1 And I said, Heare, I pray you, O heads of Iacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know iudgement?
2 Who hate the good and loue the euill, who plucke off their skinne from off them, and their flesh from off their bones.
3 Who also eate the flesh of my people, and flay their skinne from off them, and they breake their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the cauldron.
4 Then shall they cry vnto the Lord, but he will not heare them: he will euen hide his face from them at that time, as they haue behaued themselues ill in their doings.
5 ¶ Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets that make my people erre, that bite with their teeth and crie; Peace: and he that putteth not into their mouths, they euen prepare warre against him:
6 Therefore night shall be vnto you, that yee shall not haue a vision, and it shall be darke vnto you, that yee shall not diuine, and the Sunne shall goe downe ouer the Prophets, and the day shall be darke ouer them.
7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diuiners confounded: yea, they shall all couer their lips; for there is no answere of God.
8 ¶ But truely I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of iudgment and of might, to declare vnto Iacob his transgression, and to Israel his sinne.
9 Heare this, I pray you, yee heads of the house of Iacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhorre iudgement and peruert all equitie.
10 They build vp Zion with blood, and Ierusalem with iniquitie.
11 The heads thereof iudge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hyre, and the Prophets thereof diuine for money: yet will they leane vpon the Lord, and say; Is not the Lord among vs? none euill can come vpon vs.
12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Ierusalem shal become heapes, and the mountaine of the house, as the high places of the forrest.
The cruelty of the princes, and the falsehood of the prophets. (1-8) Their false security. (9-12)1-8 Men cannot expect to do ill, and fare well; but to find that done to them which they did to others. How seldom do wholesome truths reach the ears of those in high stations or in authority! Those who deceive others are preparing confusion for their own faces. The prophet had ardent love to God and to the souls of men; deep concern for his glory and their salvation, and zeal against sin. The difficulties he met with did not drive him from his work. He had this strength; not from and of himself, but he was full of power by the Spirit of the Lord. Those who act honestly, may act boldly. And those who come to hear the word of God, must be willing to be told of their faults, must take it kindly, and be thankful.
9-12 Zion's walls owe no thanks to those that build them up with blood and iniquity. The sin of man works not the righteousness of God. Even when men do that which in itself is good, but do it for filthy lucre, it becomes abomination both to God and man. Faith rests in the Lord as the soul's foundation: presumption only leans upon the Lord as a prop, and would use him to serve a turn. If men's having the Lord among them will not keep them from doing evil, it never can secure them from suffering evil for so doing. See the doom of wicked Jacob; Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field. This was exactly fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and is so at this day. If sacred places are polluted by sin, they will be wasted and ruined by the judgments of God.
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.