Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock:
Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock. In turning judgment (justice) into gall (poison) and righteousness into hemlock (or wormwood, bitter and noxious), ye act as perversely as if one were to make horses to run upon a rock, or to plow with oxen there (Maurer). As horses and oxen are useless on a rock, so ye are incapable of fulfilling justice (Grotius). Or else, Ye impede the course of God's benefits, because ye are as it were a hard rock on which His favour cannot run. 'Those that will not be tilled as fields shall be abandoned as rocks' (Calvin). On "gall," see note, Amos 5:7.