GOD first warns, and then smites, he delights not to surprise men; when indignation was coming, he tells his people of it in the text, and admonishes them to hide themselves. "Surely the Lord will do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets to his servants the prophets," Amos 3:7. Thus when the flood was to come upon the old world, he gave them 120 years warning of it, Gen. 6:3. compared with 1 Pet. 3:19. So when Sodom was to be destroyed, God would not hide it from Abraham; Gen. 18:17. "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do?"