Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against thee, and cast thy law behind their backs, and slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great provocations.
Ver. 26. Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled] See how full in the mouth these holy Levites were in aggravating their own and their forefathers' sins, which swelled as so many toads in their eyes; neither could they ever sufficiently disgrace them. This is the property and practice of the true penitentiary.
They cast thy law behind their backs] That is, they vilipended and undervalued it. God drew them by the cords of a man (so the cords of kindness are called, Hosea 11:4, because befitting the nature of a man, and likeliest to prevail with rational people), but they, like men (or rather like beasts), transgressed the covenant; and, as if God had even hired them to be wicked, so did they abuse all his benefits to his greatest dishonour; being therefore the worse, because in reason they ought to have been better.
And slew thy prophets which testified against them to turn them to thee] This was the worst they did to them, and that for which they received mercedem mundi, the wages of the mad world, ever beside itself in point of salvation, and falling foul upon such as seek its good. This is that sin that brings ruin without remedy, 2Ch 36:16 Pro 29:1 for, "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," Psalms 116:15 .
And they wrought great provocations] Or, blasphemies. See Nehemiah 9:18 .