Ye stout-hearted; or, ye whose hearts are proud, or hard, or stubborn. He speaks either,
1. To the Babylonians, You who are stout against God, and say or think that neither God nor any man can deliver my people out of your hands: or rather, 2. To the house of Jacob, expressed Isaiah 46:3, where he bespeaks them in the same words here used, hearken to me; and to whom alone he directeth his speech in this whole chapter; for though he speaketh of the Babylonians, yet he doth not speak to them; and to whom the prophet, for the most part, turneth his speech in all his prophecies, unless where there is something in the text or context which determineth it to some other person or people. And this very crime of stoutness or hardness of heart is most justly and most frequently charged upon the Jews by their own prophets every where, because of their gross contempt of and incorrigibleness under all God's words and works. And the prophet speaks this either to the Jews of his generation, or rather to that generation which was carried captive to Babylon, whose stout-heartedness is particularly noted and reproved, Malachi 7:11,12. Compare Zechariah 3:1,Zechariah 3:3-15. That are far from righteousness; that are not only void of, but enemies to righteousness and true holiness; that give up yourselves to wickedness, that despise my counsels, and promises, and threatenings.