Job xxvi. 6.DESTRUCTION. By this word is generally meant an unhappy death sent by Deut. xxxii. 35. Job xxi. 30.God for the punishment of Sin. The day of destruction is at hand. And Job, The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction, they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. God preserves the wicked only to destroy them, and display his vengeance against them. Destruction is likewise taken for Hell, for the place where the wicked in eternal torments expiate their past sins. Thus Job says, That hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. And again, Destruction and death say, we have heard the fame thereof with our ears. We know Wisdom by fame and reputation only. Prov. xv. 11.And the wise Man, Hell, or the grave, and destruction are before the Lord: he knows them, he sees them plainly, how much more then the hearts of the children of men.
Wisd. v. 7.The wicked in the Book of Wisdom confess that they have wearied themselves in the way of wickedness and destruction. In Ecclesiasticus it is said, That a thief is better than a man that is accustomed to lye: but they both shall have destruction to heritage;Hosea xiii. 9. an unhappy death. Hosea threatens the Israelites with the utmost misfortunes; God will fall upon them like a mad bear, and as a roaring lion. He concludes, O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self, but in me is thy help. Thy misery, thy destruction proceeds only from thy self, it is thine own proper act; and thou hast no succour to hope for but from me: in vain wilt thou seek for it elsewhere.
John xvii. 12.In the Gospel, Judas is called the son of perdition, as is Antichrist in like manner by 2 Thess. ii. 3. Matth. vii. 13.St. Paul. St. Peter says to Simon the Magician, Thy money perish with thee. And our Saviour in St. Matthew; Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. The Latin word perditio is most frequently taken for merely loss or waste; for example, Ut quid perditio ista unguenti facta est, Mark xiv. 4.