John Gill Bible Commentary

In transgressing and lying against the Lord,.... The word of the Lord, as the Targum; they transgress the doctrine of Christ, as well as the law of God, and deny him the only Lord God, even our Lord Jesus Christ, his proper deity, his righteousness, and satisfaction, which is notorious in our days; so the Syriac version renders it, we have denied the Lord; the Lord that bought them: this is the case of many under a profession of Christ: and departing away from our God: from following him, from walking in his ways, from attending his worship, word, and ordinances; so the Targum, "from the worship of our God;'' from Immanuel, God with us, God in our nature; from him the living God, as every degree of unbelief is a departing from him; and especially he is departed from when his divine Person is denied; when neglected as the Saviour; his Gospel corrupted; his ordinances perverted, and his worship, or the assembly of the saints, forsaken: speaking oppression and revolt: such who are in public office, speakers in the church of God; these speak what is oppressive and burdensome to the minds and consciences of those who are truly gracious; make their hearts sad, whom God would not have made sad, by their false doctrines; and which have a tendency to cause men to revolt from the Lord, and turn their backs on him: or "speak calumny and defection" (e), as some render it; calumniate, reproach, and revile the few faithful ones, and draw off many from the truths of the Gospel, and a profession of them. The Targum renders it, "falsehood and apostasy"; false doctrine, which leads to apostasy from Christ; with which the next clause agrees: conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood; false doctrines; such as agree not with, but are contrary to, the word of God; these are of their own conceiving and contriving; the produce of their own brains; the fruit of their own fancy and imaginations; and which, out of the abundance of their hearts, they utter, even premeditated falsehoods, studied lies, as in Isa 59:3; see Gill on Isa 59:3. (e) "calumniam et perversitatem", Pagninus; "calumniam et defectionem", Montanus; "calumniam et transgressionem", V. L.