Ver. 1. Woe to her that is filthy and polluted] Meaning Jerusalem, once a faithful city, now an harlot, Isaiah 1:21, faedissimum prostibulum, of the kind of those sordid men who are called Borboritae, of their miry filthiness, whom Epiphanius and Oecumenius speak of. The word (יאר) here rendered filthy comes from a word that signifieth dung, or that signifieth an example (παραδειγμα); and so it is a metaphor taken from light women that are carted in a disgraceful way and made a public example, an infamous instance. It is rendered also gluttonous, or all craw, as Leviticus 1:16. “ Ingluvies et tempestas, barathrumque macelli. ” To the oppressing city!] Praedatrici, that maketh a prey of others (either by force or fraud), as the silly dove is made a prey to the hawk and other ravenous birds.
Ver. 2. She obeyed not the voice] sc. Of her teachers, nor inclined her ear to them that instructed her, as Proverbs 5:13. Hence she was so filthy and oppressive; who, if she had hearkened to wholesome counsel, and hidden the word of God’s grace in her heart, would have purified herself even as he is pure, 1 John 3:3, and not have exacted money and grain, but have left off that usury, Nehemiah 5:10. She received not correction] Or discipline, as being incurable or incorrigible, pining away in her iniquity, Leviticus 26:39, and not accepting the chastisement of her sin. She trusted not in the Lord] But knocked at the creature’s door for help in her distress, and made flesh her arm, her heart departed from the Lord, Jeremiah 17:5. This God taketh very ill, Jeremiah 2:12,13, as he hath very great reason; confidence being the least and yet the best we can render to him for all his benefits. She drew not near to her God] Though he were her God, yet she went as far from him as she could; and, like a wild beast, would not be tamed nor managed by him. Now, if these be undoubted arguments of a filthy and polluted state, as surely they are, what shall we think of ourselves, who are as deeply guilty as ever Jerusalem was in the promises? what shall the Lord do, or what shall he not do, rather, to a nation so incorrigibly flagitious, so obliged, so warned, so shamelessly, so lawlessly wicked?
Ver. 3. Her princes within her are roaring lions] Roaring over the meaner sort, and tearing them with their claws. [See Trapp on “Mic 3:1”] [See Trapp on “Mic 3:2”] [See Trapp on “Mic 3:3”] Her judges are evening wolves] See Habakkuk 1:8. This rapacity and bribery they had learned (likely) under Manassah and Amon; and exercised under good Josiah, who either knew it not, or could not redress it. Est ergo periculi plena reipublicae forma, quae ab uno dependet, saith Gualther here. And Tertullian telleth us, that one special thing the primitive Christians prayed for the emperor was, that God would send him Senatum fidelem, a faithful senate, pious councillors, good subordinates. Of Aurelian’s council it was said, that by them the good emperor, who might know nothing but as they informed him, was even bought and sold. Alphonsus, King of Aragon, said that princes were for this in a worse condition than other people; because they could seldom hear the truth of things. Augustus bitterly bewailed the death of Varus; because now, said he, I have none about me that will deal truly with me. The Grand Signior goes often abroad that he may receive poor men’s petitions, and right them upon the greatest beshaws, who, bewitched by bribery, have denied them justice. And hence it hath been ever observed, that few of his chief officers die in their beds. These evening wolves many times have not a morrow left them to gnaw the bones in.
Ver. 4. Her prophets are light] Rash, headlong, futilous, debauched (as the French translateth it), aerial, fantastic, weightless, worthless men, such as in whose doctrine there is no authority, in whose life no gravity, staidness, severity, constancy (Rodulphus, Archbishop of Canterberry next after Anselm, was surnamed Nugax for his jesting and toying): like the planet Mercury, they can be good in conjunction with good, and bad with bad; like that French apostate of whom Beza saith that he had religionem ephemeram, for every day a new religion, ab his ad illos, ab illis ad hos leviter iens et levius transiens, double-minded and unstable in all his ways, James 1:8. And treacherous persons] Viri perfidiarum, most perfidious persons. This is their true title, whom the world counteth and calleth facile, facetious, fair conditioned, comporting, condescending, people pleasing preachers. Can there be a worse treachery than to betray men’s souls, as your Aiones and Negones do, that cry peace, peace, and so betray men to hell. Her priests have polluted the sanctuary] Or holy services. “ Cum coelum terrae commiscent sacra profanis. ” God looks to be sanctified in all those that draw nigh unto him, Leviticus 10:3, that they should be singularly holy, handling the word, sancte magis quam scite with greater reverence than knowledge, (as one once told the wanton vestal), and living so that malice itself may be silenced. God of old appointed both the weights and measures of the sanctuary to be twice as large as those of the commonwealth; to show that he expects much more of those that serve him there than he doth of others. See 1 Kings 7:15 cf. 2Ch 3:15. They have done violence to the law] sc. By their crafty and perverse glosses, setting it on the rack, as it were, and so making it speak more than it would; tawing it with their teeth, as shoemakers do their upper leather, forcing it two miles when it would go but one, yea, murdering it, as Tertullian saith of some, quod caedem scripturarum faciant, that they slaughter the Scriptures to serve their own purposes; for which cause also he calleth Marcion the heretic, Murem Ponticum, the Rat of Pontus, for his arroding and gnawing the text.