Here, 1. The obstinacy of many wicked people in a wicked way is to be
greatly lamented. They are often reproved by parents and friends, by
magistrates and ministers, by the providence of God and by their own
consciences, have had their sins set in order before them and fair
warning given them of the consequences of them, but all in vain; they
harden their necks. Perhaps they fling away, and will not so much as
give the reproof a patient hearing; or, if they do, yet they go on in
the sins for which they are reproved; they will not bow their necks to
the yoke, but are children of Belial; they refuse reproof (ch. x. 17),
despise it (ch. v. 12), hate it, ch. xii. 1. 2. The issue of this
obstinacy is to be greatly dreaded: Those that go on in sin, in spite
of admonition, shall be destroyed; those that will not be reformed must
expect to be ruined; if the rods answer not the end, expect the axes.
They shall be suddenly destroyed, in the midst of their security, and
without remedy; they have sinned against the preventing remedy, and
therefore let them not expect any recovering remedy. Hell is remediless
destruction. They shall be destroyed, and no healing, so the word is.
If God wounds, who can heal?