For the rulers of this people are seducers. [1] Some render it, they who make thee blessed, or, they who call thee blessed; as if he had said that nothing was more hurtful or destructive to a nation than flatteries, which gave encouragement to unbounded licentiousness. But I shall follow the reading which I approved on a former occasion, when the same word occurred. [2] (Isaiah 3:12.) He means that the rulers and magistrates, whose duty it was to restrain the people within the limits of decent behavior, allowed all to indulge freely in crimes and wickedness. On this account they ought justly to be reckoned seducers and corrupters, for corruption flows from them to the whole body of the people, as from the head to the members. Magistrates and pastors are appointed in order to restrain the waywardness of the people, to enjoin what is good and right, and especially to defend the honor of God. If they neglect these duties they ought to be reckoned impostors and not rulers, for they give rise to miserable confusion. Now, when every one does what he pleases, and the reins of government are nowhere to be found, can there be anything but the most terrible result? When the common people are thus punished on account of their faults, no lighter vengeance awaits the rulers, because they have neglected the duty entrusted to them, and have occasioned so many evils. And they who are governed are destroyed. By this clause he means that wicked princes, and those who rule according to their own caprice, are destructive; and in like manner teachers who rather deceive and impose on men than point out the way of salvation, because through their fault the people are ruined. But at the same time he shows that this affords no excuse to any one for seeking to make bad rulers a cloak for their own transgressions, as is commonly done, for if the blind lead the blind, as Christ says, both will fall into the ditch. It is certain that none are ruined by wicked and treacherous leaders, but those who of their own accord wish to be led astray.

Footnotes

1 - For the leaders of this people (margin, they that call them blessed) cause them to err. -- Eng. Ver.

2 - See the author's explanation of this phrase at [17]page 140. -- Ed.

For the leaders of this people - Note, Isaiah 3:12. Hebrew 'They that call this people blessed' - referring more particularly to the false prophets.
They that are led of them - Hebrew, 'They that are called blessed by them.'
Are destroyed - Hebrew, 'Are swallowed up;' see the note at Isaiah 3:12. They are ruined; or swallowed up as in a vast whirlpool or vortex.

For the leaders of this people cause them to err,.... Or, "who bless this people", as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; and so the Targum,
"who praise this people;''
that call them blessed, pronounce them happy, see Malachi 3:15 and promise them happiness, both in this world and that to come, though guilty of notorious sins, and live a vicious course of life; and so harden them in their iniquities, and cause them to wander more and more from the way of truth and righteousness; and lead them unto, and leave them in, fatal mistakes about their state and condition. These seem to design the ecclesiastical leaders of the people, the blind leaders of the blind, see Isaiah 3:12,
and they that are led of them are destroyed; or, "they" that "are blessed of them are swallowed up" (c); and so irrecoverably lost; the deceivers and the deceived perish together; as it is sinful in teachers and leaders of the people to teach them false things, and lead them out of the way, it is criminal in the people to be led and taught by them, who ought to take care what they hear and receive; and therefore both are righteously punished; for the words are a reason why the Lord would cut off both the one and the other.
(c) "qui ex hoc populo beati dicuntur, absorbebuntur", Vatablus.

leaders, &c.--(See Isaiah 3:12, Margin, and see on Isaiah 3:12.)

The leaders - Their false prophets. Cause - By false doctrines and evil counsels and persuasions. Destroyed - Shall certainly perish.