16. Like doves. Some few would escape and find refuge in the mountains, but their condition would be one of extreme hardship.
Mourning. hamah, a word used of the growl of bears (Isa. 59:11), the barking of dogs (Ps. 59:6, 14), the tumult of nations (Ps. 46:6). When sin brings forth its bitter results there are often poignant regrets. Unfortunately these regrets are over the hard consequences of sin rather than over the fact that sin has dishonored God. Men long for the removal of the consequences rather than for deliverance from sin’s guilt and power, but the latter must precede the former.
In the second part of the verse the reads, “I will put all of them to death, each one in his iniquities.” The Syriac reads, “all of them will die,” as though the Hebrew manuscript from which the translation was made read muth instead of hamah.