Are there yet the treasures of wickedness the house of the
wicked?
&c.] There are; they continue there. This is the voice of the Lord by the prophet, and the language of the rod of correction to be heard, exposing the sins of the people, for which the Lord had a controversy with them; particularly their mammon of unrighteousness, the vast wealth, riches, and treasures, collected together by very wicked and unlawful ways and means; and which, instead of restoring them to the persons they had defrauded of them, they retained them in their houses, notwithstanding the reproofs of the prophets, and the corrections of the Almighty. Some render it, "is there not fire?" &c. {k}; that is, in the house of the wicked, because of the treasures of wickedness, that which consumes them; but Gussetius F12 interprets it of fornications and adulteries. Others render it, "is there yet a man?" &c. F13; an honourable man, as Aben Ezra, who continues in his iniquity, after the Lord's voice cries to the city; but Abendana interprets it of the prophet himself, continuing to reprove the wicked for their treasures of wickedness, and their other sins; and the scant measure [that is] abominable?
or "the ephah of leanness provoking to wrath" F14; that is, a deficient measure, less than it should be; the "ephah" was a dry measure, and it was made small, as in ( Amos 8:5 ) ; and held less than it should; and this brought leanness and poverty upon those to whom they sold by it, as well as ruin upon themselves in the issue; for such practices as they were abominable and detestable to God; they stirred up his wrath, and brought destruction on those that used them. The Targum is,
``false measures that bring a curse.''