And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.
Ver. 9. Because they forsook, &c.] Apostasy is hateful even among the heathen. Solyman, the grand signior, rejected the revolt of his Christian subjects to Turkism, and doubled their taxations.
And have taken hold.] Fast hold, such as they will not let go. Nothing is more pertinacious than superstition. Me ex ea opinione quam a maioribus accepi de cultu deorum nullius unquam movebit oratio, saith Cicero: I will never renounce my religion, which yet was no better than a mere irreligion.