Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:
Ver. 4. For three transgressions of Judah] Who were therefore worse than the above mentioned nations, because they ought to have been better Ideo deteriores quia meliores esse debebant. Beset they were with enemies round about, who dealt cruelly with them; and this should have made them to cleave more closely to God; these horns pushing and scattering them, should have pushed them home to him, Zechariah 1:19 : but it proved otherwise. For Judah also is found to be incorrigibly flagitious, guilty, as the former, "of three transgressions, and of four," &c., worse in them than in others, because "in Judah was God known," and to them were committed the oracles of God, whom they might hear again screeching out unto them, when they were putting forth their hands to wickedness, "Oh do not this abominable thing," Jeremiah 44:4. But they, tanquam monstra marina, as one saith, like so many sea monsters, passed by God's words with a deaf ear.
They despised the law of the Lord] They would have none of his counsel; they liked well to live in God's good land, but not to live by God's good laws; like those in the Gospel, "they rejected the counsel of God within themselves," Luke 7:30, and that with scorn and disdain, as the word here used signifieth. See Trapp on " Hos 6:6 "
And have not kept his commandments] Though holy, just, and good, though such as, if a man keep them (be it but evangelically, si faciat, etiamsi non perficiat, Liv. xviii. 5), he shall live in them, by a life of grace, as the flame lives in the oil, or the creature by his food; though in "keeping thereof" (how much more for keeping thereof!) "there is great reward," Psalms 19:11 .
And their lies caused them] That is, their idols (as the Vulgate well rendereth it), and their will worships, their new inventions, and good intentions thereby to serve and please God. These are properly called lies; because, contrary to the law of truth (whereto they are here opposed), and to David's practice, who "did the truth," 1 John 1:6; and could safely say, "I hate and abhor lying; but thy law do I love," Psalms 119:163; Psalms 119:104, "through thy precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."
After the which their fathers have walked] So that they are a race of rebels, a seed of evildoers, and do fill up the measure of their fathers' sins, till wrath come upon them to the utmost. This is no small aggravation: Ezekiel 20:30, "Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations." See Acts 7:51. Must I be provoked by you from one generation to another.