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Lack of Truth and Faith in Public Life
v. 1. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, searching the lanes of the city, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, in the wider streets and intersections of streets, where many people come together, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, carrying out justice and righteousness, that seeketh the truth, to possess and practice faithfulness in all intercourse with all his fellow-men, and I will pardon it, grant His pardon to the city. Jerusalem was so corrupt in those days that among all the leaders of the people, the counselors, the priests, the false prophets, not one just person was found, and therefore the attitude and the testimony of the faithful few, such as Baruch and Zephaniah, disappeared in the general depravity.
v. 2. And though they say, in a form of assurance which had become habitual with them, even as with many thoughtless people in our days, The Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. The oath under such circumstances had no validity, it was just as insincere as their profession of the worship of Jehovah.
v. 3. O Lord, are not Thine eyes upon the truth? Does not Jehovah seek faithfulness and sincerity in all things? Is He not ever the God of truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved, they do not feel the pain, the punishment makes no impression upon them; Thou hast consumed them, destroying them as a nation, but they have refused to receive correction, to accept the Lord's discipline; they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. Such is the perversity of deliberate wrong-doing that it hardens the heart of the sinner against every influence for good, producing such a degree of callousness that every effort of the Lord is vain. It is in such cases that His judgment of hardening the heart of the sinner is often enacted.
v. 4. Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, the prophet here interrupting himself to voice an objection to the Lord; they are foolish, acting foolishly on account of their ignorance; for they know not the way of the Lord nor the judgment of their God. The prophet assumes that only the untaught poor are guilty of such depravity, and that a better state of affairs may be expected in the higher ranks of society.
v. 5. I will get me unto the great men, those of the so-called higher classes, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God, that is, Surely one might expect to find better knowledge among these people, considering their position. But these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds. Matters were worse here than in the so-called lower class of people; for education, wealth, and rank alone are no guarantee against wickedness. The entire class had defiantly set aside the Law of God and despised the restrictions laid down in His holy will.
v. 6. Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them and a wolf of the evenings, one of those found in the great steppes and deserts, shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities, lurking for his prey nearby, the strongest, the most ravenous, and the swiftest of the beasts of prey being chosen as types to represent the formidable character of the Babylonian invaders; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased, their acts of rebellion against God had become a great multitude. That is the feature which ever makes sin so reprehensible: it always amounts to a rebellion against God, the Father of all mankind.