The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, [and] the tongue that speaketh proud things:
Ver. 3. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips] As a rotten member is cut off from the body - Ne pars sincera trahatur, or as a barren tree is stocked up, that it cumber not the ground. There is a wonderful sympathy between princes and parasites, whose song is Mihi placet, quicquid regi placet, and whose practice is to speak suavia potius quam sans, sweet rather than sound things. But God will cut off such lips (taking notice of the offending member), as he dealt by Doeg, Ahithophel, Shebna, Shemaiah the Nehelamite, Jeremiah 29:32, and as it were to be wished that Christian princes would do; serving them all as the Thessalians did that city in Greece called Kολακεια, or flattery, which they destroyed and pulled down to the ground (Hen. Steph. Apol. pro Herod.).
And the tougue that speaketh proud things] Magnifica, bubbles of words, blustering speeches, breathing out nothing but arrogance and contempt of God and his people. These grandiloqui must one day answer for their hard speeches with flames about their ears, whatever they meet with in the meanwhile, as did Nestorius, Thomas Arundel, Stephen Gardiner, and others, plagued here in their tongues, those little members that had boasted so great things, James 3:5 .