(18) Will I not hear them.--The time for prayer was past. They had rejected God. and when His wrath came upon them it was too late to turn to Him. (See Proverbs 1:24-28; Matthew 7:22-23.) The possibility of sinning beyond the term of the day of grace is one of the most important lessons of this chapter.

Verse 18. - The verse serves as a transition to ch. 9. The unpitying aspect of the Divine judgments is again prominent. Such sins deserved, and could only be expiated by, the judgments to which we now pass.

8:13-18 The yearly lamenting for Tammuz was attended with infamous practices; and the worshippers of the sun here described, are supposed to have been priests. The Lord appeals to the prophet concerning the heinousness of the crime; and lo, they put the branch to their nose, denoting some custom used by idolaters in honour of the idols they served. The more we examine human nature and our own hearts, the more abominations we shall discover; and the longer the believer searches himself, the more he will humble himself before God, and the more will he value the fountain open for sin, and seek to wash therein.Therefore will I also deal in fury,.... Being provoked by such abominable idolatries, and such horrid insolence, and most contemptuous treatment:

mine eye shall not spare: neither will I have pity: see Ezekiel 5:11;

and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice; very pressingly and earnestly for help, being in great distress:

yet will I not hear them; as they turned their backs on him, he will turn a deaf ear to them, and not regard their cries. The Targum is,

"they shall pray before me, with a great voice, and I will not receive their prayer.''