Verse 18. — 'They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scatters.' 56. Like chaff, they are carried off to the fire by the blast of the divine wrath. — When the wicked man is beheld in power, when he is greatly unbridled in oppressions and violences, he is esteemed by the thoughts of the weak to be exceedingly weighty, and, as it were, rooted in this world. But when the sentence of the strict Judge shall have come, all the wicked shall be as chaff before the wind: because, so to speak, by the blast of wrath they are suddenly lifted up and carried off to the fire — they whom here in their former prejudgments, as it were an overlying mass of hard weight, the tears of the needy could not move.
And light to the snatching hands of judgment are those who through injustice were heavy to their neighbors. 'And as ashes which the whirlwind scatters.' Before the eyes of almighty God the life of the wicked is ash: because, even if it appears green for a moment, yet by His judgment it is already discerned as consumed; because it is destined for eternal consumption. This ash the whirlwind scatters: because 'God shall come manifestly; our God, and shall not keep silence. A fire shall burn before Him, and a mighty tempest round about Him' (Psalm 49:3). For by the whirlwind of this tempest the wicked are snatched from the sight of the eternal Judge; and those who here had made their mind solid with perverse desire, there shall be seen as chaff and ash: