Word - Rather, speaker. Literally, And he who speaketh is not in them, i. e., there is no one who speaketh in them; what the prophets say has no higher authority than themselves.

Thus ... - i. e., May the evil which the prophets threaten fall upon their head.

And the prophets shall become wind - What are the prophets?

Empty persons. Their words are wind; we hear the sound of their threatening but of the matter of the threatenings we shall hear no more.

And the word is not in them - There is no inspirer, but may their own predictions fall on their own heads! This seems the natural sense of this passage.

And the prophets shall become wind,.... Their prophecies shall vanish into air; they shall become of no effect; they shall never be accomplished:

and the word is not in them; not the word of the Lord; he never spoke by them; they speak of themselves; they never were inspired or commissioned by him to say what they do: thus shall it be done unto them; the same evils they say shall befall us shall come upon them; they shall perish by the sword or famine; we have reason to believe that our predictions are as good as theirs, and will be fulfilled: or, "thus let it be done to them" (y); as they have prophesied shall be done to us; and so are an imprecation. The Targum interprets the whole of the false prophets, as if they were the words of the Lord concerning them, which is,

"but the false prophets shall be for nothing, and their false prophecy shall not be confirmed; this revenge shall be taken of them;''

and so Kimchi interprets it of the prophets that prophesied peace to them, and said that the above mentioned should not come upon them; and Jarchi takes the last clause to be the words of the prophet to them that say the above words; namely, that thus it shall be done to them, what the Lord has said.

(y) "sic fiat illis"; so some in Vatablus; "sic eveniat ipsis", Cocceius.

And the prophets shall become {l} wind, and the word is {m} not in them: thus shall it be done to them.

(l) Their words will be of no effect, but vain.

(m) They are not sent from the Lord, and therefore that which they threaten to us will come on them.

5:13 Became wind - A proverbial expression, all the prophet's threats shall come to nothing. The word - The prophet's words are not from God. Thus - It shall fall upon their own heads that have thus threatened us.

13. Continuation of the unbelieving language of the Jews.

the prophets-who prophesy punishment coming on us.

the word-the Holy Spirit, who speaks through true prophets, is not in them [Maurer]. Or else, "There is no word (divine communication) in them" (Ho 1:2) [Rosenmuller].

thus, &c.-Their ill-omened prophecies shall fall on themselves.

5:10-18 Multitudes are ruined by believing that God will not be so strict as his word says he will; by this artifice Satan undid mankind. Sinners are not willing to own any thing to be God's word, that tends to part them from, or to disquiet them in, their sins. Mocking and misusing the Lord's messengers, filled the measure of their iniquity. God can bring trouble upon us from places and causes very remote. He has mercy in store for his people, therefore will set bounds to this desolating judgment. Let us not overlook the nevertheless, ver. 18. This is the Lord's covenant with Israel. He thereby proclaims his holiness, and his utter displeasure against sin while sparing the sinner, Ps 89:30-35.