II.
(1) Woe to them that devise. — The prophet proceeds to denounce the sins for which the country was to receive condign punishment at the hands of God. There is a gradation in the terms employed: they mark the deliberate character of the acts: there were no extenuating circumstances. In the night they formed the plan, they thought it out upon their beds, and carried it out into execution in the morning. So also the gradually increasing intercourse with the wicked is described, as reaching its culmination, in the first Psalm: Walking with the ungodly leads to standing among sinners, and at last sitting habitually in the seat of the scornful.