Zephaniah 1:13

Zep 1:13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.

Ver. 13. Therefore their goads shall become a booty ] Their illgotten goods, Zephaniah 1:9 ; Zephaniah 1:11 (for a proof of my providence which they blushed not to deny), shall be carried away by the Chaldees, to their unmedicinable sorrow and heartbreak, Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 .

And their houses a desolation ] Because built in blood. See Nahum 2:11-12 .

They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them, &c. ] Ex lege mutuatur minas. That they might the more regard his words, the prophet makes use of the menaces of the law, Deuteronomy 28:30 ; Deuteronomy 28:39 , whereof the prophets were interpreters; applying, as here, the general doctrine thereof to the people of their times. To rebuke or exhort men in good words, in God’s own words, is the readiest way to prevail with them; unless they be Lucifugae scripturarum (as Tertullian saith of the Marcionites and Valentinians), which yet will take hold of them howsoever, Zechariah 1:6 .