They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a
covenant,
&c.] Those are other crimes they were guilty of, for which
the wrath of God could not be awarded from them by a king, if
they had one, or by any other. They had used vain and idle words
in their common talk and conversation; and lying and deceitful
ones to one another in trade and commerce, in contracts and
promises; and so had deceived and overreached one another: they
had belched out many "oaths of vanity" {u}: or vain oaths and
curses; their mouths had been full of cursing and bitterness; and
they made covenants with God, and their king, and with other
kings and princes, and with one another, and had not kept them;
and now for these things God had a controversy with them:
thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the
field;
either the judgment of God, his wrath and vengeance for the above
sins, rose up and spread itself in all their cities, towns, and
villages; or rather the judgment and justice they pretended to
execute, instead of being what it should have been, useful and
beneficial to the people, like a wholesome herb, sprung up like
hemlock, bitter and poisonous, and spread itself in all parts of
the kingdom. Injustice is meant; see ( Amos 6:12 ) .