And thou hast said: I am without sin and am innocent: and therefore let thy anger be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend with thee in judgement, because thou hast said: I have not sinned.

“Here he convicts them of guilt against the neighbor: and first he proves the guilt; second he threatens the punishment of confusion, there, "and you shall be confounded by Egypt." Concerning the first, three things. First he sets forth the slaying of the neighbors, marveling at the excuse: "to seek love"; as though by these things you could appease me. Setting forth the spiritual slaying: "which, moreover, you have taught" — by evil examples. Below, 13: "you have taught them against you, and instructed them to your own head." And setting forth the bodily slaying, "in the wings," that is, in the birds: he speaks in the likeness of a bird of prey. "Of the poor," whom you have sacrificed to idols. Zach. 5: "I saw, and behold, two women coming forth, and wind was in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a kite." Second, the manifestation of the guilt: "I did not find them in the ditches," as though secretly slain by robbers: "in all," namely, the hills, and the pleasant places. Isai. 59: "Truth has fallen in the street, and equity could not enter in. And truth has come into oblivion, and he who departed from evil lay open to plunder." And he marvels at the excuse. "And you said." Job 11: "You said: my speech is pure, and I am clean in your sight." Third, he shows the repetition of the guilt, premising a marveling at the excuse, "behold, I." "How exceedingly vile you have become, repeating your ways." "Sins." Threni 1: "See, Lord, and consider, for I have become vile."”

“Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way?.... Or, "by changing thy way" (t); sometimes going one way, and sometimes another; sometimes to Egypt, and then to Assyria; seeking sometimes to the one for help, and sometimes to the other; at one time serving the gods of the one, in order to curry favour with them, and then the gods of the other, like a lascivious woman that gads about from place to place to increase her lovers, and satisfy her lust. The Vulgate Latin version is, "how exceeding vile art thou become, changing thy ways"; and so Jarchi says, the word signifies "contempt", or "vileness": deriving it from or to be "vile" or "contemptible"; and to this sense are the Septuagint and Arabic versions; but Kimchi derives it from to go; to which our version and others agree: thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt; as they were in the times of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, when Pharaohnecho king of Egypt took the former, and put him in bands, and carried him into Egypt; and set the latter upon the throne, and took tribute of him, for which the land was taxed, Kg2 23:33. as thou wast ashamed of Assyria; in the times of Ahaz, who sent to the king of Assyria for help, when Judah was smitten by the Edomites, and invaded by the Philistines; but when he came to him, he distressed him, and strengthened and helped him not, Ch2 28:16. (t) "mutando viam tuam", Vatablus, Piscator, Junius & Tremellius.”

“Yet withal the people holds itself to be guiltless, and deludes itself with the belief that God's wrath has turned away from it, because it has for long enjoyed peace, and because the judgment of devastation of the land by enemies, threatened by the earlier prophets, had not immediately received its fulfilment. For this self-righteous confidence in its innocence, God will contend with His people (אותך for אתּך as in Jer 1:16).”