was a punishment precisely like our pillory. They put such women in the pillory as a gazing-stock; and then, children and others threw mud, dirt, and filth of all kinds at them.

And I will cast abominable filth upon thee,.... As dirt and dung, or any or everything that is abominable and filthy; and which is thrown at harlots publicly disgraced, and as used to be at persons when carted. The meaning is, that this city and its inhabitants should be stripped of everything that was great and glorious in them, and should be reduced to the utmost shame and ignominy:

and make thee vile: mean, abject, contemptible, the offscouring of all things; rejected and disesteemed of all; had in no manner of repute or account, but in the utmost abhorrence:

and I will set thee as a gazingstock; to be looked and laughed at: or, "for an example" (e); to others, that they may shun the evils and abominations Nineveh had been guilty of, or expect the same disgrace and punishment. Kimchi interprets it "as dung" (f); to be no more reckoned of than that, or to be made a dunghill of; and so many others interpret it; or, "for a looking glass" (g); that others may look into, and take warning, and avoid the sins that have brought on such calamities.

(e) , Sept.; "in exemplum", Drusius, Tarnovius; "sicut spectacalum", Burkius. (f) "Tanquam stercus", Munster, Montanus, Vatablus, Calvin, Cocceius. (g) "Ut speculum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Quistorpius.

And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.

6. cast abominable filth upon thee-as infamous harlots used to be treated.

gazing stock-exposed to public ignominy as a warning to others (Eze 28:17).

3:1-7 When proud sinners are brought down, others should learn not to lift themselves up. The fall of this great city should be a lesson to private persons, who increase wealth by fraud and oppression. They are preparing enemies for themselves; and if the Lord sees good to punish them in this world, they will have none to pity them. Every man who seeks his own prosperity, safety, and peace, should not only act in an upright, honourable manner, but with kindness to all.