33 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, because ye are all become dross,.... King, princes, nobles, prophets, priests, as well as the common people; the apostasy was general, in city and country; scarcely any exceptions to be made: therefore will I gather you into the midst of Jerusalem; from the several parts of the country, thinking they should be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace,.... As refiners of metal do; though not together, as here, but each metal apart. Silver is here mentioned, to denote that those who were truly good should suffer in this calamity, and be tried and purified by it: to blow the fire upon it, and to melt it;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath,.... Not only gather them in wrath, as before; but blow upon them in wrath, which is often compared to fire in Scripture; and besides, the city and temple of Jerusalem were to be burnt, and were burnt with material fire, in consequence of God's displeasure against his people: and ye...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
As silver is melted in the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof,.... This is repeated for the greater confirmation of it; and the people might assure themselves that it would verily be, as was threatened: and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you; feel it upon them; be sensible of it, and acknowledge it; and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the word of the Lord came unto me,.... The word of prophecy from the Lord, as the Targum: saying; as follows:
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Son of man, say unto her, thou land,.... Thou land of Israel, as the Targum: thou art not cleansed; from filthiness, by the fire of divine judgments; or reformed from sins, by the instructions, cautions, and exhortations of the prophets; none of these things had any effect upon her to make her wiser and better. So the Targum, "a land not cleansed...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof,.... Not of the prophets of the Lord, but of her prophets; such as were agreeable to her, the false prophets. The Targum renders it, "a company of scribes;'' the interpreters of the law; these entered into a confederacy together against the true prophets, and agreed to prophesy the same...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Her priests have violated my law,.... Or, "forced it" (i); they gave a wrong explanation of it, made it speak what it should not; they wrested the sense and meaning of it, and did and taught things contrary to it; they broke it themselves, who should have instructed others in it, and exhorted them to have kept it, and encouraged them by their own...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey,.... The king and his nobles, those of the first rank and quality, who ought to have protected the persons and property of the meaner sort; these were like "wolves" themselves, subtle, voracious, and cruel, preying upon harmless persons, as those creatures do upon the sheep and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar,.... Palliated their sins, declared it to be right to shed the blood they did; and seize on the estates of men; but this, though it might for a while satisfy the consciences of these princes, and stop the clamours of the people against them; yet would not last long, but be like the building...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
The people of the land have used oppression,.... The common people, the more powerful among them, such as were in greatest authority in cities and towns, in neighbourhoods and families, the richest among them; these oppressed the poor, and those that were under them, the servants of them, and tenants to them, and who were not able to defend...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I sought for a man among them,.... among the princes, priests, prophets, and people of the land, who acted the part as above described; for otherwise, no doubt, there were good people in the land, as Jeremiah, Baruch, and others, but not among these: that should make up the hedge; that was broken down by the transgressions of the people, who...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them,.... Like a mighty torrent, carrying all before it: I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; by the sword, famine, pestilence, and captivity: their own way have I recompensed on their heads, saith the Lord; brought just punishment upon them, such as their ways and works deserved; "the...