Jeremiah 23:15

Wormwood... water of gall. — See Notes on Jeremiah 8:14; Jeremiah 9:15.

Profaneness. — The root-meaning of the Hebrew word is that of “veiling,” hence that of simulated holiness, or, as in the margin, “hypocrisy;” but the associations of the word attached to it the further sense of the hypocrisy that desecrates, so that “profaneness” is, on the whole, the best rendering. The corresponding concrete noun is rendered in Isaiah 9:17 by “hypocrite;” in Psalms 35:16 by “hypocritical mocker;” above, in Jeremiah 23:11, by “profane.”