Isaiah 9:16

For the leaders of this people cause [them] to err,.... Or, "who bless this people", as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; and so the Targum,

"who praise this people;''

that call them blessed, pronounce them happy, see Malachi 3:15 and promise them happiness, both in this world and that to come, though guilty of notorious sins, and live a vicious course of life; and so harden them in their iniquities, and cause them to wander more and more from the way of truth and righteousness; and lead them unto, and leave them in, fatal mistakes about their state and condition. These seem to design the ecclesiastical leaders of the people, the blind leaders of the blind, see Isaiah 3:12:

and [they that are] led of them [are] destroyed; or, "they" that "are blessed of them are swallowed up" c; and so irrecoverably lost; the deceivers and the deceived perish together; as it is sinful in teachers and leaders of the people to teach them false things, and lead them out of the way, it is criminal in the people to be led and taught by them, who ought to take care what they hear and receive; and therefore both are righteously punished; for the words are a reason why the Lord would cut off both the one and the other.

c ומאשריו מבלעים "qui ex hoc populo beati dicuntur, absorbebuntur", Vatablus.