Verse 20. - If ye refuse and rebel; i.e. "if ye neither consent in will, nor obey in act, "antithetical to the two verbs in the first clause of ver. 19. Ye shall be devoured; or, ye shall be eaten. The same verb as in the latter clause of ver. 19. With the sword. The metaphor is not a common one, but occurs in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 2:30; Jeremiah 12:12; Jeremiah 46:10, 14) and Nahum (Nahum 2:13). The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. A weighty ending, indicating the certainty of fulfillment, Jehovah, who cannot lie, has spoken; the result will assuredly follow.

1:16-20 Not only feel sorrow for the sin committed, but break off the practice. We must be doing, not stand idle. We must be doing the good the Lord our God requires. It is plain that the sacrifices of the law could not atone, even for outward national crimes. But, blessed be God, there is a Fountain opened, in which sinners of every age and rank may be cleansed. Though our sins have been as scarlet and crimson, a deep dye, a double dye, first in the wool of original corruption, and afterwards in the many threads of actual transgression; though we have often dipped into sin, by many backslidings; yet pardoning mercy will take out the stain, Ps 51:7. They should have all the happiness and comfort they could desire. Life and death, good and evil, are set before us. O Lord, incline all of us to live to thy glory.But if ye refuse and rebel,.... The Targum is, "and do not receive my Word"; the Messiah, when come, neither his person, nor his doctrines and ordinances:

ye shall be devoured with the sword; of the Roman armies, as they were under Titus Vespasian; see Matthew 22:7.

for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it; now, by Isaiah, as well as in former times, Leviticus 26:25.