9:7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know [it]: {h} the prophet [is] a fool, the spiritual man [is] mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
(h) Then they will know that they were deluded by those who claimed themselves to be their prophets and spiritual men.
9:7 The prophet - The false prophet. The spiritual man - That pretends to be full of the spirit of prophecy. For thine iniquity - God began his punishments in giving them over to believe their false prophets. The great hatred - Which God had against your sins.
9:7-10 Time had been when the spiritual watchmen of Israel were with the Lord, but now they were like the snare of a fowler to entangle persons to their ruin. The people were become as corrupt as those of Gibeah, Jud 19; and their crimes should be visited in like manner. At first God had found Israel pleasing to Him, as grapes to the traveller in the wilderness. He saw them with pleasure as the first ripe figs. This shows the delight God took in them; yet they followed after idolatry.
