Lamentations - The Sermon Depository

the tabernacle; for it is the same word again, but it seems not to be taken in
the same sense. Then I think that d[wm, muod, is to be taken here for the
assembly. As he had previously said, that the place where the holy
assemblies met had been overthrown or destroyed, so now he says, that
God had no care for all those assemblies, as though they had been buried in
perpetual oblivion; for he mentions also the Sabbath, which corresponds
with the subject. God, then, had forgotten all the assemblies as well as the
Sabbath. There is, again, as to this last word, a part stated for the whole,
for this word was no doubt intended to include all the festivals. The
meaning of the passage then is, that the impiety of the people had been so
great, that God, having, as it were, forgotten his covenant, had inflicted
such a dreadful punishment, that religion, for a time, was in a manner
trodden under foot.
He says, in the last place, that the king and the priest had been rejected by
God. We have already said, that these were as two pledges of God’s
paternal favor; for, on the one hand, he who reigned from the posterity of
David was a living image of Christ; and on the other hand, there was
always a high-priest from the posterity of Aaron to reconcile men to God.
It was then the same as though God shewed himself in every way
propitious to the chosen people. Then their true happiness was founded
on the kingdom and the priesthood; for the kingdom was, as it were, a
mark of God’s favor for their defense, and the priesthood was to them the
means by which reconciliation with God was obtained. When, therefore,
God wholly disregarded the king and the priest, it became hence evident,
that he was greatly displeased with his people, having thus, in a manner,
obliterated his favors. It follows, —
Lamentations 2:7
7. The Lord hath cast off his
altar; he hath abhorred his
sanctuary: he hath given up
into the hand of the enemy
the walls of her palaces; they
have made a noise in the
house of the Lord, as in the
day of a solemn feast.
7. Abominatus est Dominus altare suum,
repulit (vel, rejecit procul ab animo suo)
sanctuarium suum, tradidit in manum
hostis muros palatiorum ejus, vocem
ediderunt in domo Jehovae tanquam in die
sacri conventus (vel, solemnis; iterum
ponitur nomen d[wm tamen accipitur vel
pro conventu vel pro die festo.)
He proceeds with the same subject, and adopts similar words. He says
first, that God had abominated his altar; F30 an expression not strictly
proper, but the Prophet could not otherwise fully shew to the Jews what
they deserved; for had he only spoken of the city, of the lands, of the
palaces, of the vineyards, and, in short, of all their possessions, it would
have been a much lighter matter; but when he says that God had counted
as nothing all their sacred things, — the altar, the Temple, the ark of the
covenant, and festive days, — when, therefore, he says, that God had not
only disregarded, but had also cast away from him these things, which yet
especially availed to conciliate his favor, the people must have hence
perceived, except they were beyond measure stupid, how grievously they
had provoked God’s wrath against themselves; for this was the same as
though heaven and earth were blended together. Had there been an
upsetting of all things, had the sun left its place and sunk into darkness,
had the earth heaved upwards, the confusion would have hardly been more
dreadful, than when God put forth thus his hand against the sanctuary, the
altar, the festal days, and all their sacred things. But we must refer to the
reason why this was done, even because the Temple had been long
polluted by the iniquities of the people, and because all sacred things had
been wickedly and disgracefully profaned. We now, then, understand the