The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
The heads thereof - the princes of Jerusalem.
Judge for reward - take bribes as judges (Micah 7:3).
And the priests thereof teach for hire. It was their duty to teach the law and decide controversies gratuitously (Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 17:9; Deuteronomy 17:11; Malachi 2:7, "The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts;" cf. Jeremiah 6:13; Jude 1:11).
The prophets thereof divine for money - i:e., false prophets.
Yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? - namely, in the temple, (Isaiah 48:2; Jeremiah 7:4; Jeremiah 7:8-11, "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these ... Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal ... And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name?") This was characteristic of Ahaz's reign. Not until toward the close of his reign was he so embittered by the chastisements of God that he "shut up the doors of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 28:24). Previously, even after he had copied the brasen altar at Damascus, he still kept up a divided allegiance to God. Urijah the high priest, at the kings command, offered the regular sacrifices for the king and the people, while Ahaz used the brasen altar to inquire by, seeking by lying idolatrous divinations to gain that knowledge of the future which God withholds (2 Kings 16:15). 'It is the old history of man's half service, faith without love, which provides that what it believes but loves not should be done for it, and itself enacts what it prefers' (Pusey).