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And the destruction - Hebrew שׁבר sheber - the breaking, or crushing, that is, the punishment which was about to come upon them; compare Lamentations 2:11; Lamentations 3:47; Proverbs 16:18.
Of the transgressors - “Revolters,” or those that rebel against God.
And of the sinners - Of all the sinners in the nation, of all kinds and degrees.
Together - At the same time with the redemption of Zion.
Shall be consumed - יכלוּ yı̂kelû from כלה kâlâh to be completed, or finished; to be consumed, wasted away; to vanish, or disappear. It denotes complete and entire extinction; or the completing of anything. It is applied to a cloud of smoke, that entirely dissolves and disappears:
As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away:
So he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more,
But the wicked shall perish,
And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs;
They shall consume,
Into smoke shall they cosume away.
It is applied to time, as vanishing and disappearing Job 7:6; and to the destruction or perishing of men; Jeremiah 16:4; Ezekiel 5:13. The idea is that of complete and entire consumption and destruction, so that none shall be left. Applied to future punishment, it means that the destruction of sinners shall be total and complete. There shall be no sinner who shall not be destroyed; and there shall be none destroyed whose destruction shall not be entire and total. The expression here refers to the heavy calamities which were about to come upon the guilty nation, but it is as descriptive of the future punishment that shall come upon the wicked.
The liquor dealer will not hesitate to collect the debts of the drunkard from his suffering family, and will take the very necessaries from the home to pay the drink bill of the deceased husband and father. What is it to him if the children of the dead starve? He looks upon them as debased and ignorant creatures, who have been abused, kicked about, and degraded; and he has no care for their welfare. But the God that rules in the heavens has not lost sight of the first cause or the last effect of the inexpressible misery and debasement that have come upon the drunkard and his family. The ledger of heaven contains every item of the history.—The Review and Herald, May 15, 1894. Te 33.1
The Drinker Responsible for His Guilt—Let not the man who indulges in drink think that he will be able to cover his defilement by casting the blame upon the liquor dealer; for he will have to answer for his sin and for the degradation of his wife and children. “They that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.”—The Review and Herald, May 8, 1894. Te 33.2
In the Shadow of Liquor—Day by day, month by month, year by year, the work goes on. Fathers and husbands and brothers, the stay and hope and pride of the nation, are steadily passing into the liquor dealer's haunts, to be sent back wrecked and ruined. Te 33.3
More terrible still, the curse is striking the very heart of the home. More and more, women are forming the liquor habit. In many a household, little children, even in the innocence and helplessness of babyhood, are in daily peril through the neglect, the abuse, the vileness of drunken mothers. Sons and daughters are growing up under the shadow of this terrible evil. What outlook for their future but that they will sink even lower than their parents?—The Ministry of Healing, 339. Te 33.4
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