Verse 1

Thus saith the LORD, Where [is] the a bill of your mother's divorcement, b whom I have put away? or which of my creditors [is it] c to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

(a) Meaning, that he has not forsaken her, but through her own opportunity as in (Hosea 2:2).

(b) Who would declare that I have cut her off: meaning, that they could show no one.

(c) Signifying, that he sold them not for any debt or poverty, but that they sold themselves to sins to buy their own lusts and pleasures.

Verse 2

d Why, when I came, [was there] no man? when I called, [was there] none to answer? Is my hand e shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish smelleth rotten, because [there is] no water, and dieth for thirst.

(d) He came by his prophets and ministers, but they would not believe their doctrine and convert.

(e) Am I not able to help you, as I have helped your fathers of old, when I dried up the Red sea, and killed the fish in the rivers, and also afterward in Jordan?

Verse 3

I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make f sackcloth their covering.

(f) As I did in Egypt in token of my displeasure, (Exodus 10:21).

Verse 4

The Lord GOD hath given g me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] h weary: he awakeneth morning by morning, he awakeneth my ear to hear i as the learned.

(g) The prophet represents here the person and charge of them that are justly called to the ministry by God's word.

(h) To him that is oppressed by affliction and misery.

(i) As they who are taught, and made meet by him.

Verse 6

I gave my back to the k smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

(k) I did not shrink from God for any persecution or calamity. By which he shows that the true ministers of God can look for no other recompense of the wicked, but after this sort, and also that is their comfort.

Verse 10

l Who [is] among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh [in] darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and rely upon his God.

(l) Showing that it is a rare thing that any should obey correctly God's true ministers, though they labour to bring them from hell to heaven.

Verse 11

Behold, all ye that kindle m a fire, that surround [yourselves] with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks [that] ye have kindled. This shall ye have of my hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.

(m) You have sought consolation by your own devises, and have refused the light and consolation which God has offered: therefore you will remain in sorrow and not be comforted.