Why [then] is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
Ver. 5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem? &c.] Why else but because they are void of all true reason, and quite beside themselves in point of salvation? Their pertinace, or rather pervicacy, in sinning is altogether insuperable. Monoceros interimi potest, capri non potest. The unicorn is able to be killed, the billy goat can not.
They hold fast deceit.] They hold close to their false prophets, or rather a false heart of their own hath deceived them. as Jer 8:11 A deceived heart hath turned them aside. as Isaiah 44:20 ; see there