Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man [is] worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.
Ver. 11. Then spake the priests and the prophets.] Against a priest and a prophet; but he had earnestly inveighed against them, Jeremiah 23:1,2 ; Jeremiah 23:14,15 ; Jer 23:33-34 and hence the hatred. As Erasmus told the Duke of Saxony that Luther had been too busy with the Pope's triple crown and with the priests' fat paunches, and was therefore so generally set against.
Saying, This man is worthy to die.] Sic Papicolae nostri saeculi. These are the very words of Popish persecutors.
For he hath prophesied against this city.] This holy, and therefore, it must be believed, inviolable city. Novum crimen, C. Caesar, &c. These sinners against their own souls, traitors also to the state, will neither see their evil condition, nor hear of it from others, as having gall in their ears, as they say of some kinds of creatures.