They knew not
The Targum adds, to do well. This is to be understood of unjust
judges and wicked magistrates, who know not God, and have not the
fear of him before their eyes, though he stands in the midst of
them, and judges among them; which is the source of their unjust
judging and unrighteous proceedings: for because they know not
God, nor fear him, therefore they regard not men: nor do such
know themselves; they are called gods, and they think they are
so, and do not consider they are but men; they are the ministers
of God, deputies under him, and are accountable to him: nor do
they know their duty before pointed out; it is for them to know
judgment, what is right, and what is wrong, that they may
pronounce righteous judgment, ( Micah 3:2 ) , but they do
not know it, at least so as to practise it: nor did the Jewish
rulers know Christ, which was the reason of their unrighteous
dealing with him and with his followers; they put him to death,
and so they did them, because they knew him not, ( 1
Corinthians 2:8 ) ( John 16:2 John 16:3 ) ,
neither will they understand:
the Targum adds, by way of explanation, "the law", the rule of
judgment, which judges ought to understand; so the Jewish rulers,
Pharisees and Sadducees, were upbraided by Christ with ignorance
of the Scriptures, and the law of God, their false glosses of
which he refutes, ( Matthew
5:1-48 ) ( Psalms 22:29
) and their ignorance was wilful and affected, they shut their
eyes against light and evidence, especially with respect to
Christ; they could discern the face of the sky, but not the signs
of the times, ( Matthew 16:3
) , who so blind as they that will not see? and such were the
Jewish rulers; see ( Isaiah 42:19
) ,
they walk on in darkness;
they chose darkness rather than light, and so were blind leaders
of the blind, and were wilfully so, having their eyes blinded
with gifts, ( Deuteronomy
16:19 ) ,
all the foundations of the earth are out of
course;
or "shaken" or "moved" F6: by the perversion of justice,
towns, cities, commonwealths, kingdoms, and states, are thrown
into the utmost disorder and confusion: as the king by judgment
establisheth the land; ( Proverbs
29:4 ) , so when judgment is not executed, it is unsettled,
and thrown into confusion; or though F7 "the foundation" though
this is the case, yet unjust judges will go on, perverting
judgment, even though, as at the deluge, the foundations of the
earth were shaken and moved, for the violence, rapine, and
oppression, the earth was then filled with, which Kimchi thinks
is here referred to; and though a dissolution of the Jewish
polity, civil and ecclesiastical, was threatened, because of such
injustice; that God would once more shake the heavens and the
earth, remove their church and civil state, when they should
cease to be a nation, their city be destroyed, and their temple,
not one stone left upon another; and yet such was the obstinacy
of their wicked judges, that they would persist their wicked
ways.