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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
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Matthew Henry |
L A M E N T A T I O N S.
CHAP. II.
The second alphabetical elegy is set to the same mournful tune with the
former, and the substance of it is much the same; it begins with Ecah,
as that did, “How sad is our case! Alas for us!”
I. Here is the anger of Zion’s God taken notice of as the cause of her
calamities,
II. Here is the sorrow of Zion’s children taken notice of as the effect
of her calamities,
III. The complaint is made to God, and the matter referred to his
compassionate consideration,
The hand that wounded must make whole.
| Cause, Extent, and Greatness of Zion’s Calamities. | B. C. 588. |
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1 How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud
in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the
beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of
his anger!
2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and
hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong
holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to
the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
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.
4 He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right
hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the
eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his
fury like fire.
5 The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he
hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong
holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and
lamentation.
6 And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it
were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly:
the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be
forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his
anger the king and the priest.
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.
8 The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of
Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his
hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall
to lament; they languished together.
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.
It is a very sad representation which is here made of the state of
God’s church, of Jacob and Israel, of Zion and Jerusalem; but the
emphasis in these verses seems to be laid all along upon the hand of
God in the calamities which they were groaning under. The grief is not
so much that such and such things are done as that God has done them,
that he appears angry with them; it is he that chastens them, and
chastens them in wrath and in his hot displeasure; he has
become their enemy, and fights against them; and this, this is the
wormwood and the gall in the affliction and the misery.
I. Time was when God’s delight was in his church, and he appeared to
her, and appeared for her, as a friend. But now his displeasure is
against her; he is angry with her, and appears and acts against her as
an enemy. This is frequently repeated here, and sadly lamented. What he
has done he has done in his anger; this makes the present day a
melancholy day indeed with us, that it is the day of his anger
(v. 1),
and again
(v. 2)
it is in his wrath, and
(v. 3)
it is in his fierce anger, that he has thrown down and
cut off, and
(v. 6)
in the indignation of his anger. Note, To those who know how to
value God’s favour nothing appears more dreadful than his anger;
corrections in love are easily borne, but rebukes in love wound deeply.
It is God’s wrath that burns against Jacob like a flaming fire
(v. 3),
and it is a consuming fire; it devours round about, devours all
her honours, all her comforts. This is the fury that is poured out
like fire
(v. 4),
like the fire and brimstone which were rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah;
but it was their sin that kindled this fire. God is such a tender
Father to his children that we may be sure he is never angry with them
but when they provoke him, and give him cause to be angry; nor is he
ever angry more than there is cause for. God’s covenant with them was
that if they would obey his voice he would be an enemy to
their enemies
and he had been so as long as they kept close to him; but now he is an
enemy to them; at least he is as an enemy,
v. 5.
He has bent his bow like an enemy,
v. 4.
He stood with his right hand stretched out against them, and a
sword drawn in it as an adversary. God is not really an enemy to
his people, no, not when he is angry with them and corrects them in
anger. We may be sorely displeased against our dearest friends and
relations, whom yet we are far from having an enmity to. But sometimes
he is as an enemy to them, when all his providences concerning
them seem in outward appearance to have a tendency to their ruin, when
every thing made against them and nothing for them. But, blessed be
God, Christ is our peace, our peacemaker, who has slain the
enmity, and in him we may agree with our adversary, which it is
our wisdom to do, since it is in vain to contend with him, and he
offers us advantageous conditions of peace.
II. Time was when God’s church appeared very bright, and illustrations,
and considerable among the nations; but now the Lord has covered the
daughter of Zion with a cloud
(v. 1),
a dark cloud, which is very terrible to himself, and through which she
cannot see his face; a thick cloud (so that word signifies), a
black cloud, which eclipses all her glory and conceals her
excellency; not such a cloud as that under which God conducted them
through the wilderness, or that in which God took possession of the
temple and filled it with his glory: no, that side of the cloud is now
turned towards them which was turned towards the Egyptians in the Red
Sea. The beauty of Israel is now cast down from heaven to the
earth; their princes
(2 Sam. i. 19),
their religious worship, their beauty of holiness, all that which
recommended them to the affection and esteem of their neighbours and
rendered them amiable, which had lifted them up to heaven, was
now withered and gone, because God had covered it with a cloud. He has
cut off all the horn of Israel
(v. 3),
all her beauty and majesty
all her plenty and fulness, and all her power and authority. They had,
in their pride, lifted up their horn against God, and therefore justly
will God cut off their horn. He disabled them to resist and
oppose their enemies; he turned back their right hand, so that
they were not able to follow the blow which they gave nor to ward off
the blow which was given them. What can their right hand do against the
enemy when God draws it back, and withers it, as he did Jeroboam’s?
Thus was the beauty of Israel cast down, when a people famed for
courage were not able to stand their ground nor make good their
post.
III. Time was when Jerusalem and the cities of Judah were strong and
well fortified, were trusted to by the inhabitants and let alone by the
enemy as impregnable. But now the lord has in anger swallowed them
up; they are quite gone; the forts and barriers are taken away, and
the invaders meet with no opposition: the stately structures, which
were their strength and beauty, are pulled down and laid waste.
1. The Lord has in anger swallowed up all the habitations of
Jacob
(v. 2),
both the cities and the country houses; they are burnt, or otherwise
destroyed, so totally ruined that they seem to have been swallowed
up, and no remains left of them. He has swallowed up, and has
not pitied. One would have thought it a pity that such sumptuous
houses, so well built, so well furnished, should be quite destroyed, ad
that some pity should have been had for the poor inhabitants that were
thus dislodged and driven to wander; but God’s wonted compassion seemed
to fail: He has swallowed up Israel, as a lion swallows up his
prey,
v. 5.
2. He has swallowed up not only her common habitations, but her
palaces, all her palaces, the habitations of their princes and
great men
(v. 5),
though those were most stately, and strong, and rich, and well guarded.
God’s judgments, when they come with commission, level palaces with
cottages, and as easily swallow them up. If palaces be polluted with
sin, as theirs were, let them expect to be visited with a curse, which
shall consume them, with the timber thereof and the stones
thereof,
Zech. v. 4.
3. He had destroyed not only their dwelling-places, but their
strong-holds, their castles, citadels, and places of defence.
These he has thrown down in his wrath, and brought them to
the ground; for shall they stand in the way of his judgments, and
give check to the progress of them? No; let them drop like leaves in
autumn; let them be rased to the foundations, and made to touch the
ground,
v. 2.
And again
(v. 5),
He has destroyed his strong-holds; for what strength could they
have against God? And thus he increased in the daughter of Judah
mourning and lamentation, for they could not but be in a dreadful
consternation when they saw all their defence departed from them. This
is again insisted on,
In order to the swallowing up of her palaces, he has given up
into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces, which were
their security, and, when they are broken down, the palaces
themselves are soon broken into. The walls of palaces cannot protect
them, unless God himself be a wall of fire round about them. This God
did in his anger, and yet he has done it deliberately. It is the
result of a previous purpose, and is done by a wise and steady
providence; for the Lord has purposed to destroy the wall of the
daughter of Zion; he brought the Chaldean army in on purpose to do
this execution. Note, Whatever desolations God makes in his church,
they are all according to his counsels; he performs the thing that
is appointed for us, even that which makes most against us. But,
when it is done, he has stretched out a line, a measuring line,
to do it exactly and by measure: hitherto the destruction shall go, and
no further; no more shall be cut off than what is marked to be so. Or
it is meant of the line of confusion
a levelling line; for he will go on with his work; he has not
withdrawn his hand from destroying, that right hand which he
stretched out against his people as an adversary,
v. 4.
As far as the purpose went the performance shall go, and his hand shall
accomplish his counsel to the utmost, and not be withdrawn. Therefore
he made the rampart and the wall, which the people had rejoiced
in and upon which perhaps they had made merry, to lament,
and they languished together; the walls and the ramparts,
or bulwarks, upon them, fell together, and were left to condole with
one another on their fall. Her gates are gone in an instant, so
that one would think they were sunk into the ground with their own
weight, and he has destroyed and broken her bars, those bars of
Jerusalem’s gates which formerly he had strengthened,
Ps. cxlvii. 13.
Gates and bars will stand us in no stead when God has withdrawn his
protection.
IV. Time was when their government flourished, their princes made a
figure, their kingdom was great among the nations, and the balance of
power was on their side; but now it is quite otherwise: He has
polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof,
v. 2.
They had first polluted themselves with their idolatries, and then God
dealt with them as with polluted things; he threw them to the dunghill,
the fittest place for them. He has given up their glory, which was
looked upon as sacred (that is a character we give to majesty), to be
trampled upon and profaned; and no marvel that the king and the priest,
whose characters were always deemed venerable and inviolable, are
despised by every body, when God has, in the indignation of his
anger, despised the king and the priest,
v. 6.
He has abandoned them; he looks upon them as no longer worthy of the
honours conveyed to them by the covenants of royalty and priesthood,
but as having forfeited both; and then Zedekiah the king was used
despitefully, and Seraiah the chief priest put to death as a
malefactor. The crown has fallen from their heads, for her king and
her princes are among the Gentiles, prisoners among them, insulted
over by them
(v. 9),
and treated not only as common persons, but as the basest, without any
regard to their character. Note, It is just with God to debase those by
his judgments who have by sin debased themselves.
V. Time was when the ordinances of God were administered among them in
their power and purity, and they had those tokens of God’s presence
with them; but now those were taken from them, that part of the
beauty of Israel was gone which was indeed their greatest
beauty.
1. The ark was God’s footstool, under the mercy-seat, between the
cherubim; this was of all others the most sacred symbol of God’s
presence (it is called his footstool,
1 Chron. xxviii. 2;
Ps. xcix. 5; cxxxii. 7);
there the Shechinah rested, and with an eye to this Israel was often
protected and saved; but now he remembered not his footstool.
The ark itself was suffered, as it should seem, to fall into the hands
of the Chaldeans. God, being angry, threw that away; for it shall be no
longer his footstool; the earth shall be so, as it had been before the
ark was,
Of what little value are the tokens of his presence when his presence
is gone! Nor was this the first time that God gave his ark into
captivity,
God and his kingdom can stand without that footstool.
2. Those that ministered in holy things had been pleasant to the eye
in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion
(v. 4);
they had been purer than snow, whiter than mile
(ch. iv. 7);
none more pleasant in the eyes of all good people than those that did
the service of the tabernacle. But now these are slain, and their
blood is mingled with their sacrifices. Thus is the priest
despised as well as the king. Note, When those that were pleasant to
the eye in Zion’s tabernacle are slain God must be acknowledged in it;
he has done it, and the burning which the Lord has kindled must be
bewailed but the whole house of Israel, as in the case of Nadab and
Abihu,
3. The temple was God’s tabernacle (as the tabernacle, while that was
in being, was called his temple,
Ps. xxvii. 4)
and this he has violently taken away
(v. 6);
he has plucked up the stakes of it and cut the cords; it shall be no
more a tabernacle, much less his; he has taken it away, as the
keeper of a garden takes away his hovel or shade, when he has
done with it and has no more occasion for it; he takes it down as
easily, as speedily, and with a little regret and reluctance as if it
were but a cottage in a vineyard or a lodge in a garden of
cucumbers
(Isa. i. 8),
but a booth which the keeper makes,
Job xxvii. 18.
When men profane God’s tabernacle it is just with him to take it from
them. God has justly refused to smell their solemn assemblies
(Amos v. 21);
they had provoked him to withdraw from them, and then no marvel that he
has destroyed his places of the assembly; what should they do
with the places when the services had become an abomination? He has now
abhorred his sanctuary
(v. 7);
it has been defiled with sin, that only thing which he hates, and for
the sake of that he abhors even his sanctuary, which he had delighted
in and called his rest for ever,
Ps. cxxxii. 14.
Thus he had done to Shiloh. Now the enemies have made as great
a noise of revelling and blaspheming in the house of the
Lord as ever had been made with the temple-songs and music in
the day of a solemn feast,
Ps. lxxiv. 4.
Some, by the places of the assembly
(v. 6),
understand not only the temple, but the synagogues, and the schools of
the prophets, which the enemy had burnt up,
Ps. lxxiv. 8.
4. The solemn feasts and the sabbaths had been carefully remembered,
and the people constantly put in mind of them; but now the Lord has
caused those to be forgotten, not only in the country, among
those that lived at a distance, but even in Zion itself; for there were
none left to remember them, nor were there the places left where they
used to be observed. Now that Zion was in ruins no difference was made
between sabbath time and other times; every day was a day of mourning,
so that all the solemn feasts were forgotten. Note, It is just
with God to deprive those of the benefit and comfort of sabbaths and
solemn feasts who have not duly valued them, nor conscientiously
observed them, but have profaned them, which was one of the sins that
the Jews were often charged with. Those that have seen the days of
the Son of man, and slighted them, may desire to see one of
those days and not be permitted,
5. The altar that had sanctified their gifts is now cast off, for God
will no more accept their gifts, nor be honoured by their sacrifices,
v. 7.
The altar was the table of the Lord, but God will no longer keep
house among them; he will neither feast them nor feast with them.
6. They had been blest with prophets and teachers of the law; but now
the law is no more
(v. 9);
it is no more read by the people, no more expounded by the scribes; the
tables of the law are gone with the ark; the book of the law is taken
from them, and the people are forbidden to have it. What should those
do with Bibles who had made no better improvement of them when they had
them? Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord; God
answers them no more by prophets and dreams, which was the
melancholy case of Saul,
They had persecuted God’s prophets, and despised the visions they had
from the Lord, and therefore it is just with God to say that they shall
have no more prophets, no more visions. Let them go to the prophets
that had flattered and deceived them with visions of their own hearts,
for they shall have none from God to comfort them, or tell them how
long. Those that misuse God’s prophets justly lose them.
| Complicated Sorrows. | B. C. 588. |
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10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground,
and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they
have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem
hang down their heads to the ground.
11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my
liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the
daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings
swoon in the streets of the city.
12 They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when
they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when
their soul was poured out into their mothers’ bosom.
13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing
shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I
equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of
Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?
14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and
they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy
captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of
banishment.
15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and
wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this
the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the
whole earth?
16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they
hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up:
certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we
have seen it.
17 The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath
fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he
hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine
enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine
adversaries.
18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of
Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself
no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches
pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift
up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that
faint for hunger in the top of every street.
20 Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this.
Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long?
shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the
Lord?
21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my
virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain
them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not
pitied.
22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about,
so that in the day of the LORD‘s anger none escaped nor remained:
those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy
consumed.
Justly are these called Lamentations, and they are very pathetic
ones, the expressions of grief in perfection, mourning and woe, and
nothing else, like the contents of Ezekiel’s roll,
I. Copies of lamentations are here presented and they are painted to
the life.
1. The judges and magistrates, who used to appear in robes of state,
have laid them aside, or rather are stripped of them, and put on the
habit of mourners
(v. 10);
the elders now sit no longer in the judgment-seats, the thrones of
the house of David, but they sit upon the ground, having no
seat to repose themselves in, or in token of great grief, as Job’s
friends sat with him upon the ground,
Job ii. 13.
They open not their mouth in the gate, as usual, to give their opinion,
but they keep silence, overwhelmed with grief, and not knowing
what to say. They have cast dust upon their heads, and girded
themselves with sackcloth, as deep mourners used to do; they had
lost their power and wealth, and that made the grieve thus. Ploratur
lachrymis amissa pecunia veris–Genuine are the tears which we shed
over lost property.
2. The young ladies, who used to dress themselves so richly, and
walk with stretched-forth necks
(Isa. iii. 16),
now are humbled; The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to
the ground; those are made to know sorrow who seemed to bid
defiance to it and were always disposed to be merry.
3. The prophet himself is a pattern to the mourners,
His eyes do fail with tears; he has wept till he can weep no
more, has almost wept his eyes out, wept himself blind. Nor are the
inward impressions of grief short of the outward expressions. His
bowels are troubled, as they were when he saw these calamities
coming
which, one would think, might have excused him now; but even he, to
whom they were no surprise, felt them an insupportable grief, to such a
degree that his liver is poured out on the earth; he felt
himself a perfect colliquation; all his entrails were melted and
dissolved, as
Jeremiah himself had better treatment than his neighbours, better than
he had had before from his own countrymen, nay, their destruction was
his deliverance, their captivity his enlargement; the same that made
them prisoners made him a favourite; and yet his private interests are
swallowed up in a concern for the public, and he bewails the
destruction of the daughter of his people as sensibly as if he
himself had been the greatest sufferer in that common calamity. Note,
The judgments of God upon the land and nation are to be lamented by us,
though we, for our parts, may escape pretty well.
II. Calls to lamentation are here given: The heart of the people
cried unto the Lord,
v. 18.
Some fear it was a cry, not of true repentance, but of bitter
complaint; their heart was as full of grief as it could hold, and they
gave vent to it in doleful shrieks and outcries, in which they made use
of God’s name; yet we will charitably suppose that many of them did in
sincerity cry unto God for mercy in their distress; and the prophet
bids them go on to do so: “O wall of the daughter of Zion!
either you that stand upon the wall, you watchmen on the walls
(Isa. lxii. 6),
when you see the enemies encamped about the walls and making their
approaches towards them, or because of the wall (that is the
subject of the lamentation), because of the breaking down of the
wall (which was not done till about a month after the city was
taken), because of this further calamity, let the daughter of Zion
lament still.” This was a thing which Nehemiah lamented long after,
“Let tears run down like a river day and night, weep without
intermission, give thyself no rest from weeping, let not the apple
of thy eye cease.” This intimates,
1. That the calamities would be continuing, and the causes of grief
would frequently recur, and fresh occasion would be given them every
day and every night to bemoan themselves.
2. That they would be apt, by degrees, to grow insensible and stupid
under the hand of God, and would need to be still called upon to
afflict their souls yet more and more, till their proud and hard hearts
were thoroughly humbled and softened.
III. Causes for lamentation are here assigned, and the calamities that
are to be bewailed are very particularly and pathetically
described.
1. Multitudes perish by famine, a very sore judgment, and piteous is
the case of those that fall under it. God had corrected them by
scarcity of provisions through want of rain some time before
(Jer. xiv. 1),
and they were not brought to repentance by that lower degree of this
judgment, and therefore now by the straitness of the siege God brought
it upon them in extremity; for,
(1.) The children died for hunger in their mothers’ arms: The
children and sucklings, whose innocent and helpless state entitles
them to relief as soon as any, swoon in the streets
(v. 11)
as the wounded
(v. 12),
there being no food to be had for them; those that are starved die as
surely as those that are stabbed. They lie a great while crying to
their poor mothers for corn to feed them and wine to refresh them, for
they are such as had been bred up to the use of wine and wanted it now;
but there is none for them, so that at length their soul is poured
into their mothers’ bosom, and there they breathe their last. This
is mentioned again
(v. 19):
They faint for hunger in the top of every street. Yet this is
not the worst,
(2.) There were some little children that were slain by their mothers’
hands and eaten,
Such was the scarcity of provision that the women ate the fruit
of their own bodies, even their children when they were but of a
span long, according to the threatening,
The like was done in the siege of Samaria,
Such extremities, nay, such barbarities, were they brought to by the
famine. Let us, in our abundance, thank God that we have food
convenient, not only for ourselves, but for our children.
2. Multitudes fall by the sword, which devours one as well as another,
especially when it is in the hand of such cruel enemies as the
Chaldeans were.
(1.) They spared no character, no, not the most distinguished; even the
priest and the prophet, who of all men, one would think, might
expect protection from heaven and veneration on earth, are
slain, not abroad in the field of battle, where they are out of
their place, as Hophni and Phinehas, but in the sanctuary of the
Lord, the place of their business and which they hoped would be a
refuge to them.
(2.) They spared no age, no, not those who, by reason of their tender
or their decrepit age, were exempted from taking up the sword; for even
they perished by the sword. “The young, who have not yet come to
bear arms, and the old, who have had their discharge, lie on the
ground, slain in the streets, till some kind hand is found that
will bury them.”
(3.) They spared no sex: My virgins and my young men have fallen by
the sword. In the most barbarous military executions that ever we
read of the virgins were spared, and made part of the spoil
(Num. xxxi. 18, Judges v. 30),
but here the virgins were put to the sword, as well as the young men.
(4.) This was the Lord’s doing; he suffered the sword of the
Chaldeans to devour thus without distinction: Thou has slain them in
the day of thy anger, for it is God that kills and makes
alive, and saves alive, as he pleases. But that which follows is
very harsh: Thou has killed, and not pitied; for his soul is
grieved for the misery of Israel. The enemies that used them
thus cruelly were such as he had both mustered and summoned
(v. 22):
“Thou hast called in, as in a solemn day, my terrors round
about, that is, the Chaldeans, who are such a terror to me;”
enemies crowded into Jerusalem now as thickly as ever worshippers used
to do on a solemn festival, so that they were quite overpowered with
numbers, and none escaped nor remained; Jerusalem was made a perfect
slaughter-house. Mothers are cut to the heart to see those whom they
have taken such care of, and pains with, and whom they have been so
tender of, thus inhumanly used, suddenly cut off, though not soon
reared: Those that I have swaddled, and brought up, has my enemy
consumed, as if they were brought forth for the murderer, like
lambs for the butcher,
Zion, who was a mother to them all, lamented to see those who were
brought up in her courts, and under the tuition of her oracles, thus
made a prey.
3. Their false prophets cheated them,
This was a thing which Jeremiah had lamented long before, and had
observed with a great concern
(Jer. xiv. 13):
Ah! Lord God, the prophets say unto them, You shall not see the
sword; and here he inserts it among his lamentations: Thy
prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee; they pretended
to discover for thee, and then to discover to thee, the mind and will
of God, to see the visions of the Almighty and then to speak his
words; but they were all vain and foolish things; their visions were
all their own fancies, and, if they thought they had any, it was only
the product of a crazed head or a heated imagination, as appeared by
what they delivered, which was all idle and impertinent: nay, it is
most likely that they themselves knew that the visions they pretended
were counterfeit, and all a sham, and made use of only to colour that
which they designedly imposed upon the people with, that they might
make an interest in them for themselves. They are thy prophets, not
God’s prophets; he never sent them, nor were they pastors after his
heart, but the people set them up, told them what they should say, so
that they were prophets after their hearts.
(1.) Prophets should tell people of their faults, should show them
their sins, that they may bring them to repentance, and so prevent
their ruin; but these prophets knew that would lose them the people’s
affections and contributions, and knew they could not reprove their
hearers without reproaching themselves at the same time, and therefore
they have not discovered thy iniquity; they saw it not
themselves, or, if they did, saw so little evil in it, or danger from
it, that they would not tell them of it, though that might have been a
means, by taking away their iniquity, to turn away their captivity.
(2.) Prophets should warn people of the judgments of God coming upon
them, but these saw for them false burdens; the messages they
pretended to deliver to them from God they knew to be false, and
falsely ascribed to God; so that, by soothing them up in carnal
security, they caused that banishment which, by plain dealing, they
might have prevented.
4. Their neighbours laughed at them
(v. 15):
All that pass by thee clap their hands at thee. Jerusalem had
made a great figure, got a great name, and borne a great sway, among
the nations; it was the envy and terror of all about; and, when the
city was thus reduced; they all (as men are apt to do in such a case)
triumphed in its fall; they hissed, and wagged the head,
pleasing themselves to see how much it had fallen from its former
pretensions. Is this the city (said they) that men called the
perfection of beauty?
Ps. l. 2.
How is it now the perfection of deformity! Where is all its beauty now?
Is this the city which was called the joy of the whole earth
which rejoiced in the gifts of God’s bounty and grace more than any
other place, and which all the earth rejoiced in? Where is all its joy
now and all its glorying? It is a great sin thus to make a jest of
others’ miseries, and adds very much affliction to the afflicted.
5. Their enemies triumphed over them,
Those that wished ill to Jerusalem and her peace now vent their spite
and malice, which before they concealed; they now open their
mouths, nay, they widen them; they hiss and gnash their
teeth in scorn and indignation; they triumph in their own success
against her, and the rich prey they have got in making themselves
masters of Jerusalem: “We have swallowed her up; it is our
doing, and it is our gain; it is all our own now. Jerusalem shall never
be either courted or feared as she has been. Certainly this is the
day that we have long looked for; we have found it; we have seen it;
aha! so would we have it.” Note, The enemies of the church are apt
to take its shocks for its ruins, and to triumph in them accordingly;
but they will find themselves deceived; for the gates of hell shall
not prevail against the church.
6. Their God, in all this, appeared against them
(v. 17):
The Lord has done that which he had devised. The destroyers of
Jerusalem could have no power against her unless it were given them
from above. They are but the sword in God’s hand; it is he that has
thrown down, and has not pitied. “In this controversy of his
with us we have not had the usual instances of his compassion towards
us.” He has caused they enemy to rejoice over thee (see
he has set up the horn of thy adversaries, has given them power
and matter for pride. This is indeed the highest aggravation of the
trouble, that God has become their enemy, and yet it is the strongest
argument for patience under it; we are bound to submit to what God
does, for,
(1.) It is the performance of his purpose: The Lord has done that
which he had devised; it is done with counsel and deliberation, not
rashly, or upon a sudden resolve; it is the evil that he has
framed
and we may be sure it is framed so as exactly to answer the intention.
What God devises against his people is designed for them, and so it
will be found in the issue.
(2.) It is the accomplishment of his predictions; it is the fulfilling
of the scripture; he has now put in execution his word that he had
commanded in the days of old. When he gave them his law by Moses he
told them what judgments he would certainly inflict upon them if they
transgressed that law; and now that they have been guilty of the
transgression of this law he had executed the sentence of it, according
to
Lev. xxvi. 16, &c., Deut. xxviii. 15.
Note, In all the providences of God concerning his church it is good to
take notice of the fulfilling of his word; for there is an exact
agreement between the judgments of God’s hand and the judgments of his
mouth, and when they are compared they will mutually explain and
illustrate each other.
IV. Comforts for the cure of these lamentations are here sought for and
prescribed.
1. They are sought for and enquired after,
The prophet seeks to find out some suitable acceptable words to say to
her in this case: Wherewith shall I comfort thee, O virgin! daughter
of Zion? Note, We should endeavour to comfort those whose
calamities we lament, and, when our passions have made the worst of
them, our wisdom should correct them and labour to make the best of
them; we should study to make our sympathies with or afflicted friends
turn to their consolation. Now the two most common topics of comfort,
in case of affliction, are here tried, but are laid by because they
would not hold. We commonly endeavour to comfort our friends by telling
them,
(1.) That their case is not singular, nor without precedent; there are
many whose trouble is greater, and lies heavier upon them, than theirs
does; but Jerusalem’s case will not admit this argument: “What thing
shall I liken to thee, or what shall I equal to thee, that I may
comfort thee? What city, what country, is there, whose case is
parallel to thine? What witness shall I produce to prove an example
that will reach thy present calamitous state? Alas! there is none, no
sorrow like thine, because there is none whose honour was like thine.”
(2.) We tell them that their case is not desperate, but that it may
easily be remedied; but neither will that be admitted here, upon a view
of human probabilities; for thy breach is great, like the sea,
like the breach which the sea sometimes makes upon the land, which
cannot be repaired, but still grows wider and wider. Thou art wounded,
and who shall heal thee? No wisdom nor power of man can repair
the desolations of such a broken shattered state. It is to no purpose
therefore to administer any of these common cordials; therefore,
2. The method of cure prescribed is to address themselves to God, and
by a penitent prayer to commit their case to him, and to be instant and
constant in such prayers
(v. 19):
“Arise out of thy dust, out of thy despondency, cry out in
the night, watch unto prayer; when others are asleep, be thou upon
thy knees, importunate with God for mercy; in the beginning of the
watches, of each of the four watches, of the night (let thy eyes
prevent them,
then pour out thy heart like water before the Lord, be free and
full in prayer, be sincere and serious in prayer, open thy mind, spread
thy case before the Lord; lift up thy hands towards him in holy
desire and expectation; beg for the life of thy young children.
These poor lambs, what have they done?
Take with you words, take with you these words
(v. 20),
Behold, O Lord! and consider to whom thou hast done this, with
whom thou hast dealt thus. Are they not thy own, the seed of Abraham
thy friend and of Jacob thy chosen? Lord, take their case into thy
compassionate consideration!” Note, Prayer is a salve for every sore,
even the sorest, a remedy for every malady, even the most grievous. And
our business in prayer is not to prescribe, but to subscribe to the
wisdom and will of God; to refer our case to him, and then to leave it
with him. Lord, behold and consider, and thy will be
done.
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