They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate - the judge who condemns their iniquity in the place of judgment (Isaiah 29:21).
And they abhor him that speaketh uprightly - they abhor the prophet telling them the unwelcome truth: answering in the parallelism to the judge "that rebuketh in the gate uprightly" - literally, perfectly (cf. 1 Kings 22:8; Proverbs 9:8; Proverbs 12:1; Jeremiah 36:23, "When Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he (Jehoiakim) cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth."
Him that rebuketh in the gate - in the first clause-may refer not merely to the judge, but also to the prophet reproving the people in the most public place of concourse, the gate of Samaria, as Jeremiah did (Jeremiah 17:19; Jeremiah 19:2) in the gate of Jerusalem. Compare Proverbs 8:2-4.