Israel’s extremity may be to them, if they will, God’s opportunity (see Isa. 49:14-16; Heb. 13:5). The verse is at once a tragic end and a comforting beginning, an assurance that while Israel’s ruin was caused by their own course of action, there is open still to them an opportunity to return to the Lord. While throughout the whole course of human history wrath and ruin are the just desert of sinful man, goodness and mercy are the dispensation of a righteous, loving God.

 Israel destroyed themselves with the weapons of pride, idolatry, sensuality, and anarchy. Sin is ever suicidal (Prov. 8:36; Eze. 18:20; 33:10, 11; 5T 120).