Hear the word of Yahweh, you children of Israel; For Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: "Indeed there is no truth, Nor goodness, Nor knowledge of God in the land.
Knowledge of God being the gift of the Holy Spirit, he who hath not grace, cannot have that knowledge. A certain degree of speculative knowledge of God, a bad man may have, as Balaam had by inspiration, and the Pagan who, “when they knew God, glorified Him not as God.” But even this knowledge is not retained without love. Those who “held the truth in unrighteousness” ended (Paul says Romans 1:21, Romans 1:18, Romans 1:28) by corrupting it. “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, and so God gave them over to a reprobate,” or undistinguishing mind, that they could not. Certainly, the speculative and practical knowledge are bound up together, through the oneness of the relation of the soul to God, whether in its thoughts of Him, or its acts toward Him. Wrong practice corrupts belief, as misbelief corrupts practice. The prophet then probably denies that there was any true knowledge of God, of any sort, whether of life or faith or understanding or love. Ignorance of God, then, is a great evil, a source of all other evils.