Lamentations - The Sermon Depository

punishments thou didst chastise those whom thou hadst adopted,
— O grant, that we may learn to regard thee, and carefully to
examine our whole life, and duly consider how indulgently thou
hast preserved us to this day, so that we may ever patiently bear
thy chastisements, and with a humble and sincere heart flee to thy
mercy, until thou be pleased to raise up thy Church from that
miserable state in which it now lies, and so to restore it, that thy
name may, through thine only-begotten Son, be glorified
throughout the whole world. — Amen.
LECTURE FIFTH
Lamentations 2:3
3. He hath cut off in his fierce
anger all the horn of Israel: he
hath drawn back his right hand
from before the enemy, and he
burned against Jacob like a
flaming fire, which devoureth
round about.
3. Confregit in excandescentia
irae suae omne cornu Israelis:
retraxit (vel, redire fecit)
retrorsum dexteram suam a facie
inimici, et exarsit in Jacob
tanquam ignis, flamma devoravit
in circuitu.
Jeremiah expresses the same thing in various ways; but all that he says
tends to shew that it was an evidence of God’s extreme vengeance, when
the people, the city, and the Temple, were destroyed. But it ought to be
observed, that God is here represented as the author of that calamity: the
Prophet would have otherwise lamented in vain over the ruin of his own
country; but as in all adversities he acknowledged the hand of God, he
afterwards added, that God had a just reason why he was so grievously
displeased with his own people.
He then says, that every horn had been broken by God. We know that by
horn is meant strength as well as excellency or dignity and I am disposed
to include both here, though the word breaking seems rather to refer to
strength or power. But the whole clause must be noticed, that God had
broken every horn of Israel in the indignation of his wrath. The Prophet
intimates that God had not been angry with his people as though he had
been offended by slight transgressions, but that the measure of his wrath
had been unusual, even because the impiety of the people had so burst
forth, that the offense given to God could not have been slight. Then, by
indignation of wrath the Prophet does not mean an excess, as though God
had through a violent impulse rushed forth to take vengeance; but he rather
intimates that the people had become so wicked, that it did not behoove
God to punish in an ordinary way an impiety so inveterate.
He then adds, that God had withdrawn, his right hand from before the
enemy, and that at the same time he had burned like a fire, the flame of
which had devoured all around. The Prophet here refers to two things; the
first is, that though God had been accustomed to help his people, and to
oppose their enemies, as they had experienced his aid in the greatest
dangers, yet now his people were forsaken and left destitute of all hope.
The first clause, then, declares, that God would not be the deliverer of his
people as formerly, because they had forsaken him. But he speaks
figuratively, that God had drawn back his right hand; and God’s right
hand means his protection, as it is well known. But the Prophet’s meaning
is by no means obscure, even that there was hereafter no hope that God
would meet the enemies of his people, and thus preserve them in safety,
for he had drawn back his hand. F27 But there is a second thing added, even
that God’s hand burned like fire. Now it was in itself a grievous thing that
the people had been so rejected by God, that no help could be expected