For the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her
priests
Aben Ezra interprets this of the prophets of Baal, and the priests of the high places; but though false prophets and wicked priests are meant, yet such as were among the Jews, made choice of and approved of by them: see ( 2 Chronicles 36:14 ) ; not that the people were faultless, but these were the principals, who by their examples led on and encouraged the common people in sin: that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her;
not the blood of innocent children, sacrificed to them by Moloch; but of good men in general, whom they persecuted and slew; and of the true prophets of the Lord in particular, whose blood they shed; and was the sin that brought on the destruction of their city by the Romans, as well as of that by the Chaldeans; see ( Matthew 23:35-38 ) ( James 5:6 ) .