Lamentations - The Sermon Depository

ought there the Chaldeans, and employed them as his instruments in
taking and destroying the city: God, then, has thought to destroy the wall of
the daughter of Zion. It is, indeed, true, that the Chaldeans had actively
carried on the war, and omitted nothing as to military skill, in order to take
the city: but the Prophet calls here the attention of the Jews to a different
thought, so that they might acknowledge that they suffered justly for their
sins, and that God was the chief author of that war, and that the Chaldeans
were to be viewed as hired soldiers.
He afterwards adds, that God had extended a line or a rule, as it is usually
done in separating buildings. F32 And then he says, He hath not drawn back
his hand from scattering; and so it was, that the ramparts and the walls
mourned, and fell down together. F33 We now see that what the Prophet
had in view was to lead the Jews fully to believe that the destruction was
not to be ascribed to the Chaldeans, but, on the contrary, to God. Added at
the same time must be another part of what is here taught, that God would
not have been so displeased with the holy city which he had chosen, had
not the people extremely provoked him with their sins. It now follows, —
Lamentations 2:9
9. Her gates are sunk into the ground;
he hath destroyed and broken her
bars; her king and her princes are
among the Gentiles: the law is no
more; her prophets also find no
vision from the Lord.
9. Demersae sunt in terra portae
ejus, perdidit et confregit vectes
ejus, rex ejus et principes ejus in
gentibus (vel, ad gentes;) nulla lex,
etiam Prophetae non reperiunt
visionem a Jehova.
He again relates in other words what he had said, that the walls of
Jerusalem had fallen. But he now speaks of the gates and says, that they
had sunk into the ground, or had become fixed in the ground; for it may be
explained in both ways; as though he had said, that the gates had been no
hindrance to the enemies so as to prevent them to enter the city. He thus
derides the foolish confidence of the people, who relied on their defenses
and thought the city impregnable. He then says that the gates had sunk, or
had become fixed in the ground.
He then says that God had destroyed and broken her bars; for no doubt
the gates had firm and strong bars. He then says that neither the gates nor
the bars were found sufficient, when God stretched forth his hand to the
Chaldeans, to lead them into the city. He afterwards adds, that both the
king and the princes had been driven into exile; for when he says, among
the nations, or to the nations, he intimates that there was no more a king,
for he and the royal seed and the princes were gone into banishment. The
rest I defer until tomorrow.
PRAYER.
Grant, Almighty God, that since so many tokens of thy wrath
meet us at this day, we may without delay return to thee, and so
submit to thee in true repentance, as to strive at the same time to
be reconciled to thee; and as a Mediator has been given to us to lead
us to thee, — O grant that we may by a true faith seek him, and
follow wherever he may call us, that having been purified from all
pollution’s, we may be glorified by thee our Father, and may so
call on thee, that we may find thy grace present in all our evils.
Amen. —
LECTURE SIXTH
Among the calamities of Jerusalem which the Prophet deplores, he
mentions this as one, that there was no law or doctrine. The Chaldee
Paraphraser thought that the reference is to punishment, but he perverts
the words of the Prophet. There follows afterwards an amplification; after
having said, there is no law, he adds, her prophets also have not found a