They have committed a trespass - They have prevaricated; they are the worst of sinners, and shall have the heaviest of punishments. Can men suppose that it is possible to hide even their dark hearts from God?

And I will make the land desolate,.... The land of Judea uncultivated, men and beast being cut off; see Ezekiel 14:15;

because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord God; acted a treacherous and perfidious part; apostatized from God, having committed idolatry, which was the cause of their ruin; and therefore it was not without a cause that the Lord did what he did, in it; see Ezekiel 14:23.

And I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass, saith the Lord GOD.

15:8 Because - They have been so perpetually trespassing, that it seems a continued act.

committed...: Heb. trespassed a trespass

8. trespass-rather, "they have perversely fallen into perverse rebellion." The Jews were not merely sinners as the other nations, but revolters and apostates. It is one thing to neglect what we know not, but quite another thing to despise what we profess to worship [Jerome], as the Jews did towards God and the law.

15:1-8 Jerusalem like an unfruitful vine. - If a vine be fruitful, it is valuable. But if not fruitful, it is worthless and useless, it is cast into the fire. Thus man is capable of yielding a precious fruit, in living to God; this is the sole end of his existence; and if he fails in this, he is of no use but to be destroyed. What blindness then attaches to those who live in the total neglect of God and of true religion! This similitude is applied to Jerusalem. Let us beware of an unfruitful profession. Let us come to Christ, and seek to abide in him, and to have his words abide in us.