3:1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye
princes of the house of Israel; [Is it] not for you to know
a judgment?
(a) That thing which is just and lawful, both to govern my
people properly, and also to clear your own conscience.
3:2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; b who pluck off
their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their
bones;
(b) The Prophet condemns the wicked governors not only of
covetousness, theft, and murder, but compares them to
wolves, lions, and most cruel beasts.
3:4 Then c shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear
them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as
they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.
(c) That is, when I will punish their wickedness: for though
I hear the godly before they cry (Isa 65:24), yet I
will not hear these even though they cry; (Isa 1:15)
(Eze 8:18 Jas 2:13 1Pe 3:11-12).
3:5 Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my
people err, that d bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace;
and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare
war against him.
(d) They devour all their substance, and then flatter them,
promising that all will go well. But if someone does
not feed them, then they invent all ways to do evil.
3:6 Therefore e night [shall be] unto you, that ye shall not
have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall
not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and
the day shall be dark over them.
(e) As you have loved to walk in darkness, and to prophesy
lies, so God will reward you with gross blindness and
ignorance, so that when all others will see the bright
beams of God's grace, you will as blind men grope as in
the night.
3:7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners
confounded: yea, they shall all cover f their lips; for
[there is] no answer of God.
(f) When God will reveal them to the world, they will be
afraid to speak: for all will know that they were but
false prophets, and did give a false notion of the word
of God.
3:8 But truly I am full g of power by the spirit of the LORD,
and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his
transgression, and to Israel his sin.
(g) The Prophet being assured of his vocation by the Spirit
of God, sets himself alone against all the wicked,
showing how God gave him gifts, ability and knowledge,
to discern between good and evil, and also steadfastness
and endurance to reprove the sins of the people, and not
to flatter them.
3:10 They build up Zion with h blood, and Jerusalem with
iniquity.
(h) They will say that they are the people of God, and
abuse his name, as a pretence to disguise their
hypocrisy.
3:12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be k plowed [as] a
field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain
of the house as the high places of the forest.
