Isaiah 3:11
Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him,.... In time, and to eternity, in times of public calamity, and under all afflictions, and adverse dispensations of Providence; he has no God to go to; all that befalls him is in wrath; at death he is driven away in his wickedness; at judgment he will be bid to depart as cursed, and his portion will be in the lake of fire, with devils and damned spirits for ever. Some {l} render it, "woe to the wicked, evil"; or who is evil, who is exceedingly bad, a very great sinner, the chief of sinners, such as the Sodomites were, sinners before the Lord exceedingly,
Genesis 13:13 to whom these men are compared, Isaiah 3:9. So the Targum,
"woe to the ungodly, whose works are evil:''
the Jews, as they distinguish between a good man and a righteous man, so between a wicked man and an evil man; there are, say they {m}, a righteous good man, and a righteous man that is not good; but he that is good to God, and good to men, he is a righteous good man; he that is good to God, and not good to men, he is a righteous man, that is not good; and there are a wicked evil man, and a wicked man that is not evil; he that is evil to God, and evil to men, he is a wicked evil man; he that is evil to God, and not evil to men, he is a wicked man that is not evil. See Romans 5:7
for the reward of his hands shall be given him; in righteous judgment, in strict justice, as a just recompense of reward; nor shall he have reason to complain of unrighteousness in God.
{l} er evrl ywa "vae impio malo", Munster, Vatablus; so Ben Melech.
{m} T. Bab. Kiddushin, fol. 40. 1.