And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Ver. 9. And he said, Go and tell this people.] a Once my people, but now no more so, Loammi, but a people laden with iniquity, and so a people of my wrath and of my curse, no longer owned by me, but disavowed and abandoned, as their fathers once were. Exo 32:7
Hear ye, indeed, but understand not.] This is that heavy and dreadful doom, whereunto for authority's sake is premised that glorious vision of the Lord sitting on his throne and passing sentence, together with the renewed mission of this prophet on so pleasing an errand. "Hear" ye shall for a mischief to you, but "understand" no more than the seats you sit on, or the pillars you lean against, because stupified, delivered up to a reprobate sense.
And see indeed,] sc., Both my words, Jer 2:31 and my works, when my hand is lifted up especially. Isa 26:11 See Isaiah 42:18,20 .
But perceive not,] sc., That the cause of your calamity is your sin, the end repentance, the author God, with whom, therefore, it is a righteous thing to punish you with spiritual blindness and hardness of heart, that ye may proceed and perish. Now, then, "if any be ignorant, let him be ignorant" for me. as 1Co 14:38 And, "let him that is filthy be filthy still," or let him be yet more filthy Rev 22:11 Abeat in malam crucem, as a father saith to his incorrigible child. See the like angry expressions, Eze 20:39 Isaiah 50:11 Psa 81:12-13 Matthew 23:32; Matthew 23:34 .
a Verba indignantis. - Piscat.