_Wo be unto the pastors_ Or, as הוי is by some rendered, _Alas for the pastors!_ or, _Ho the pastors!_ For it may be a particle of _calling_, as the LXX. and Syriac represent it, and not of commination, as in our translation. The word _pastors_ comprehends both civil and ecclesiastical governors: se... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore thus saith the Lord against the pastors that feed my people_ That undertake the care of my people, though they do not faithfully execute their trust. God calls them _his people, his flock, the sheep of his pasture_, with respect to the ancient covenant which he had made with their fathers... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will raise unto David a righteous branch_ The house of David seemed to be quite sunk and ruined by the threatening pronounced against Jeconiah, (Jeremiah 22:30,) that none of his seed should ever _sit upon the throne of David:_ but here we have a promise which effectually secures the honour of th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord_ Here the prophet proceeds to fore-tel one very important, although remote, consequence of God's raising up the righteous branch to David, namely, the great salvation which should thereby come to the Jews in the latter days of their state, which shou... [ Continue Reading ]
_My heart within me is broken_ This seems to be the beginning of a new discourse against the false prophets, with whom afterward the priests are joined. The first word of it in the Hebrew, לנבאים, is rendered by the Vulgate, _Ad prophetas_, To the prophets, as if it were the title of the following p... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the land is full of adulterers_ Under this term, which properly respects those who violate the marriage-bed, persons offending by any species of uncleanness are comprehended, as also such as by fraud and falsehood circumvented others, and tempted them to join in the commission of those illicit... [ Continue Reading ]
_For both the prophet and the priest are profane_ The priests, by their formality and hypocrisy, profaned the ordinances of God which they were appointed to administer; and the prophets, by their lies, false doctrine, and corrupt practice, profaned the word of God, which they pretended to deliver. _... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have seen_ Rather, _I saw_, namely, formerly, before I cast them out of their own land; _folly_ Hebrew, תפלה, _stupidity, infatuation._ The LXX. render it, ανομηματα, _iniquities_, or unlawful actions, and the Vulgate, _fatuitatem, sottishness; in the prophets of Samaria_ That is, in those that b... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets_ The priests also, and all ecclesiastical guides, are included. _Behold, I will feed them with wormwood_ Will afflict them with most bitter calamities. _For from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth_ Or, _hypocrisy_, which seems r... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thus saith the Lord, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets_ People are under no religious obligation to hear what is contrary to the revealed will of God, or to obey those who enjoin things which that does not require. _They make you vain_ Or rather, _they deceive you_, as the words may be pro... [ Continue Reading ]
_For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord?_ These are either the words of God expressing that none of these pretended prophets knew any thing of his designs, as he had not revealed them unto them, and they could not otherwise know them; or else they are to be understood as the words of these fa... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth with fury_ A severe judgment of God, that shall resemble a whirlwind for the sudden and utter destruction that it shall bring. The same word, סערה, is elsewhere translated _a storm._ It is called a whirlwind _of the Lord_, both to denote the greatness o... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran_ They were always ready to bring you pleasing tidings as from me, though I had given them no commission so to do, or revealed any thing to them. _But if they had stood in my counsel_ Been made acquainted by me with my will and pleasure; _and had caused m... [ Continue Reading ]
_Am I a God at hand and not a God afar off?_ Do these false prophets imagine that I am only a God in some particular places, and that I cannot see or know things done privately, or at a distance from the place where they suppose me to be? Do they think to impose upon me, or vent their own dreams in... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have heard what the prophets say_, &c. I am perfectly acquainted with what these prophets have thought and said, though they think I take no notice of it, and so continue to act the same counterfeit part over again. _Saying, I have dreamed_ I have had a divine vision, or have received information... [ Continue Reading ]
_The prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream_ Or, as some render it, _let him tell it as a dream._ Let him lay no more stress upon it than men do upon their dreams, nor expect any more regard to be paid to it. Or, he that pretends to have a message from God, either by dream, or vision, or voi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, I am against the prophets that steal my words_, &c. “That imitate the true prophets, speaking in my name, as they do, and saying, _Thus saith the Lord_, (see Jeremiah 23:31,) and using their words, but applying them to their own purpose: or, it may be, adding their own inventions to them.”... [ Continue Reading ]
_When this people, or the prophet, &c., shall ask thee_, &c. “The remaining part of this chapter is directed against those who called the word of God, spoken by the true prophets, A BURDEN, by way of reproach; meaning that it always portended evil, and never good;” the word משׁא, a burden, generally... [ Continue Reading ]
_For every man's word shall be his burden_ You shall be made severely to account for your loose and profane speeches, wherewith you deride and pervert the words and messages of God himself. Or, “Every man shall have most reason to regard his own word as hurtful and prejudicial to him. For the words... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you_ The Vulgate renders this clause, _Propterea ecce ego tolam vos portans, Therefore, behold, I will take you away removing you_, (taking the verb נשׁה, _nashah_, in the sense of נשׂא, _nasa_, as words of a like sound are often of a promiscuous significati... [ Continue Reading ]