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A Plea for Mercy

Remember, O L ord, what has befallen us;

look, and see our disgrace!

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our homes to aliens.

We have become orphans, fatherless;

our mothers are like widows.

We must pay for the water we drink;

the wood we get must be bought.

With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven;

we are weary, we are given no rest.

We have made a pact with Egypt and Assyria,

to get enough bread.

Our ancestors sinned; they are no more,

and we bear their iniquities.

Slaves rule over us;

there is no one to deliver us from their hand.

We get our bread at the peril of our lives,

because of the sword in the wilderness.

Our skin is black as an oven

from the scorching heat of famine.

Women are raped in Zion,

virgins in the towns of Judah.

Princes are hung up by their hands;

no respect is shown to the elders.

Young men are compelled to grind,

and boys stagger under loads of wood.

The old men have left the city gate,

the young men their music.

The joy of our hearts has ceased;

our dancing has been turned to mourning.

The crown has fallen from our head;

woe to us, for we have sinned!

Because of this our hearts are sick,

because of these things our eyes have grown dim:

because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate;

jackals prowl over it.

But you, O L ord, reign forever;

your throne endures to all generations.

Why have you forgotten us completely?

Why have you forsaken us these many days?

Restore us to yourself, O L ord, that we may be restored;

renew our days as of old—

unless you have utterly rejected us,

and are angry with us beyond measure.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Though he had in general included all kinds of evils, he yet mentions now the principal cause of sorrow, that mount Sion had lost its beauty and its excellency. For that place had been chosen by God, as though he had descended there from heaven, that he might dwell there; and we know also that its beauty is spoken of in high terms. For there the face of God shone forth, as Moses and the Prophets often speak. It was then an extremely sad change, that as God had dwelt in mount Sion, foxes should lodge there as in a deserted cave. For on mount Sion was the tabernacle or the sanctuary; and God says that it was the tabernacle of meeting, מועד, moud, because there he wished to hold intercourse with his people. As, then, that place included God and his Church, it was, as I have said, a dreadful and monstrous thing, that it had become so desolate, that foxes succeeded in the place of God and the faithful. It was not, then, without reason that Jeremiah, after having spoken of so many and so bitter calamities, mentioned this as the chief, that mount Sion was reduced to desolation, so that foxes ran there hither and thither ²³⁶²³⁶     Some connect this verse with the foregoing, as a special reason why their eyes were darkened, —

   17. For this become faint did our heart;
For these things darkened were our eyes,
   18. Yea, for mount Sion, which is desolate;
Foxes have walked through it.
   “This” was the “woe” which sin had brought; and “these things” were the various things which he had previously stated, but the desolation of mount Sion was the chief cause of sorrow.
   Others take this verse by itself, as it is done by the Sept., where על is rendered “on,” and ש for אשר, is translated “because,” —
   On mount Sion, because it has become desolate,
Foxes have walked in (or through) it.
   If על be rendered concerning, or, as to, or, with regard to, the best construction would be the following, —
   As to mount Sion, which has become desolate,
Foxes have walked in it (or, traversed it.)
    — Ed

For as it is the principal thing, and as it were the chief of all blessings, to be counted God’s people, and to have a familiar access to him, so in adversities nothing is so sad as to be deprived of God’s presence. When David testified his gratitude to God, because he had been enriched by every kind of blessing, he added this,

“I shall dwell in the house of God.” (Psalm 23:6.)

For though he had spoken of wealth and riches and of the abundance of all things, yet he saw that his chief happiness was to call on God together with the faithful, and to be deemed one of his people. So, also, on the other hand, the Prophet here shews that nothing can be sadder to the godly than when God leaves his dwelling and makes it desolate, in order to terrify all who may see it.

This had been predicted to them by Jeremiah himself, as we have seen in the seventh chapter of his prophecies, “Go ye to Shiloh,” he said, where the ark of the covenant had long been; though that place had been a long time the habitation of God, yet it was afterwards rejected with great disdain. Jeremiah then declared to the Jews, while they were yet in safety, that such would be the condition of Jerusalem; but his prophecy was not believed. He now, then, confirms, by the event, what he had predicted by God’s command, when he says that mount Sion was become the den of foxes. It follows, —

²³⁶ Some connect this verse with the foregoing, as a special reason why their eyes were darkened, — 17. For this become faint did our heart; For these things darkened were our eyes, 18. Yea, for mount Sion, which is desolate; Foxes have walked through it. “This” was the “woe” which sin had brought; and “these things” were the various things which he had previously stated, but the desolation of mount Sion was the chief cause of sorrow. Others take this verse by itself, as it is done by the Sept., where על is rendered “on,” and ש for אשר, is translated “because,” — On mount Sion, because it has become desolate, Foxes have walked in (or through) it. If על be rendered concerning, or, as to, or, with regard to, the best construction would be the following, — As to mount Sion, which has become desolate, Foxes have walked in it (or, traversed it.) — Ed