Ye are they which justify yourselves before men. — The character described is portrayed afterwards more fully in the parable of Luke 18:9-14. The word there used, “this man went down to his house justified rather than the other,” is obviously a reference to what is reported here. They forgot, in their self-righteousness and self-vindication, that they stood before God as the Searcher of all hearts.
That which is highly esteemed among men... — Literally, that which is high, or lifted up, among men. The word is at once wider and more vivid than the English.
Abomination... — The word is the same as in “the abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15), that which causes physically nausea and loathing. The word seems chosen as the expression of a divine scorn and indignation, which answered, in part, to their “derision,” and was its natural result. (Comp. the bold language of Psalms 2:4; Proverbs 1:26; Revelation 3:16.)