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Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty [is] a fading flower, which [are] on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!

Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim. — Drunkenness is a sin, at the heel whereof hangeth many a woe. Some think it is a dry drunkenness that is here threatened - that there is a dry drunkenness as well as a wet; see Isaiah 51:21 2 Timothy 2:26 , ινα ανανηψωσι , that they may awake out of their drunken sleep - a drunkenness with prosperity, which made them proud and dissolute, even the king of Israel and his counsellors also, not considering that in maxima libertate minima est licentia; " it is not for kings to drink wine." Proverbs 31:4

Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower. — Or, And to the fading flower of his goodly gallantry. Some conceive that the prophet here alludeth to the etymology of the word Ephraim, whereof see Genesis 41:42 , but Ephraim was now declining and decaying.

That are overcome with wine. — Heb., Smitten, beaten, overmastered, as Sisera was by Jael’s hammer, which hath its name from the word here used. Judges 4:22 Tremellius rendereth it, obtusis vino, to those that are blunted with wine, or beaten about the ears with it. Kραιπαλη , Crapula, παρα το παλλειν το καρα .

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Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, [which] as a tempest of hail [and] a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.

Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and a strong one, — viz., Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. For whereas Ephraim might say, Who is there that can or dare pull off the flower of our goodly gallantry? God answereth that he hath at hand one that can do it, and do it with a turn of a hand, with little ado.

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The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:

The crown The Romans pictured pride with a triple crown. On the first crown was written Transcendo; I excel, on the next, Non obedio; I do not submit, on the third, Perturbo I throw into confusion. of pride … shall be trodden under foot. — This noteth utmost ignominy. Finge ideam animo, saith one here; imagine you saw Shalmaneser pulling the crown from the king of Israel’s head, throwing it to the ground, and then trampling on it. What brave rhetoric is here!

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And the glorious beauty, which [is] on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, [and] as the hasty fruit before the summer; which [when] he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.

As the hasty fruit. — Quasi primae et praematurae ficus, early maturing fruits much coveted and caught at.

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In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,

For a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty. — So he was to Judah - called here the "residue of his people" - during Hezekiah’s days; a crown unfading, or a garland made of amaranth, as 1 Peter 1:4 which is, saith Clement, a certain flower that being hung up in the house, yet is still fresh and green. And as God is thus to his people, so, interchangeably, are they to him "a crown of glory," Isaiah 62:3 and "a royal diadem," ( ib. ); his "throne of glory"; Jeremiah 4:21 "The beauty of his ornament." Ezekiel 7:20

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And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.

And for a spirit of judgment. — A sagacity more than ordinary, in regard whereof Solomon calleth the king’s doom a divination, Proverbs 16:10 as is well observed.

And for strength to them, … — In this verse we have the description of a happy state, governed justly at home, and able abroad to resist any endeavour of the enemy. Diod.

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But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble [in] judgment.

But they also have erred through wine. — Judah had caught this disease of Ephraim, as the English are said to have done of the drunken Dutchmen. Sin is more contagious and catching than the plague. The Hebrew word importeth an alienation of mind. Proverbs 20:1 Hosea 11:2-3 ; Hosea 11:12 Jeremiah 23:9 Vino sapientia obscuratur, Wisdom is voided by wine, said Alphonsus, King of Arragon.

They are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink. — Errarunt propter Shecar: they are bucked in beer; they are drowned in drink, like as George, Duke of Clarence, was drowned in a butt of malmsey A strong sweet wine, originally the product of the neighbourhood of Monemvasia (Napoli di Malvasia) in the Morea; but now obtained from Spain, the Azores, and the islands of Madeira and the Canaries, as well as from Greece. by his own election. Nam sicut athletico potore dignum erat, ut potando moreretur, elegit, saith mine author; for, being condemned to die by his brother King Edward IV, he chose that kind of death, as becoming to a stout drunkard.

They err in vision. — The prophets do.

They stumble in judgment. — The priests do, for they were to interpret the law, and to decide differences. Drunkenness in rulers is a capital sin, and maketh the land reel.

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For all tables are full of vomit [and] filthiness, [so that there is] no place [clean].

For all places are full of vomit and filthiness. — Vah, vah, vah: cum tu Narbone mensas hospitam convomeres, saith Cicero to Antony, who was not ashamed likewise to write, or rather to spew out a book concerning his own great strength to bear strong drink, and to lay up others who strove with him for the mastery. Cicero taxeth Julius Caesar for this foul custom; so doth Philo Caligula, and Suetonius Vitellius. Veniunt ut edant, edunt ut vomant. They came to drink, the drink to vomit. - Senec.

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