Be not proud - Both the symbols were of a nature very humiliating to the national self-respect.

Hear ye, and give ear,.... Both to what goes before, and what follows after. The words doubled denote the closest and strictest attention:

be not proud; haughty, scornful, as above all instruction, and needing no advice and counsel, self-conceited, despising the word of God, and his messages by his prophets; or, "do not lift up yourselves" (x); above others, and against God:

for the Lord hath spoken; it is not I, but the Lord; and what he has said shall certainly come to pass; so the Targum,

"for in the word of the Lord it is so decreed;''

it is in vain to oppose him; his counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure; none ever hardened themselves against him, and prospered.

(x) "ne elevetis vos", Montanus, Pagninus; "exaltetis", Junius & Tremellius.

With this threatening the prophet couples a solemn exhortation not to leave the word of the Lord unheeded in their pride, but to give God the glory, ere judgment fall on them. To give God the glory is, in this connection, to acknowledge His glory by confession of apostasy from Him and by returning to Him in sincere repentance; cf. Joshua 7:19; Malachi 2:2. "Your God," who has attested Himself to you as God. The Hiph. יחשׁך is not used intransitively, either here or in Psalm 139:12, but transitively: before He brings or makes darkness; cf. Amos 8:9. Mountains of dusk, i.e., mountains shrouded in dusk, are the emblem of unseen stumbling-blocks, on which one stumbles and falls. Light and darkness are well-known emblems of prosperity and adversity, welfare and misery. The suffix in שׂמהּ goes with אור, which is construed feminine here as in Job 36:32. Shadow of death equals deep darkness; ערפל, cloudy night, i.e., dark night. The Chet. ישׁית is imperf., and to be read ישׁית; the Keri ושׁית is uncalled for and incorrect.

Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken.

15. be not proud-Pride was the cause of their contumacy, as humility is the first step to obedience (Jer 13:17; Ps 10:4).

13:12-17 As the bottle was fitted to hold the wine, so the sins of the people made them vessels of wrath, fitted for the judgments of God; with which they should be filled till they caused each other's destruction. The prophet exhorts them to give glory to God, by confessing their sins, humbling themselves in repentance, and returning to his service. Otherwise they would be carried into other countries in all the darkness of idolatry and wickedness. All misery, witnessed or foreseen, will affect a feeling mind, but the pious heart must mourn most over the afflictions of the Lord's flock.