| Geneva Study Bible The priests said not, {i} Where is the LORD? and they that handle the {k} law knew me not: the {l} rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by {m} Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. (i) They did not teach the people to seek after God. (k) As the scribes, who would have expounded the law to the people. (l) Meaning, the princes and ministers: signifying, that all estates were corrupt. (m) That is, spoke vain things, and brought the people from the true worship of God to serve idols: for by Baal, which was the chief idol of the Moabites, are meant all idols. Wesley's Notes 2:8 They - They that should have taught others, knew as little as they, or regarded as little, who are said here to handle the law, the priests and Levites, who were the ordinary teachers of the law. Pastors - Either teachers, or kings and princes. Prophets - They that should have taught the people the true worship of God, were themselves worshippers of Baal. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 8. The three leading classes, whose very office under the theocracy was to lead the people to God, disowned Him in the same language as the nation at large, "Where is the Lord?" (See Jer 2:6). priests-whose office it was to expound the law (Mal 2:6, 7). handle-are occupied with the law as the subject of their profession. pastors-civil, not religious: princes (Jer 3:15), whose duty it was to tend their people. prophets-who should have reclaimed the people from their apostasy, encouraged them in it by pretended oracles from Baal, the Phonician false god. by Baal-in his name and by his authority (compare Jer 11:21). walked after things . not profit-answering to, "walked after vanity," that is, idols (Jer 2:5; compare Jer 2:11; Hab 2:18). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 2:1-8 Those who begin well, but do not persevere, will justly be upbraided with their hopeful and promising beginnings. Those who desert religion, commonly oppose it more than those who never knew it. For this they could have no excuse. God's spiritual Israel must own their obligations to him for safe conduct through the wilderness of this world, so dangerous to the soul. Alas, that many, who once appeared devoted to the Lord, so live that their professions aggravate their crimes! Let us be careful that we do not lose in zeal and fervency, as we gain knowledge. | 
