This quotation is from Isaiah 29:13, according to the Septuagint: "This people approaches Me, with their mouth, and honours Me with their lips ; but their heart is far from Me." The phrase "approaches me" is understood as reverences me. This sense is captured by the KJV. The NIV uses a freer translation.[1][2]
Saint Remigius: "For the Jewish nation seemed to draw near to God with their lips and mouth, inasmuch as they boasted that they held the worship of the One God; but in their hearts they departed from Him, because after they had seen His signs and miracles, they would neither acknowledge His divinity, nor receive Him."[3]
Rabanus Maurus: "Also, they honoured Him with their lips when they said, Master, we know that thou art true, (Mat. 22:16.) but their heart was far from Him when they sent spies to entangle Him in His talk."[3]
^John MacEvilly, An Exposition of the Gospel of St. John consisting of an analysis of each chapter and of a Commentary critical, exegetical, doctrinal and moral, Dublin Gill & Son 1879.
^Cornelius Cornelii a Lapide; Thomas Wimberly Mossman The great commentary of Cornelius à Lapide, London: J. Hodges, 1889-1896.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
