For the iniquity of his covetousness - The guilt of his avarice; that is, of the Jewish people. The word rendered here ‘covetousness’ (בצע betsa‛) means “plunder, rapine, prey”; then unjust gains, or lucre from bribes 1 Samuel 7:3; Isaiah 33:15; or by any other means. Here the sense is, that one of the prevailing sins of the Jewish people which drew upon them the divine vengeance, was avarice, or the love of gain. Probably this was especially manifest in the readiness with which those who dispensed justice received bribes (compare Isaiah 2:7). See also Jeremiah 6:13 : ‘For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness.’
And smote him - That is, I brought heavy judgments on the Jewish people.
I hid me - I withdrew the evidences of my presence and the tokens of my favor, and left them to themselves.
And he went on frowardly - Margin, ‘Turning away.’ That is, abandoned by me, the Jewish people declined from my service and sunk deeper into sin. The idea here is, that if God withdraws from his people, such is their tendency to depravity, that they will wander away from him, and sink deeper in guilt a truth which is manifest in the experience of individuals, as well as of communities and churches.