The Song of Solomon : and the Lamentations of Jeremiah

ii. 1-9.] GOD AS AN ENEMY 135
was this from the story of the loss of the ark in the
days of Eli, when the Philistines were constrained to
send it home of their own accord ! Now no miracle
intervenes to punish the heathen for their sacrilege.
Yes, surely God must have forgotten His footstool 1
So it seems to the sorrowful Jew, perplexed at the
impunity with which this crime has been committed.
But the mischief is not confined to the central shrine.
It has extended to remote country'- regions and simple
rustic folk. The shepherd's hut has shared the fate of
the temple of the Lord. All the habitations of Jacob—
phrase which in the original points to country cottages
—have been swallowed up.^ The holiest is not spared
on account of its sanctity, neither is the lowliest on
account of its obscurity. The calamity extends to all
districts, to all things, to all classes.
If the shepherd's cot is contrasted with the temple
and the ark because of its simplicity, the fortress may
be contrasted with this defenceless hut because of its
strength. Yet even the strongholds have been thrown
down. More than this, the action of the Jews' army
has been paralysed by the God who had been ifs
strength and support in the glorious olden time. It
is as though the right hand of the warrior had been
seized from behind and drawn back at the moment
when it was raised to strike a blow for deliverance. The
consequence is that the flower of the army, ** all that
were pleasant to the eye," - are slain. Israel herself
is swallowed up, while her palaces and fortresses are
demolished.
The climax of this mystery of Divine destruction
is reached when God destroj-s His own temple. The
' ii. 2. -
ii. 4.
a