Isaiah 30:12-14

Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel— The consequence of the fault is here exhibited by the prophet in two sentences; the former in these verses, the latter in Isaiah 30:15. The prophet in this place declares, that their punishment shall be the entire destruction of their state, set forth under two chosen and apt figures; to which the prophet premises an introduction, thereby to conciliate authority to his words, in the name of that God whom the degenerate Israelites despised, and at the same time to set forth the principal crimes which had drawn down this punishment, Isaiah 30:12. The first metaphor (Isaiah 30:13.) is taken from a breach or a bulging in the lower part of a wall, which every moment threatens to burst forth, and consequently bring down the whole wall with it: the second, from the utter breaking of a potter's vessel: and the meaning of each figure is, that the state of both nations, Ephraimites and Jews, should be totally and entirely dissolved. The event fully proves the truth of the prediction. See Isaiah 3; Isaiah 4; Isaiah 9. &c. Ezekiel 5 and Jeremiah 44:11. Perhaps the 13th and 14th verses might be rendered better thus, Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a falling breach, a bulging in a high wall, whose breaking down cometh suddenly,—in an instant: Isaiah 30:14 and its breaking down shall be as the breaking of a potter's vessel, which is so broken that nothing is spared; that in its breaking there is not found a sherd. See Vitringa.