(22) Are thy skirts discovered.--The "skirts," or flowing train, worn by women of rank, the removal of which was the sign of extremest degradation (Isaiah 20:4; Isaiah 47:2; Ezekiel 23:29; Hosea 2:3; Nahum 3:5).

Thy heels made bare.--Better, outraged, or disgraced, made to walk barefoot, like menial slaves; possibly, like the outcast harlot. Compare Isaiah's walking "naked and barefoot" as the symbol of the coming degradation of his people (Isaiah 20:2-4).

Verse 22. - Thy heels made bare; rather, treated with violence. The fate held out to the daughter of Zion (trained to walk about with "tinkling ornaments," Isaiah 3:18) is to plod wearily along with bare feet (comp. Isaiah 47:1).

13:18-27 Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get clear of it by any power of our own. But Almighty grace is able to change the Ethiopian's skin. Neither natural depravity, nor strong habits of sin, form an obstacle to the working of God, the new-creating Spirit. The Lord asks of Jerusalem, whether she is determined not be made clean. If any poor slave of sin feels that he could as soon change his nature as master his headstrong lusts, let him not despair; for things impossible to men are possible with God. Let us then seek help from Him who is mighty to save.And if thou say in thine heart,.... Not daring to express it with the mouth; and which, notwithstanding, God, that knows the heart, was privy to, and could discern all the secret workings of it; putting such a question as this:

wherefore come these things upon me? all these calamities, the invasion and siege of the enemy, famine, sword, captivity, &c.: the answer returned is,

for the greatness of thine iniquity; the enormous crimes the Jews were guilty of, such as idolatry, blasphemy, &c. which were attended with aggravated circumstances: or, "for the multitude of thine iniquity" (h); their sins being so many, as well as great:

are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare; being obliged to walk naked and barefoot, their buttocks uncovered, and their legs and feet naked, without stockings or shoes, as captives used to be led, to their great shame and disgrace; see Isaiah 20:2. The phrases are expressive of captivity, and the manner of it; the cause of which was the greatness and multitude of their sins. The Targum is,

"because thy sins are multiplied, thy confusion is revealed, thy shame is seen.''

(h) "propter multitudinem iniquitatis tuae", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Schmidt.