Commentary of Charles Spurgeon, Adam Clarke & Matthew Henry
And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they
commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of
evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of
them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets
that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of
their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall
have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the
imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?
Vs.13-18
That they taught people to sin by their
examples.
He compares them with the prophets of Samaria, the head city of the
kingdom of the ten tribes, which had been long since laid waste. It was the
folly of the prophets of Samaria that they prophesied in Baal, in Baal's
name; so Ahab's prophets did, and so they caused my people Israel to err,
to forsake the service of the true God and to worship Baal.
Now the
prophets of Jerusalem did not do so; they prophesied in the name of the true
God, and valued themselves upon that, that they were not like the prophets of
Samaria, who prophesied in Baal; but what the better, when they debauched the
nation as much by their immoralities as the other had done by their idolatries?
It is a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem that they make use of the
name of the holy God, and yet wallow in all manner of impurity; they make
nothing of committing adultery. They make use of the name of the God of truth,
and yet walk in lies; they not only prophesy lies, but in their common
conversation one cannot believe a word they say. It is all either jest and
banter or fraud and design. Thus they encourage sinners to go on in their wicked
ways;
They are all of them unto me as Sodom — Incorrigible, brutish sinners, who will as surely be destroyed as Sodom and Gomorrah were....They made
themselves believe that there was no harm, no danger in sin, and practiced
accordingly; and then no marvel that they made others believe so too.....They
speak a vision of their own heart; it is the product of their own invention,
and agrees with their own inclination, but it is not out of the mouth of the
Lord;
Woe,
and a thousand woes, to them; but they still said, You shall have peace; no
evil shall come upon you. And, which was worst of all, they told them, God
has said so, so making him to patronize sin, and to contradict himself.