I believe that this chapter is spoken repeatedly, because the text that just precedes is given after the captivity of the kingdom of Jacob, because it says that it should be gathered again. Or if you do not like this, you may assume that it was spoken by the prophet while the kingdom still existed (but I do not like this); and hold that] it should be gathered together again spiritually, and this chapter is preached etc. He punishes only the fruits, since these tend to follow ungodly hearts. Also still today this punishment would apply.
V. 1. (And I said, Hear ye etc., ye ought to be just, that know the right).
Judicium (that is), the right; what "is right". 1) It is moral and external things, what is the right and right.
V. 2. 3.2) But you hate what is good and love what is bad; you flay their skin and the flesh from their legs.
Here I see what the prophet is punishing. It is the violence: that they peel off the skin etc. and even more, as he says immediately afterwards. It is spoken figuratively and poetically. From German: "(They) flay one so that [it] hurts one's body and life, right down to the ridge, taking even the marrow." It is spoken in a violent image against their violence. Take away that with which they were to feed their family. It is a description that tyranny devours the possessions of the whole people, and this is indicated by the word "as in a top" etc., that is, violent. They are images.
V. 4. Therefore, when you cry out to the Lord, he will not hear you, but will hide his face from you etc.
1) Instead of the preceding from v. 1. on, our Vorlage has, in immediate connection with the preceding paragraph: "Lt <1ixit suUioium, furu: non recht ist." Instead of äixit we have assumed äixi according to the Vulgate.
2) These verse numbers are missing in the Weimar.
This is a threat: you know that this is a very severe punishment. That God hides His face is to be angry, the opposite is to be favorable. In the fifth book of Moses [Cap. 32, 20.] God says: "I will hide My presence from them, I will see what will happen to them in the end." And again [Ps. 31, 17.], "Let thy face shine," etc. He hideth his face, when he maketh wholly covenant, that they see not, neither seek (the Lord). I will pass them among other nations. On the other hand, when he looks, he is favorable to us or takes care of us.
V. 5. 3) Thus says the Lord against the prophets.
This chapter is mainly against the princes, the priests and the false prophets. He is very bold to speak against such people, and as it happens today, so it happened then: the princes, the priests, the bishops are to blame that the people are godless, and the prophets and priests that the princes are godless. Therefore, the guilt falls on the priests and the false prophets. We preach wrath; they say: Do not believe these prophets; you are the people of property; is the hand of the Lord shortened? as it says in the second chapter, v. 7. Thus they act, so that the people do not repent, but continue in godlessness, and this is what the (right) prophets call "seduction" here. What do they do? They keep the people in godlessness so that they do not return, and they bite us who speak the truth, as they say above Cap. 2:6, "Ye shall not cry out." And here he calls it (in the Vulgate) "biting with the teeth," that they preach peace (as it is said in Jeremiah (Cap. 6, 14.)), and yet is not peace. And those true prophets again say: calamity! In Jeremiah (Cap. 26, 18.) you see how the prophet against Hezekiah 4) ge-
3) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
ner is based the same following: siout sst in 3. legum
as it is written in the first book of Kings [Cap. 22, 24]. God wants the law to be preached. When peace is preached, evil comes of it, because the greatest part of men is evil; therefore disturbance and unhappiness must always be preached. Those, on the other hand, preach that it should go well. This is taken from Moses. [How would anyone like to say I will have peace when he hears these threats and curses [Deut. 28:15 ff]? They preach the grace of God where there is wrath. This is how our monks preached: He who thus keeps his order pleases GOtte. One should have said to them thus: You are in the highest degree in the wrath of God. But those say: You do well, God is favorable to you, if you build altars etc.
But if you don't put anything in their mouths, they preach that war must come.
sAccording to the Vulgate it says: Et si quis non dederit in ore eorum quippiam,] sanctificant [super eum proelium]. Others: qui non dederit eis lucrum, unde vivant, but I read thus: Qui non consenserit [ori eorum, sanctificant contra eum proelium]. 1) "The mouth" (08) goes in general to the office of the word. By guttur [night] 2) is signified devouring. That is, whoever does not agree with their mouth, 3) that is, whoever does not preach like them, against him they make war; 4) for this is how the prophets use this word [sanctificare
is based on a confusion of our prophet with Micah, the son of Jemla, 1 Kings 22:9, who lived about two hundred years before Micah of Maresa. More correctly, the Hallic manuscript offers here: "These flatter those, and bite the right prophets with imprecations and curses, and preach peace, like that Zedekiah 1 Kings 22:24."
1) Supplemented according to the Altenburg and Hall manuscripts.
2) Instead of Zuttur we have adopted futtere.
3) In our original: HuiouuHuo non ckockorit juxta os 8nurn. Instead of 8uurn, surely oorurn should be read. We have followed Luther's reading given above.
4) The Zwickau manuscript is not well in order here. As a curiosity, we cite here the text of the Erlangen edition as it reads from the beginning of this paragraph bi^ hieher: "8anoti, nki, Hui non ckockorit sis luorurn NNÜ6 vivant, 86(1 6AO Hui non 6ON86N86rilN 6t6. 08 1orni6 aä inini8t6riuln Verdi Auttur, Sola 8igniL6atur, ick 68t: HuieunHne non clodorit iuxta 08 suum, ick 68t: Hui non praockieant ut illi, praoparant dolluin," ste. - Such performances are not rare in the Erlanger.
- praeparare]; that is, he has no peace before them, against him they rage. They preach mercy where there is wrath; whoever does not do so, they rage against him, "he must be the devil and dead" and damned.
V. 6.5) Therefore your face shall become night, and your divination darkness.
Now comes the punishment: by your preaching of peace you will easily deserve to be bundled, so that you will no longer be able to prophesy; when the time of calamity comes, when it would be necessary to preach, you will not be able to do anything. Now you praise and see how you stand for it. The time will come when you will not be able to see anything, because you will be in such great distress that you will not be able to wriggle out of it. Then there will be no voice; where will be the sermon? It will therefore be night, fog, darkness. You will perish with the people.
V. 7. And the showers shall be put to shame, and the diviners to scorn.
Confundentur, will be ashamed. Videntes, the soothsayers, "will stand with shame" because their lie will be revealed. Instead of the peace they preached, there will be the calamity we preach. Since they will be of no use to your people, they will "cover their mouths" etc. This is an imitation of what Moses says of a leper in the third book, Cap. 13, 45: He shall walk bareheaded and "cover his mouth" lest he infect by his breath. It is a figurative speech [which we commonly use]: 6) to put the finger [on the mouth], that is, to prevent someone from speaking to people. It will come to pass that when they are put to shame, they will not forbear 7) to speak with men; "they will have to shut their mouths." This way of speaking has Moses s, the leper shall cover his mouth,
5) Here, the verse number and the keyword are missing in the Weimar one. The following is immediately attached to the preceding.
6) Supplemented from the Hall manuscript.
7) Instead of conknnckorotur and auckoat, we have assumed pontunckoronturandauckoaut, and erased the ut between the two as too much.
that is, he should not talk to people. They will not speak because of shame, because everyone will see that they were deceivers.
Because there will be no word of God (responsio).
The existing calamity will judge what they have taught and that God does not speak to them.
V. 8. But I am full of the power and the Spirit of the Lord.
The prophet praises his power here. Even though everyone resists, God has given me grace to speak. As if someone among us said, "I will speak" without regard to any person, be it the devil, and "it shall cost me my neck," for "I am full of the power of the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of strength. I am full of "the right" because I teach right things, and "the strength" because I am not afraid. If I am killed, good; the Spirit of the Lord is with me, which teaches me, and which is necessary for the prophets.
That I may denounce Jacob's transgression and Israel's sin.
Let him who is bold do so. It is easy to attack the people, but the princes, that is not the work of a man, but of the Holy Spirit. This passage shows where the prophets got their boldness, and yet they were always in danger of death.
V. 9 Hear this, O heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel.
These are punishments that affect life (morales). As in the whole chapter, he attacks the princes, the priests and the prophets. They were estates. Few in all the estates were just and good etc. Among the prophets there was scarcely a man who had the spirit that he should have so [punished the sins of the great ones.] 1) These are the fruits of ungodliness. This people had princes appointed by God, priests etc., and yet they fall etc.
1) Inserted by us. In the Weimarschen: nt 816 Iruotu8 tii implbtatis.
You who spurn justice and pervert all that is upright.
Judicium, that is, the law, the right, what is ordered in Moses; that is an abomination to you, what is upright, that is, what is good and pleasing to God, namely, this is what [you pervert].
V. 10: You who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.
"You build with blood" is a Hebrew expression. In Habakkuk 2) [also found in Cap. 2, 12]: "build with blood". He wants to say: You build magnificent palaces, but with what? You take it from the blood of the poor, you enrich yourselves and build houses etc. This means building Jerusalem with blood. How this happened, he now interprets:
V. 11. Their heads judge for gifts (in muneribus).
The preposition in should have been translated by propter [for - sake of] or pro [for]. "There is no right." Judges do not judge for the sake of God, but for the sake of money; he who has money has the right etc. "This is a helsig 3) thing." These three stands are all wrong; "how shall this be?" So our ears, too, are itching, at least for us to get fat. The prophets are the masters of all other teachers; the priests, when they have received the word [from the prophets], must tell this to the princes; the whole burden is laid upon the prophets. In Isaiah [Cap. 30, 10.] it is said, Thy prophets shall behold deceit. After the prophets were bribed [, and received money] when they did not speak the words of God, the priests "also took money", the princes "also took money". The summa is: All follow, 4) from the highest, the avarice. Avarice is at the top of their list; this is the most fearful thing among the people etc. And on God they lean, "ver-
2) In the original: In OMa.
3) Perhaps: ugly? then we would have here the same metathesis as above Col. 1279. The Hallic manuscript has: ?688imuln Nie 68t tWtirnoniuln contra iüurn xopuluin 6t6.
4) Instead of 86hU6inur we have assumed 86^nuntur according to the Haüische manuscript.
let themselves go to the Lord", that is the most serious thing of all. We see what kind of people the prophets and the preachers of the word had. So also Rom. 2, 17. ff. this is the glory of all the godless: We are God's people, everything belongs to God, therefore it is impossible that misfortune should come upon us; God will not spoil His own, that is, there will be peace. Thus our [papists] say: GOtt will not abandon the Church etc.
V. 12. Therefore Zion will be plowed up like a field for your sake, and Jerusalem will become a heap of stones.
"Of the temple" [means in Hebrew] of the house. They are images. Because of your nobility, doing evil, you boast
yet, and does not repent. A twofold sin: You sin, and you will not repent. "To the heap of stones," that is, so ruined that one can plow on it. "Hie stund vorzeiten ein Kloster"; this city, that city etc. "will lie in the dirt". "A cairn" (maceria) is such a place on which to plow.
And the mountain of the temple become a wild height.
There will grow thorns, thistles and grasses as if they were forests. Because of the prophecies that seemed contrary to this, they surely sinned and engaged in avarice. For a time He [God] protected that city, at last He laid it waste etc.