They should have turned them ... - The work of the true prophet, which is to turn men from evil to good.

If they had stood in my counsel. —Better, as before, council. The test of the true mission is seen in results. Are the pe…

False prophets are futile and vain, no good result comes from all their teaching; but oh! if they had known the Word of the Lord, if they had reall…

This verse is, so to speak, an explanation of the previous one. Many might have been perplexed if it had only been said to them that no one is a fi…

But if they had stood in my counsel As they boasted they did; or, as they reproached the true prophets, and charged them …

The false prophets of Samaria had deceived the Israelites into idolatries; yet the Lord considered the false prophets of Jerusalem guilty of more h…

1. Here, the prophet speaks of the various methods of deception.

First, he exposes them. Second, he addresses them summarily with the …