Mat 16:2-3 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 2. When it is evening ] There are certain signs of fair and foul weather, which ye are in the constant habit of observing, and which do not fail.- The signs of the times : the doctrine which I preach, and the miracles which I work among you, are as sure signs that the day-spring from on high has visited you for your salvation; but if ye refute to hear, and continue in darkness, the red and gloomy cloud of vindictive justice shall pour out such a storm of wrath upon you as shalt sweep you from the face of the earth.

‏ Matthew 16:2-3

Verse 2. When it is evening] There are certain signs of fair and foul weather, which ye are in the constant habit of observing, and which do not fail.-The signs of the times: the doctrine which I preach, and the miracles which I work among you, are as sure signs that the day-spring from on high has visited you for your salvation; but if ye refute to hear, and continue in darkness, the red and gloomy cloud of vindictive justice shall pour out such a storm of wrath upon you as shalt sweep you from the face of the earth.

Verse 3. The sky is red and lowering.] The signs of fair and foul weather were observed in a similar manner among the Romans, and indeed among most other people. Many treatises have been written on the subject: thus a poet:-

Caeruleus pluviam denunciant, IGNEUS euros.

Sin MACULAE incipient RUTILO immiscerier IGNI,

Omnia tunc pariter VENTO NIMBISQUE videbis

Fervere VIRG. Geor. i. l. 453.

"If fiery red his glowing globe descends, High winds and furious tempests he portends:

But if his cheeks are swoll'n with livid blue,

He bodes wet weather, by his watery hue

If dusky spots are varied on his brow,

And streak'd with red a troubled colour show,

That sullen mixture shall at once declare,

Wind, rain, and storms, and elemental war."

Dryden.