John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 7. I said, Surely thou wilt fear me , etc.] This is spoken after the manner of men; as if God should say within himself, and reason in his own mind, upon a view of things, surely the people of the Jews will take notice of my judgments executed on other nations, and will stand in awe of me on account of them; and fear to offend me, lest the same calamities should come upon them; this, humanly speaking, might be reasonably thought would be the case: thou wilt receive instruction ; by these judgments, taking warning by them; repent, reform, and amend, and thereby escape the like: so their dwelling should not be cut off ; or, “its dwelling”; the dwelling of the city of Jerusalem, the houses in it; the dwelling places of the inhabitants of it; the singular being put for the plural; unless the temple should be meant, as Abendana interprets it; and so it may be rendered “his dwelling” f104 ; their house, which was left desolate to them, because they feared not the Lord; nor received instruction by the example of others; nor repented of their sins, and altered their course of life; which, if done, their dwelling would have been preserved, ( Matthew 23:38): howsoever I punished them ; or “visited” them; chastised them in a gentle manner, in order to reform them, but in vain. Some render it, “all which I committed to them” f106 ; the oracles of God, his word and ordinances, his promises, and the blessings of his goodness, which he deposited with them, in order to do them good, and bring them to repentance. The Targum is, “all the good things which I have said unto them (or promised them), I will bring unto them;” and to the same sense Jarchi. The goodness of God should have brought them to repentance, yet it did not: but they rose early, [and] corrupted all their doings ; they were diligent and industrious eager and early, in the commission of sins, in doing corrupt and abominable works; receiving and tenaciously adhering to the traditions of the elders; seeking to establish their own righteousness, not submitting to Christ’s; rejecting him the true Messiah; blaspheming his doctrines, despising his ordinances, and persecuting his people; besides other vices, which abounded among them; for which the wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost, as expressed in the following verse, ( Zephaniah 3:8).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-7 - The holy God hates sin most in those nearest to him. A sinful state is and will be, a woful state. Yet they had the tokens of God's presence and all the advantages of knowing his will, with the strongest reason to do it; still they persisted in disobedience. Alas, that men ofte are more active in doing wickedness than believers are in doing good.
Original Hebrew אמרתי559 אך389 תיראי3372 אותי853 תקחי3947 מוסר4148 ולא3808 יכרת3772 מעונה4585 כל3605 אשׁר834 פקדתי6485 עליה5921 אכן403 השׁכימו7925 השׁחיתו7843 כל3605 עלילותם׃5949
