(11) Great hailstones.--Hail is unusual in Palestine, but its destructive effects were well known. The figure of this prophecy may be compared with the parable of Matthew 7:27.

Verse 11. - In words which would almost seem to have been in our Lord's thoughts in Matthew 7:25, we have the picture of an Eastern storm, torrents of rain passing into hail (LXX., λίθοι πετρόβολοι), accompanied by a tornado of irresistible violence (compare like pictures in Exodus 9:22; Joshua 10:11; Isaiah 30:30; Isaiah 28:2, 17). And when the disaster comes men will turn to those who professed to be master builders and repairers of the breach, with derision, and ask, "Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed?" And then men shall see that through all this it is Jehovah's hand that has been working. It is he who "rends" the wall; he who "brings it down to the ground;" he who "accomplishes his wrath" (vers. 13-15). That shall be the end of the false "visions of peace."

13:10-16 One false prophet built the wall, set up the notion that Jerusalem should be victorious, and made himself acceptable by it. Others made the matter yet more plausible and promising; they daubed the wall which the first had built; but they would, ere long, be undeceived when their work was beaten down by the storm of God's just wrath; when the Chaldean army desolated the land. Hopes of peace and happiness, not warranted by the word of God, will cheat men; like a wall well daubed, but ill built.Say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar,.... The false prophets, that flattered the people with peace, prosperity, and safety:

that it shall fall; the wall they have built and daubed over; the city of Jerusalem shall be taken and destroyed; the predictions of the prophets shall prove lies; and the vain hopes and expectations of the people fail:

there shall be an overflowing shower; that shall wash away the wall with its untempered mortar; meaning the Chaldean army, compared to an overflowing shower of rain, for the multitude of men it, and the force, power, and noise, with which it should come, bearing down all before it; see Isaiah 8:7;

and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; upon the wall, and break it down: or, "ye, O great hailstones, shall cause it to fall" (h); or, "I will give great hailstones, and it shall fall" (i). The word "elgabish", which in some copies is one word, and in others two, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe, is either the same with "gabish", which signifies a precious stone, and is rendered pearl in Job 28:18; or it may be, as it seems to be, an Arabic word; and Hottinger (k) takes it to be "gypsus", or lime, or the "lapis laminosus", or slate; so the Lord threatens to rain down lime or slate upon them from heaven, which should destroy the wall built with untempered mortar:

and a stormy wind shall rend it; this seems to signify the same as the overflowing shower, the Chaldean army, compared to a strong tempestuous wind; see Jeremiah 4:11; as the hailstones, may signify the king of Babylon, with his princes, nobles, and generals.

(h) "et vos, O lapides grandinis, ruere facietis aedificium", Munster. (i) "Et dabo lapides grandinis, qui corruere facient parietem", Pagninus. (k) Smegma Oriental. l. 1. c. 7. p. 119.