Jeremiah 23:10

Under that term adulterers all species of uncleanness are comprehended. Because of swearing the land mourneth; by false swearing, or by idle and profane swearing, the land is brought to ruin. The word signifies also a curse or cursing. Many good interpreters judge that the more genuine sense and true translation of this text were, for because of the curse (that is, the curse of God) the land is brought to that misery which is coming upon it. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up; the pastures of the wilderness, or of the plain, for so the word is rendered, Isaiah 63:13 Lamentations 4:19. The wrath of God was extended to all places, whether more or less inhabited. Their course is evil, and their force is not right; the prophets did not only err in single acts, but the whole course of their actions was naught, and particularly their power, rule, and government was not right. If any say, What were the prophets concerned in the people's wickedness? Answ. They were profane as well as the people, as we shall find, Jeremiah 23:11; but besides this, the people were thus vile through their connivance; they did not warn the people of their sins, but soothed them up in their wicked courses, and so were the cause of the people's wickedness, who had not been so vile but for them.