Isa 5:19, Jer 17:15, Eze 12:22, 27 | JFB | STEP | 19. work-- vengeance ( ). Language of defiance to God. So Lamech's boast of impunity ( , ; compare ; , ). counsel-- God's threatened purpose to punish.

‏ Isaiah 5:19

19. work--vengeance (Is 5:12). Language of defiance to God. So Lamech's boast of impunity (Ge 4:23, 24; compare Jr 17:15; 2Pe 3:3, 4).

counsel--God's threatened purpose to punish.

‏ Jeremiah 17:15

14-18. Prayer of the prophet for deliverance from the enemies whom he excited by his faithful denunciations.

Heal ... save--not only make me whole (as to the evils of soul as well as body which I am exposed to by contact with ungodly foes, Jr 15:18), but keep me so.

my praise--He whom I have to praise for past favors, and therefore to whom alone I look for the time to come.

‏ Ezekiel 12:22

22. proverb--The infidel scoff, that the threatened judgment was so long in coming, it would not come at all, had by frequent repetition come to be a "proverb" with them. This skeptical habit contemporary prophets testify to (Jr 17:15; 20:7; Zep 1:12). Ezekiel, at the Chebar, thus sympathizes with Jeremiah and strengthens his testimony at Jerusalem. The tendency to the same scoff showed itself in earlier times, but had not then developed into a settled "proverb" (Is 5:19; Am 5:18). It shall again be the characteristic of the last times, when "faith" shall be regarded as an antiquated thing (Lu 18:8), seeing that it remains stationary, whereas worldly arts and sciences progress, and when the "continuance of all things from creation" will be the argument against the possibility of their being suddenly brought to a standstill by the coming of the Lord (Is 66:5; 2Pe 3:3, 4). The very long-suffering of God, which ought to lead men to repentance, is made an argument against His word (Ec 8:11; Am 6:3).

days ... prolonged ... vision faileth--their twofold argument: (1) The predictions shall not come to pass till long after our time. (2) They shall fail and prove vain shadows. God answers both in Eze 12:23, 25.

‏ Ezekiel 12:27

27. Not a mere repetition of the scoff (Eze 12:22); there the scoffers asserted that the evil was so often threatened and postponed, it must have no reality; here formalists do not go so far as to deny that a day of evil is coming, but assert it is still far off (Am 6:3). The transition is easy from this carnal security to the gross infidelity of the former class.