Jer 6:14, Eze 13:10, Zec 10:2 | JFB | e4.org | 14. hurt —the spiritual wound. slightly —as if it were but a slight wound; or, in a slight manner, pronouncing all sound where there is no soundness. saying —namely, the prophets and priests ( ). Whereas they ought to warn the people of impending judgments and the need of repentance, they say there is nothing to fear. peace —including soundness. All is sound in the nation's moral state, so all will be peace as to its political state ( ).

‏ Jeremiah 6:14

14. hurt—the spiritual wound.

slightly—as if it were but a slight wound; or, in a slight manner, pronouncing all sound where there is no soundness.

saying—namely, the prophets and priests (Jer 6:13). Whereas they ought to warn the people of impending judgments and the need of repentance, they say there is nothing to fear.

peace—including soundness. All is sound in the nation's moral state, so all will be peace as to its political state (Jer 4:10; 8:11; 14:13; 23:17; Eze 13:5, 10; 22:28).

‏ Ezekiel 13:10

10. Because, even because—The repetition heightens the emphasis.

Peace—safety to the nation. Ezekiel confirms Jer 6:14; 8:11.

one—literally, "this one"; said contemptuously, as in 2Ch 28:22.

a wall—rather, "a loose wall." Ezekiel had said that the false prophets did not "go up into the gaps, or make up the breaches" (Eze 13:5), as good architects do; now he adds that they make a bustling show of anxiety about repairing the wall; but it is without right mortar, and therefore of no use.

one . . . others—besides individual effort, they jointly co-operated to delude the people.

daubed . . . with untempered mortar—as sand without lime, mud without straw [GROTIUS]. FAIRBAIRN translates, "plaster it with whitewash." But besides the hypocrisy of merely outwardly "daubing" to make the wall look fair (Mt 23:27, 29; Ac 23:3), there is implied the unsoundness of the wall from the absence of true uniting cement; the "untempered cement" answering to the lie of the prophets, who say, in support of their prophecies, "Thus saith the Lord, when the Lord hath not spoken" (Eze 22:28).

‏ Zechariah 10:2

2. idols—literally, "the teraphim," the household gods, consulted in divination (see on Ho 3:4). Derived by GESENIUS from an Arabic root, "comfort," indicating them as the givers of comfort. Or an Ethiopian root, "relics." Herein Zechariah shows that the Jews by their own idolatry had stayed the grace of God heretofore, which otherwise would have given them all those blessings, temporal and spiritual, which they are now (Zec 10:1) urged to "ask" for.

diviners—who gave responses to consulters of the teraphim: opposed to Jehovah and His true prophets.

seen a lie—pretending to see what they saw not in giving responses.

comfort in vain—literally, "give vapor for comfort"; that is, give comforting promises to consulters which are sure to come to naught (Job 13:4; 16:2; 21:34).

therefore they went their way—that is, Israel and Judah were led away captive.

as a flock . . . no shepherd—As sheep wander and are a prey to every injury when without a shepherd, so the Jews had been while they were without Jehovah, the true shepherd; for the false prophets whom they trusted were no shepherds (Eze 34:5). So now they are scattered, while they know not Messiah their shepherd; typified in the state of the disciples, when they had forsaken Jesus and fled (Mt 26:56; compare Zec 13:7).