(Verse 17) - The first phrase speaks to an unwillingness to be taught. This person will not learn the  true nature of religion, yet he presumes to teach others. Once again, we see an almost textbook definition of Hypocrisy. It is not simple thing, but a thing that can manifest itself it virtually anywhere in our lives. Really, no area of life is safe and unneeding of vigilance to keep it free from its taint.

He, in fact, treats the Scripture with contempt, as if they were unworthy of attention. It is as if he thinks them unworthy of attention and casts them away, like junk mail. We have all received junk mail in quantity and simply tossed the mail in the circular file without even reading it. We glanced at it and decided it was not something that we needed to pay attention to. Because we decided that, we tossed it away. That is the kind of idea that is here. These supposedly and professed religionists evaluated (or not!) the claims of God and tossed them aside as irrelevant and not needful to their lives.

This is astonishing! The implication here is that they simply cast the truth away! Those who were in the most blessed and privileged place of all men in all of time (up to that point) simply tossed the blessed Word of God away. When we think about this, we stake our heads in bewilderment; how is such a thing possible? Yet, we must admit, that from another point of view, we do understand. There is a deliberateness that had to be a part of this casting aside. It cannot but be otherwise! Such profound wickedness does not happen in a vacuum and could not happen in complete ignorance. The reason we say this is due, in part, to the vehemence with which God rebukes the sin. This kind of rebuke is reserved for deliberate sin.

(Verse 18) - Once again we see contrast. Instead of rebuking or exposing the thief, they willingly acted with him, dividing the profits. We would argue that what is implied is that they know of the thief and they know what his intent is. This isn't accidental and it isn't a matter of oversight or passivity. It isn't just that they failed to act on an issue. The lend not just approval but active participation as well! We need to underscore that this is not metaphor or simile. It is not that something they were doing was the same as or amounted to thievery. It was active and knowing participation in the dishonesty. This is borne out by the next phrase.

''When thou sawest" would seem to imply a readiness to engage them at first sight, as it were. It was not a single or a rare occurrence but a ''whenever" occurrence. This didn't happen once or on an infrequent occasion. It was the habit of their lives! This heightens their culpability and their hypocrisy. It is one thing to stumble or fall into sin; even grievous sin. It is quite another to deliberately choose to cast one's lot in with such wicked men. It is yet a third thing to do so on a repeated basis, whenever the opportunity presented itself!

"Consent" is literally ''delight". Their depravity is deepened by the disclosure that they took pleasure in the sin. Now, every one who sins does so purposefully and essentially because because the sin gives them some degree of pleasure or satisfaction. This is a dirty truth, but a truth none-the-less.

However, this not what is in view here. What is in view here is some one who enjoys sin as a matter of preference. For the believer, sin is that which, though it gives pleasure for a season, is basically a dis-pleasurable and vexing thing that causes more grief than pleasure. The individual in view here, however, is one who takes pleasure in sin. Really, it is even stronger than that. They don't just just enjoy sin, they take delight in it. This is characteristic of the unsaved and not of the redeemed.

The point here is that they were willing to do this even when observing the outward trappings of religion, while professing and even insisting that they were true worshippers of God. The hypocrisy here is rampant and blatant. It is also deliberate. Anyone, anyone at all, know that there is a very large discontinuity between picking someone's pocket and offering a sacrifice to God. Those two things are totally juxtaposed and contradictory. Their presence in the same life at the same time cannot be accidental.

This is precisely Jesus point about the observation of tradition while breaking the Law. In Matthew the Lord points out that the religious leaders had observed tradition while at the very same time breaking the Law. The contradiction there is simply stunning!

Literally ''your portion was with the adulterers" indicates that they were, in reality and unbeknownst to them, among the most unclean. This can only be possible with a combination of the deliberate act and ignorance. No one was quite as ''dirty" in Jewish culture as the adulterer (at least as the female ones). They were universally looked down and generally despised.

The surprising thing is that these leaders, who saw themselves as the cleanest of the clean were, in reality, the dirtiest of the dirty. This is the true result of hypocrisy. It makes us dirty and impure, to an even greater degree than we suspected.

(Verse 19) - ''Thou givest" - literally "Thou sendest". The phrase underscores the deliberateness of the actions in view for us once again. It emphasizes the choice made and the deliberate selection of the "direction" one is sending the words of their mouth.

''Mouth" is viewed as a tool or a resource used. The point here being that they misused the mouth, giving or sending it to evil. Of course, this refers to the words that emerge from the mouth. More properly here, it refers to the intention of the heart expressed by the words. The point being that this ''tool" is being misused or abused. Where they are supposed to be using their mouths for good, they are using them for evil. 

''Frameth" means to bind or fasten, hence to contrive or even to build. It refers to the use of the tongue in the work of deceit, that is, in the devising and the perpetration of fraud and falsehood. Again, we simply wish to note that this deliberate and premeditated sin. They are spending their efforts and energy

As I have noted, there is the great danger of hypocrisy to be guarded against. Hypocrisy shows up in small things as well. This is the danger for most Christians. We are believers, so we cannot (actually - will not is better) be the kind of hypocrite in view here. We can, however, be hypocritical in individual matters in our lives. This is something that must be recognized and provided for.