Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 2:6
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.
6. And he hath violently of a garden ] The expression is obscure. The natural sense of the Eng. would be that He has taken away His tabernacle (the Temple) out of Jerusalem as unconcernedly as a pleasure booth might be removed from a garden (cp. Job 27:18). But as a garden is a better rendering of the Heb., and so we get the thought that the Temple was destroyed and broken up with as much ease as a garden that had failed to please its owner. The fact that the LXX has as a vine (Heb. gephen) while the Heb. as it stands has gan, a garden, has led to the conjecture (so de Hoop Scheffer) that gannab, a thief, was the original reading. On this hypothesis the MT. might easily have been altered, if considered as an indecorous comparison, into one of the other two words. If we accept Scheffer’s view we must understand that Jehovah has broken through the hedge (see mg.) which protected Zion, as a thief would make his way through a hedge in order to steal property which it protected. Secrecy rather than violence, however, is what we associate with theft (cp. Jer 49:9), and so far the comparison is inappropriate.
place of assembly ] The same word in the Heb. as that which is immediately afterwards rendered solemn assembly (mg. appointed feast) which is its usual sense, although the former one occurs Psa 64:8. The occurrence of the same word in somewhat different senses in two consecutive clauses is suspicious, but no very satisfactory emendation has been suggested.
the king ] associated here with the priest by virtue of his theocratic character. Cp. Lam 4:20.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
tabernacle – Or, covert Jer 25:38, i. e. such a tent of boughs as was put up at the Feast of Tabernacles. The words mean, the Lord hath (as) violently destroyed His booth. as a man might tear down a shed in a garden. Compare Isa 1:8.
His places of the assembly – Or, His great festivals (Lam 1:15 note). It is the Word rendered solemn feasts in the next clause, and rightly joined there with sabbaths, the weekly, as the other were the annual festivals. It is no longer ‘adonay, but the Lord (Yahweh) who lets them pass into oblivion. He had once instituted them for His own honor, now He lets them lie forgotten.
Hath despised … – Or, hath rejected king and priest. With the destruction of the city the royal authority fell: with the ruined temple and the cessation of the festivals the functions of the priest ceased.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Lam 2:6-9
He hath violently taken away His tabernacle.
Divine destruction
Jehovah is here represented as throwing down His own temple, as treating it as if it were a temporary shelter, as disregarding all its glory, and merely throwing it from Him as men might tear down and east away a shed from an orchard, a garden, or a field. Who can set a measure to the wrath of God? Continually does the Lord assert that He will have nothing to do with mere form or ceremony, with mere locality or consecration; He will only accept living obedience, living faithfulness, living sacrifice. He will have no mercy upon polluted temples and polluted altars; nor will His own Book be spared ii men have used it as an idol: He will destroy and utterly drive away everything that once was sacred if it has been perverted to unholy purposes. Let not men say that they will be safe in Gods temple from Gods wrath, because when law has been violated there is no sanctuary where God will regard man as safe from the visitation of His penal sword. How living and real does all this make the providence of heaven! How near does this bring God to our daily life and conduct! (J. Parker, D. D.)
God destroying His own ordinances
1. It is the Lord alone that giveth safety unto His Church, or layeth His people open to spoilers (Isa 5:5-6; Psa 80:12-13).
2. No place on earth hath any holiness in it, or promise of a continuance, further than it is holily used.
3. God is angry with His own ordinances, and layeth a curse upon them, for the sins of those that abuse them (Psa 74:5-7; Isa 1:13; Isa 6:10).
4. The Church of God on earth is not always visible and apparent to the eyes of men (Rev 12:14).
5. When God will afflict a people, He will spoil them of the means of their peace and comfort (Isa 3:1-5).
6. It is a grievous plague of God for a people to be spoiled of their rulers; and to enjoy them is a great blessing.
7. It is the heaviest judgment that Gods Church can have falling upon her in this life, to be deprived of that holy ministry which should build her up in true religion (Psa 74:9; Mic 2:6). (J. Udall.)
The Lord hath cast off His altar.
Altars destroyed
1. It is the duty of Gods people to labour their affections, that they may be rightly touched with the loss of the outward exercises of religion.
2. When God is angry with His people, He will take from them the outward signs of His favour.
3. When Gods people grow obstinate in their sins, He spoileth them of all those things wherein they trust.
4. when the Church is spoiled, the commonwealth cannot go free.
5. The wicked could never prevail against the godly, but that God giveth them into their hands.
6. God giveth the wicked (for the sins of His people) occasion to blaspheme His name and to deride His holy ordinances. (J. Udall.)
The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall . . . of Zion.—
Privileges no protection
1. No privilege can free the impenitent sinners from the plague that God meaneth to bring upon them, though they persuade themselves otherwise (Jer 7:4).
2. The ruins of kingdoms and strong cities come to pass only by the immutable decree of God; and not by fortune, mans power, or any other thing (Dan 4:22; 1Sa 15:26; 1Sa 15:28).
3. The Lord doth both decree his judgments and also determine the measure of them (Dan 4:29).
4. The dumb and senseless creatures do mourn according to their kind when we are punished in them for our sins (Rom 8:22).
5. The sin of men bringeth strongest things to nothing when God calleth them to an account (Isa 13:19-20).
6. Gods hand prevaileth as easily against the strongest and most as the weakest and fewest. (J. Udall.)
Her gates are sunk into the ground.–
Gates sunk
1. When God punisheth His people, He will especially destroy those things wherein they put most confidence.
2. When God meaneth thoroughly to afflict a people, He will spoil them of the means of their peace and comfort.
3. When God by punishments showeth His anger against a people, He especially plagueth their princes and rulers,
4. It is a grievous punishment unto the godly to live with or to serve them that are wicked (Psa 120:4-5).
5. It is a fearful judgment to have the ministry of the Word that heretofore we enjoyed, taken away from us (Psa 74:9; Mar 6:10-11). (J. Udall.)
The desolations of Zion
I. The present desolate and miserable state of the Hebrew nation. No people, since the creation, are in so anomalous a state as the Jews–without a country or a city, a temple or a service, a priest or a sacrifice, worthy of the name. Enter a Jewish synagogue, and you will see Ichabod is written on its walls–the glory has departed: it is no longer the house of God or of prayer, but a house of merchandise, if not worse.
II. For such stupendous evils is there not a cause? If the heinousness of sin he in proportion to the favours which the sinner has received, or to the light against which it has been committed, no ingratitude seems to be so great as that of the Jewish nation.
III. The only remedy. God, by the prophet Hosea, after charging Israel with complicated guilt, gives a gleam of hope and a ray of mercy. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thy help. This is the burden of my message today, that with God there is mercy, yea, plenteous redemption; and that, though others can neither profit nor deliver, He can and shall redeem Israel from all his sins.
IV. Answer objections. One says, This is not the time. But who, I ask, is Gods time keeper? Times and events are in Gods hands; and it is neither in our power, nor would it be for our good, to know them. Who, then, can say what is not, when he confessedly knows not what is the time? Again I ask, For what is it not the time? For reaping?–for triumph? We never led you to expect it was; but, for breaking up the ground it is always opportune. Again, we shall probably never live to see any fruits of our labours. This we cannot know for certain; and if we could, it is as selfish and ungenerous, as it is unwise, to use such an argument. We may set up the hoard, or erect the scaffolding, or lay the foundation: another generation may carry up the walls; and a third may put the finishing stroke with shoutings, songs, and triumphs. After all, says another, you will do no real good you may make hypocrites of your converts, and those only of the poorest, but you will not make Christians: the prejudices of the Jew are too deeply rooted to be removed by a tract, or even by the New Testament; your labour will therefore be in vain. Formidable as this objection is, it is as flimsy as it is false. We make Christians! We make no such pretensions: it is not in us: this is Gods work–His high and exclusive prerogative. Believers are Gods husbandry, and Gods building. Is anything too hard for the Lord? is a key which will open any lock which unbelief shall place in its way. One class of objectors, of all others the most to be lamented and feared, is that who say, respecting the Jews, Let them alone: do not meddle with them: they will not attend to your instructions, nor have they any wish to change their religion; besides, what need? one religion is as good as another, if a man does but act up to that he has, and does as well as he can! Bigotry and intolerance will do them more harm than good. To this specious reasoning I reply, It is criminal indifference, and cruel inhumanity, to let men live and die in sin. True charity will make an effort to save those it loves. We know, from bitter experience, in our own cases, that, if left to themselves, the Israelites will not attend to us but God, who commanded, has promised his blessing on our labours. Sinners must not be left to themselves. (J. W. Niblock, D. D.)
Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.—
Prophets without a vision
In deploring the losses suffered by the daughter of Zion, the elegist bewails the failure of her prophets to obtain a vision from Jehovah. To understand the situation, we must recollect the normal place of prophecy in the social life of Israel. The great prophets whose names and works have come down to us in Scripture were always rare and exceptional men–voices crying in the wilderness. Possibly they were not more scarce at this time than at other periods. This was not an age like the time of Samuels youth, barren of Divine voices. Yet the idea of the elegist is that the prophets who might be still seen at the site of the city were deprived of visions. These must have been the professional prophets, officials who had been trained in music and dancing to appear as choristers on festive occasions, the equivalent of the modern dervishes; but who were also sought after like the seer of Ramah, to whom young Saul resorted for information about his fathers lost asses, as simple soothsayers. Such assistance as these men were expected to give was no longer forthcoming at the request of troubled souls. The low and sordid uses to which everyday prophecy was degraded may incline us to conclude that the cessation of it was no very great calamity, and perhaps to suspect that from first to last the whole business was a mass of superstition affording large opportunities for charlatanry. But it would be rash to adopt this extreme view without a fuller consideration of the subject. The prophets were regarded as the media of communication between heaven and earth. It was because of the low and narrow habits of the people that their gifts were often put to low and narrow uses which savoured rather of superstition than of devotion. The belief that God did not only reveal His will to great persons and on momentous occasions, helped to make Israel a religions nation. That there were humble gifts of prophecy within the reach of the many, and that these gifts were for the helping of men and women in their simplest needs, was one of the articles of the Hebrew faith. When we have succeeded in recovering this Hebrew standpoint, we shall be prepared to recognise that there are worse calamities than bad harvests and seasons of commercial depression; we shall be brought to acknowledge that it is possible to be starved in the midst of plenty, because the greatest abundance of such food as we have lacks the elements requisite for our complete nourishment. As we look across the wide field of history, we must perceive that there have been many dreary periods in which the prophets could find no vision from the Lord. Now what is the explanation of these variations in the distribution of the spirit of prophecy? Why is the fountain of inspiration an intermittent spring, a Bethesda? We cannot trace its failure to any shortness of supply, for this fountain is fed from the infinite ocean of the Divine life. Neither can we attribute caprice to One whose wisdom is infinite, and whose will is constant. It may be right to say that God withholds the vision, withholds it deliberately; but it cannot be correct to assert that this fact is the final explanation of the whole matter. God must be believed to have a reason, a good and sufficient reason, for whatever He does. Can we guess what His reason may be in such a case as this? It may be conjectured that it is necessary for the field to lie fallow for a season in order that it may bring forth a better crop subsequently. Incessant cultivation would exhaust the soil. The eye would be blinded if it had no rest from visions. Until we have obeyed the light that has been given us, it is foolish to complain that we have not more light. Even our present light will wane if it is not followed up in practice. But while such considerations must be attended to, they do not end the controversy, and they scarcely apply at all to the particular illustration of it that is now before us. There is no danger of surfeit in a famine; and it is a famine of the word that we are now confronted with. Moreover, the elegist supplies an explanation that sets all conjectures at rest. The fault was in the prophets themselves. Addressing the daughter of Zion, the poet says: Thy prophets have seen visions for thee. The visions were suited to the people to whom they were declared–manufactured, shall we say?–with the express purpose of pleasing them. Such a degradation of sacred functions in gross unfaithfulness deserved punishment; and the most natural and reasonable punishment was the withholding for the future of true visions from men who in the past had forged false ones. There is nothing so blinding as the habit of lying. People who do not speak truth ultimately prevent themselves from perceiving truth, the false tongue leading the eye to see falsely. This is the curse and doom of all insincerity. It is useless to inquire for the views of insincere persons; they can have no distinct views, no certain convictions, because their mental vision is blurred by their long-continued habit of confounding true and false. Then, if for once in their lives such people may really desire to find a truth in order to assure themselves in some great emergency, and therefore seek a vision of the Lord, they will have lost the very faculty of receiving it. (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. As if it were of a garden] “As it were the garden of his own hedging.” – Blayney.
The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts] By delivering us up into the hands of the enemy our religious worship is not only suspended, but all Divine ordinances are destroyed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The word translated
tabernacle (say some) signifies a hedge or fence, and they would have it here so translated, and so the phrase should denote Gods withdrawing his protection from the Jews; but it is no where so translated. It is another word used Psa 80:12; 89:40. The most judicious interpreters think that the word here signifieth the temple, and the rather because of what followeth. By the
places of the assembly may be understood the synagogues. By
the king and the priest are meant persons of greatest rank and eminency, though it is thought here is a special reference to Zedekiah the king of Judah, and Seraiah who was the high priest, the former of which was miserably handled, the latter slain.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. tabernaclerather, “Hehath violently taken away His hedge (the hedge of the placesacred to Him, Psa 80:12; Psa 89:40;Isa 5:5), as that of a garden”[MAURER]. CALVINsupports English Version, “His tabernacle (that is,temple) as (one would take away the temporary cottage or booth) of agarden.” Isa 1:8 accordswith this (Job 27:18).
places of . . . assemblythetemple and synagogues (Psa 74:7;Psa 74:8).
solemn feasts (La1:4).
Zain.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as [if it were] of a garden,…. The house of the sanctuary or temple, as the Targum; which was demolished at once with great force and violence, and as easily done as a tent or tabernacle is taken down; and no more account made of it than of a cottage or lodge in a vineyard or garden, set up while the fruit was, gathering; either to shelter from the heat of the sun in the day, or to lodge in at night; see Isa 1:8;
he hath destroyed his places in the assembly; the courts where the people used to assemble for worship in the temple; or the synagogues in Jerusalem, and other parts of the land:
the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion; there being neither places to keep them in, nor people to observe them:
and hath despised, in the indignation of his anger, the king and the priest; whose persons and offices were sacred, and ought to be treated by men with honour and respect; but, for the sins of both, the Lord despised them himself, and made them the object of his wrath and indignation, and suffered them to be despised and ill used by others, by the Chaldeans; Zedekiah had his children slain before his eyes, and then they were put out, and he was carried in chains to Babylon, and there detained a captive all his days; and Seraiah the chief priest, or, as the Targum here has it, the high priest, was put to death by the king of Babylon; though not only the persons of the king and priest are meant, but their offices also; the kingdom and priesthood ceased from being exercised for many years.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In Lam 2:6 and Lam 2:7, mention is made of the destruction of the temple and the cessation of public worship. “He treated violently (cruelly),” i.e., laid waste, “like a garden, His enclosure.” (from = , to intertwine, hedge round) signifies a hedge or enclosure. The context unmistakeably shows that by this we are to understand the temple, or the holy place of the temple; hence is not the hedging, but what is hedged in. But the comparison has perplexed expositors, and given occasion for all kinds of artificial and untenable explanations. We must not, of course, seek for the point of the comparison in the ease with which a garden or garden-fence may be destroyed, for this does not accord with the employment of the verb ; but the garden is viewed as a pleasure-ground, which its owner, if it does not suit its purpose, destroys or gives up again, without much hesitation. The emphasis lies on the suffix in , “ His own enclosure,” God’s enclosure = the sacred enclosure (Gerlach), the sanctuary protected by Himself, protected by laws intended to keep the sanctity of the temple from profanation. The second clause states the same thing, and merely brings into prominence another aspect of the sanctity of the temple by the employment of the word . This noun, as here used, does not mean the “time,” but the “place of meeting;” this is not, however, the place where the people assemble, but the place of meeting of the Lord with His people, where He shows Himself present, and grants His favour to the congregation appearing before Him. Thus, like , the word signifies the place where God reveals His gracious presence to His people; cf. Exo 25:22, and the explanation of given in that passage. In the first member of the verse, the temple is viewed as a place sacred to God; in the second, as the place where He specially manifests His gracious presence in Israel. With the destruction of the temple, Jahveh (the covenant God) caused feast and Sabbath, i.e., all public festivals and divine service, to be forgotten. The destruction of the sacred spots set apart for the worship of the Lord was attended with the cessation of the sacred festivals. Thereby it became evident that the Lord, in His fierce anger, had rejected king and priest. The singulars, festival, Sabbath, king, and priest, are used in unrestricted generality. King and priest are regarded as the divinely chosen media of the covenant graces. The abolition of public worship practically involved that of the priesthood, for the service of the priests was connected with the temple. Expositors are much divided in their views regarding the object for which the king is here mentioned in connection with the priest. There is no special need for refuting the opinion of Thenius, that king and priest are named as the two main factors in the worship of God, because the seat of the king was upon Zion as well as that of the priesthood; for the seat of the priests was as little on Mount Zion as the king’s palace was on the temple mount. Moreover, the words do not treat of the destruction of the royal palace and the dwellings of the priests, but declare that royalty and the priesthood will be rejected. The mention of the king in connection with the priests implies a close connection also of royalty with the temple. Ngelsbach, accordingly, is of opinion that the kings also belong to the number of those summoned to celebrate the feasts, and were not merely Jehovah’s substitutes before the people, but also “representatives of the people before God;” for he adopts the remark of Oehler (in Herzog’s Real Enc. viii. S. 12), that “the Israelitish kingdom (especially in David and Solomon) bears a certain sacerdotal character, inasmuch as the king, at the head of the people and in their name, pays homage to God, and brings back again to the people the blessing of God (2Sa 6:17.; 1Ki 3:4; 1Ki 8:14., 55ff., 62ff., 1Ki 9:25; 1Ch 29:10.; 2Ch 1:6, compared with Eze 46:1.).” This sacerdotal character of royalty, however, was but the outcome of the sacerdotal character of the people of Israel. In view of this, the king, because of his position as the head of the people in civil matters (for he was praecipuum ecclesiae membrum ), fully brought out the relation of the people to the Lord, without, however, discharging any peculiarly sacerdotal function. The complaint in the present verse, – that, with the destruction of the temple, and the abolition of the service connected with it, Jahveh had rejected king and priest, – implies that royalty in Israel stood in as intimate connection with the temple as the priesthood did. This connection, however, is not to be sought for so much in the fact that it was the incumbent duty of the theocratic king, in the name and at the head of the people, to pay homage to God, and to see that the public worship of Jahve was upheld; we must rather seek for it in the intimate relation instituted by God between the maintenance of the Davidic monarchy and the building of the house of God. This connection is exhibited in the promise made by God to David, when the latter had resolved to build a house for the Lord to dwell in: He (Jahveh) shall build a house to him (David), viz., raise up his seed after him, and establish his kingdom for ever; and this seed of David shall build a house to His name (2Sa 7:12.). This promise, in virtue of which Solomon built the temple as a dwelling for the name of Jahveh, connected the building of the temple so closely with the kingdom of David, that this continued existence of the temple might be taken as a pledge of the continuance of David’s house; while the destruction of the temple, together with the abolition of the public ministrations, might, on the other hand, serve as a sign of the rejection of the Davidic monarchy. Viewing the matter in this light, Jeremiah laments that, with the destruction of the temple and the abolition of the public festivals, Jahveh has rejected king and priest, i.e., the royal family of David as well as the Levitical priesthood.
In Lam 2:7, special mention is further made of the rejection of the altar, and of the sanctuary as the centre of divine worship. The verbs and are used in Psa 89:39-40, in connection with the rejection of the Davidic monarchy. “The sanctuary,” mentioned in connection with “the altar,” does not mean the temple in general, but its inner sanctuary, – the holy place and the most holy place, as the places of worship corresponding to the altar of the fore-court. The temple-building is designated by “the walls of her palaces.” For, that by we are to understand, not the palaces of the city of David, the royal palaces, but the towering pile of the temple, is unmistakeably evident from the fact that, both before and after, it is the temple that is spoken of, – not its fortifications, the castles specially built for its defence (Thenius); because does not mean a fortified building, but (as derived from , to be high) merely a lofty pile. Such were the buildings of the temple in consequence of their lofty situation on Moriah. In the house of Jahveh, the enemy raises a loud cry ( , cf. Jer 22:20), as on a feast-day. The cry is therefore not a war-cry (Pareau, Rosenmller), but one of jubilee and triumph, as if they had come into the temple to a festival: in Psa 74:4, the word used is , to roar as a lion.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Then he says first, that his tabernacle had been overthrown by God. They who render it “cottage” extenuate too much what is spoken of; nor does the Prophet simply compare the sanctuary of God to a cottage. Then I take tabernacle in a good sense. With regard to the verb חמם, chemes, as it means to migrate, they properly render it, as I think, who give this version, that God had removed his tabernacle; nor do I disapprove of repeating the word tabernacle. God, then, had removed his tabernacle, as though it were a cottage in a garden. Watchmen, as it appears from the first chapter of Isaiah, had then cottages in their gardens, but only for a time, as is the case at this day with those who watch over their vineyards; they have, until the time of vintage, small chests in which they conceal themselves. The Prophet then says, that though God’s tabernacle was honorable, and of high dignity, it was yet like a cottage in a garden. It is not, however, a simple comparison, as before stated, and therefore I reject the opinion of those who render it cottage, for it is not suitable, and it would be unmeaning. God, then, hath removed his tabernacle as a garden, that is, the sanctuary where he dwelt. And how did he remove it? even as a garden-cottage. And as watchers of gardens were wont to construct their little cots of leaves of trees and slight materials, so the Prophet, in order to increase commiseration, says, that the sacred habitation of God was like a cottage in a garden, because it was removed from one place to another; and thus he intimates that God regarded as nothing what he had previously adorned with singular excellencies. (151)
He then adds, that God had destroyed his testimony. By the word, מועד, muod, he means the same throughout; but some confine it to the ark of the covenant, and of this I do not disapprove. We must yet bear in mind the design of the Prophet, which was to shew that by the entire ruin of the Temple the covenant of God was in a manner abolished. It is, indeed, certain, that God had not forgotten his faithfulness and constancy, but this abolition of his covenant refers to what appeared to men. He then says, that the sanctuary which was, as it were, the testimony of God’s favor, had been overthrown. Now, as he repeats again the word מועד, muod, it may be that he thus refers to the Tabernacle, either because the holy assemblies met there, or because it had been solemnly dedicated, that God might there hold intercourse with his people. For מועד, muod, means a fixed time, it means an assembly, it means a festival, and sometimes it means a sacrifice; and all these signification’s are not unsuitable: yet when he says that God had destroyed his testimony, I apply this to the Tabernacle itself, or, if it seems to any preferable, to the ark of the covenant; though the former is the most suitable, because it was a place consecrated, as it has been stated, for mutual intercourse.
He afterwards says, that God had forgotten the assembly, the sacrifice, or the tabernacle; for it is the same word again, but it seems not to be taken in the same sense. Then I think that מועד, 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, —
(151) The word שכו is rendered by the versions in the sense of סכו, “his tabernacle;” but by so doing they make it the same in effect with מועדו, “his place of meeting,” in the following clause. The verb חמס never means what Calvin says, to migrate or to remove, but to cast off, or to throw down, that is, with force or violence. Then שר, a fence or enclosure, is what suits the verb, —
6. And he has thrown down as that of a garden his enclosure, He has destroyed his assembling-place; Forgotten hath Jehovah in Sion the assembly and the Sabbath; And has cast off, in the foaming of his wrath, the king and the priest.
The “enclosure,” or fence, refers to the courts which surrounded the Temple; hence the place where the people assembled was destroyed. God had regarded it no more than the fence of a common garden. There is “fence” understood after כ, no uncommon thing in Hebrew. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
EXEGETICAL NOTES.
() Lam. 2:6. The dwelling-place of Jehovah on Mount Zion, which He claims as His own possession, with all its appointed services, has shared in the tribulations. He has treated violently, as a garden, His booth. The references in Lam. 2:6-7 being to the methods of Divine worship, the reference here will be to the Temple. He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men, and instead of this, in Salem was His tabernacle=booth, but it also had come to be only a temporary habitation for the mighty God: that which He had sanctified had been profaned by the inroads of unsanctified men. As a booth in a vineyard is dismantled when the vintage is ingathered, so the stately Temple was contumeliously broken down. The Septuagint reading, He tore up His tabernacle as a vine, harmonises with the idea of the Hebrew phrase, viz., that the House of the Lord was laid waste. Consequent on this, He has destroyed his [place of] solemn assembly, where He met with His people and blessed them; following this came awful manifestations of indifference even to the helps to serving the Lord. The covenant God Jehovah has caused to be forgotten in Zion solemn assembly and sabbath; the annual and weekly services were no longer in the minds of His professed people. The old ritual was unavailable. Communion with one another and communion with God through established religious forms were altogether in abeyance. They had to be taught that that which decayeth and waxeth aged is to be replaced by a new covenant in which the service of men, and the service of God would not be by ordered rules, but by love in the spirit. The persons also who had been officially prominent in Temple-services were swept off the stage; He has despised, set no store by, in the vehemence of His anger, king and priest. The priesthood was indispensable to the Temple-worship till there ariseth another Priest, made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. The connection of royalty with the Temple is thus explained by Oehler: The Israelitish kingdom especially in David and Solomon, bears a certain sacerdotal character, inasmuch as the king at the head of the people and in their name, pays homage to God and brings back again to the people the blessings of God. This, however, is defective in statement. What was done by the king was not done in any priestly capacity, but as being the chief member of the sacerdotal people. They were a kingdom of priests unto Jehovah. Besides, it was done as representative of the Davidic monarchy, with which the building and continuance of services in the house of the Lord were closely linked (Jer. 33:21). Viewed in this light, the lamentation is, that Jehovah has rejected both the royal family of David and the Levitical priesthood.
() Lam. 2:7. There has been entire desecration of the holy places. The Lord has cast off his altar, the appointed erection on which burnt-offerings and sacrifices were presented to Him, and which should come up with acceptance there. There was no standing for such action now. He had abandoned itits fires were quenched and cold: he has abhorred his sanctuary, the whole enclosure of the holy places. But there all is not still; He has put into the hand of her enemy the walls of her palaces, the crowning buildings of Mount Zion have been delivered up to hostile people, and they have given voice in the house of the Lord; a victorious multitude made within the glory-hallowed precincts such a jubilant noise as [in] a day of a solemn assembly, but the clamour was the clamour of ruthless conquerors, not of rejoicing worshippers.
() Lam. 2:8. Jeremiah relates (Jer. 52:14) that all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. This was from no mere chance of warfare, no shrewd decision of the commander of the invaders; it was from the predetermination of the God of Israel. Jehovah has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. It was carried out according as He incited or restrained the agents of its accomplishment; he has stretched out the [measuring] line, and until His limitations were reached he has not withdrawn his hand from overthrowing. Every division of the fortifications has suffered, and he has made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languish together. All calamities have their methods and boundaries fixed by the All-wise. They do not form a chaos, brought about by natural forces or human power. They are in an exact order, and proceed to a verge which He has appointed. They are pregnant with gigantic issues.
() Lam. 2:9. Traces of the best constructed part of the wall have disappeared, covered with debris. Her gates have sunk into the earth; the very means of fastening them are in fragments; he has destroyed and broken her bars. Like that had befallen the political and religious barriers which separated her from other peoples. Her king and princes are among the nations, swept away into exile. With the removal of civil authorities self-seeking and anarchy had supervened. Gods rule of life, which required Temple and altar for its material symbol, exists no more for the people; there is no law. Still more sad, the proofs of the Lords guidance had been withheld; even her prophets find no vision from Jehovah to bring help and comfort. There might be prophets, but they received no burden of the Lord. He will put aside for a time His means of grace, if they cease to answer Divine ends.
HOMILETICS
THE WRECK OF RELIGIOUS ORDINANCES
(Lam. 2:6-9)
I. The Temple is completely demolished (Lam. 2:6-8). In a city where there are many temples the destruction of one creates only a temporary inconvenience. Jerusalem, and indeed the Jewish nation, had but one temple, and it had the special distinction of being the only temple in the world dedicated to the worship of Jehovah. It was always in the past, and is to this day, reverently referred to as the Temple. It was idolised by the Jew, and was regarded as beyond the reach of possible injury. It was encircled with the rampart of Omnipotence. When menaced by the enemy, the people rallied round the sacred fane, prepared to sacrifice everything in its defence. Here they made their last stand, and fought with the fury of fanatics. But their zeal, bravery, and strategy were all in vain. In their blind infatuation they saw not that the only invincible defence, the presence of Jehovah, was withdrawn. The Temple was doomed, and was reduced to ruin with the same reckless indifference as a man would tear down a temporary shelter in his garden (Lam. 2:6). The gates, walls, palaces, altar, sanctuary, were abandoned to utter destruction (Lam. 2:7-9). The wreckage of such a temple was not only a metropolitan, but a national calamity. Everything was gone when the Temple was gone.
II. The religious services, formerly observed with uninterrupted regularity, are now utterly neglected. The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion (Lam. 2:6). The annual and the weekly festivals are no longer observed. There is an intensive force in its being no longer Adonai, but Jehovah, who lets them pass into oblivion. He had once instituted them for His own honour, now He lets them lie forgotten. When religion is neglected, all days are alike; there is nothing to mark off Sabbath-days from week-days, sacred days from common days. Life is reduced to the dead level of dull monotony, and the days drag on in the weary routine of comfortless and aimless labour.
He liveth long who liveth well
All else is being flung away;
He liveth longest who can tell
Of true things truly done each day.
Intellectual pursuits and activity are a poor substitute for genuine religion. Education not founded on religion is only a varnish. Abolish the Sabbath and the decay of religion begins. A poet calls the Sabbath Heaven once a week. Day of rest, of days the best.
III. The principal worshippers are in exile. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles (Lam. 2:9). The prophet has been principally occupied with the buildings of the city and Temple. Now he turns to the people, and beginning with their temporary rulers, he laments the sad fate of the king and princes who, no longer seen taking their part in the Temple service, were, like many of their people, captives in the hands of the heathen. With the best external aids it is difficult to maintain the spirituality of worship; but that difficulty is increased when all external accessories are withdrawn, and man is placed in the midst of irreligious heathenism. If he does not strive to propagate what religion he has, he will lose it. To love and worship God we must know Him, and this we cannot do till He graciously reveals Himself. The astronomer seeking to observe a star, can do nothing till he directs his telescope towards the star. The dim light of evening is with him, and by it he sets the telescope and guides it to the proper point in the heavens. But when he has pointed it to the star, the light of the star streams into the telescope, lighting it up with a new and brighter illumination. The soul of man is a telescope by which he is seeking to see and know God. The general illumination of the heart is in the world. All pagans have it. But when man has adjusted the lenses of the soul, God flashes down it, and produces an image of Himself in the poor earthly tube.
IV. The Law and the Prophets are discredited. The law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord (Lam. 2:9). The Jewish law, the Torah, came to an end when it had no longer a local habitation. Its enactments were essentially those, not of a catholic, but of a national religion, and the restoration of the nation with a material temple was indispensable to its continued existence. It was only when elevated to be a catholic religion by being made spiritual that it could do without ark, temple, and a separate people (Jer. 3:16; Jer. 31:31-34). With the Torah the special gift of prophecy also ceased, since both were peculiar to the theocracy; but it was not till the establishment of Christianity that they were finally withdrawn, or rather merged in higher developments of grace. Jeremiah now laments over the temporary removal of Judahs special privileges before they had accomplished their office. At the return from exile they were for the time restored.Speakers Comm.
It is a grave calamity to church or nation to be deprived of men of insight and inspiration. These men give direction and character to the best work we are capable of doing. Much of the work of the world is done in a perfunctory mannerdone to get through with it, done to get it off ones mind, done to secure the return which it promises. It is done without enthusiasm, originality, or contagious zeal. The men who give their work character, distinction, perfection, are the men whose spirit is behind their hands, giving them a new dexterity. There is no kind of work, from the merest routine to the highest creative activity, which does not receive all that gives it quality from the spirit in which it is done or fashioned. The highest and best work is done when the soul receives its vision from the Lord and is animated by His inspiration.
LESSONS.
1. Religion seeks practical expression in worship and service.
2. The loss of religious ordinances is a national calamity.
3. The abuse of religious opportunities is punished by their withdrawal.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Lam. 2:6. He hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; He hath destroyed His places of the assembly. The earthly temple:
1. Is but a temporary structure, however elaborately built.
2. Is desecrated when a false worship is offered.
3. When defiled, is suddenly destroyed, as a man may tear down in a few moments a fragile hut erected for his temporary pleasure in a garden.
4. Its destruction suggests reflections on mans unfaithfulness and Gods anger.
Perverted worship: I. Involves the loss of stated privileges. The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion. II. Rouses the Divine displeasure. The indignation of His anger. III. Entails regal and ecclesiastical dishonour. And hath despised the king and the priest.
Lam. 2:7. A despised sanctuary: I. Its holiest places rejected with disdain by an offended Deity. The Lord hath cut off his altar; he hath abhorred his sanctuary. II. Completely abandoned to destruction. He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces. III. The wild shouts of its destroyers a strange contrast to the exultant joy of former worshippers. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast.
Lam. 2:8. The implacable destroyer: I. Works in harmony with a fixed determination. The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. II. Carries out his purpose with systematic thoroughness. He hath stretched out a line; he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying. III. Lays the strongest defences in lamentable ruin. Therefore he hath made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.
Lam. 2:9. National ruin complete: I. When all public buildings are destroyed. Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars. II. When the rulers are in exile. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles. III. When religious ordinances are suspended. The law is no more. IV. When religious teachers are deprived of Divine inspiration. Her prophets also find no vision from the Lord.
ILLUSTRATIONS.Undercurrents cause wrecks. A ship was stranded on the island of Sanda, in the Orkneys. It was a mystery to the captain how the vessel got there. Being foggy at the time, he carefully consulted his chart, and both he and the mate worked up the position, their reckonings exactly agreeing as to latitude, but differing slightly in longitude. The captain had navigated the ship for ten years without any misfortune. He attributed the accident to the force of an undercurrent which carried him unknowingly out of his course, and learnt afterwards from fishermen in the locality that a current was frequently felt in that sea as far as sixty miles from land. The sea of life is intersected with dangerous undercurrents, and the watchful student will be careful to watch their tendency and strength. While on the fringe of the current, it is comparatively easy to escape, but if we drift into the midst of the irresistible swirl, we shall be hurried on to inevitable disaster. You have seen the tiny snowflakes flutter about the railway track, like lovely bits of down shook from angelic wings, and you have seen with what ease the proud locomotive scatters the fleecy morsels in the early stages of the storm; but the falling atoms increase with such persistent rapidity and accumulative force, that the panting engine is at length completely strangled, and, utterly exhausted, lies buried fathoms deep beneath the crystal mound.The Scottish Pulpit.
Ordinances help religious life. Grace is like a spark in wet wood, that needs continual blowing. Would you have and keep up ardent desires? Do as they that would keep in the fire; cherish the sparks and blow them up to a flame. There is no man lives under the means of grace and under the discoveries of God and religion but has his good moods and lively motions. The waters are stirred many times; take hold of this advantage. Strengthen the things that remain and are ready to die, and blow up these sparks into a flame. God has left us enkindling meansprayer, meditation, and the Word. Observe where the bellows blow hardest, and ply that course. The more supernatural things are, there needs more diligence to preserve them. A strange plant needs more care than a native of the soil. Worldly desires, like a nettle, breed of their own accord, but spiritual desires need a great deal of cultivating.Manton.
The Christian is compared to a merchantman who trades for rich pearls; he is to go to ordinances as the merchant sails from port to port, not to see places, but to take in his lading, some here, some there. A Christian should be as much ashamed to return empty from his traffic with ordinances as the merchant to come home without his lading. But, alas! how little is this looked after by many that pass for great professors, who are like some idle persons, that come to the market not to buy provision and carry home what they want, but to gaze and look upon what is there to be sold, to no purpose! O my brethren, take heed of this!Gurnall.
The earthly temple and perverted worship. There is a great difference between religiousness and religion. Man is a religious animal, he must and will worship something. But the religion which the Bible teaches is a total change of the heart, and of the aim and purpose of life.Calthrop.
Believers are in danger of seduction into the sin and falsehood of the world. The world threatens believers not only with its enmity, but evermore with its temptations. Believers must be warned to shun the idols the world worships, and they are warned against love to the world, because love in that way very easily gets associated with sinful lusts, which are common in the world. In false prophecy it is shown that the devil, who was a murderer and liar from the beginning, threatens the Church, not only with the deadly enmity of the world, but also with its soul-destroying lies. We cannot show brotherly love to false teachers without running the risk of making ourselves partakers in their sins.Weiss.
Meansthe table of the Lord, the pulpit, the pages of the Bible, the family altar, the closet oratoryare of no value unless as putting us in communication with the Spirit of God, and used as the kite which the philosopher sends up to draw down the lightnings of the skies, or the bucket which the cottager sends down to draw up water from the well. Then, powerless as they are in themselves, they become the blessed and mighty instrument of spiritual good; the sails that catch the wind and impel the vessel on; the concave mirror that, placed before the Sun of Righteousness, gathers His beams into its burning focus to warm the coldest and melt the hardest heart; eagle-wings to raise our souls to heaven; conduits, like the pipes that bring water to our city from these Pentland Hills, to convey streams of grace, peace, and purity from their fountain in heaven to our souls on earth.Guthrie.
A despised sanctuary. Those that turn their backs on Gods ordinances and, in rebellion to His commandments, live in sins against conscience, can they wonder that He hides His face from them when they turn their backs on Him? When we sin, we turn our backs upon God and our face to the devil, the world, and pleasure; and can men wonder that God suffers them to melt and pine away? Let us do as the flowers do, turn themselves to the sun. Let us turn ourselves to God in meditation and prayer, striving and wrestling with Him. Look to Him, eye Him in His ordinances and promises, and have communion with Him all the ways we can. Let our souls open and shut with Him. When He hides His face, let us droop as the flowers do till the sun comes again. So, when we have not daily comfort of the Spirit in peace of conscience, let us never rest seeking Gods face in His ordinances and by prayer, and that will cheer a drooping soul as the sunbeams do the flagging flowers.Sibbes.
Retribution implacable. Fatalism and Atheism are preached constantly amidst the plaudits of ignorant Englishmen. How many politicians deem the matter a thing of the slightest consequence! Hume would never have set cities on fire, beheaded or hacked to pieces human beings, least of all the refined, the noble, the educated; but he must be reckoned among those who sneeringly scattered smouldering embers and bequeathed to others death by the inevitable conflagration. Seldom has the logic of events been more complete than in the great French Revolution.Bampton Lecture.
What a diabolical invention was the Virgins Kiss, once used by the fathers of the Inquisition! The victim was pushed forward to kiss the image, when, lo! its arms embraced him in a deadly embrace, piercing his body with a hundred hidden knives. The tempting pleasures of sin offer to the unwary just such a virgins kiss. The sinful joys of the flesh lead, even in this world, to results most terrible, while in the world to come the daggers of remorse and despair will cut and wound beyond all remedy.Spurgeon.
Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that unsuspected ripens within the flower of the pleasure that concealed it.Emerson.
National ruin. The whole history of Christianity shows that she is in far greater danger of being corrupted by the alliance of power than of being crushed by its opposition. Those who thrust temporal sovereignty upon her treat her as her prototypes treated her Author. They bow the knee, and spit upon her; they cry, Hail! and smite her on the cheek; they put a sceptre in her hand, but it is a fragile reed; they crown her, but it is with thorns; they cover with purple the wounds which their own hands have inflicted, and inscribe magnificent letters over the cross on which they have fixed her, to perish in ignominy and pain.Macaulay.
Human society reposes on religion. Civilisation without it would be like the lights that play in the northern skya momentary flash on the face of darkness ere it again settled into eternal night. Wit and wisdom, sublime poetry and lofty philosophy, cannot save a nation, else ancient Greece had never perished. Valour, law, ambition, cannot preserve a people, else Rome had still been mistress of the world. The nation that loses faith in God and man loses not only its most precious jewel, but its most unifying and conserving force; has before it a
Stygian cave forlorn
Where brooding Darkness spreads his jealous wings,
And the night-raven sings.
Fairbairn.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(6) He hath violently taken away his tabernacle . . .The noun represents a booth or shed, like those erected in the Feast of Tabernacles. Jehovah is represented as laying waste that tabernacle, i.e., His own temple, as a man might remove a temporary shed from an orchard or garden.
His places of the assembly.The noun is the same as that rendered solemn feasts in the next clause. The destruction involved the non-observance of all such feasts, as well as of the sabbath. King and priest, the two representatives of the nations life (Jer. 33:21), were alike, as it seemed, rejected.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. He hath taken away his tabernacle Slight inaccuracies in our Version in this verse, and in many others in this book, almost completely conceal the poetic diction of the original. The word rendered “tabernacle” is not the same which appears in Lam 2:4, but means rather a temporary enclosure or shelter, as a hedge or booth. It should also be noticed that the original for places of the assembly and solemn feasts is one and the same word. The translation then should be something as follows:
And he hath violently treated, as a garden, his booth,
he hath destroyed his festival:
Jehovah hath caused to be forgotten in Zion festival and sabbath;
And in the fierceness of his wrath he hath rejected king and priest.
The phrase as a garden is obscure, but probably contains some intimation of temporariness and facility.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lam 2:6. He hathtaken away his tabernacle He hath laid waste his tabernacle as a garden. Houbigant. See Isa 1:8; Isa 5:5.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“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.” Lam 2:6
The word rendered “tabernacle” means a booth, a shed, some little temporary place of abode, such as were erected in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles. Jehovah is here represented as throwing down his own temple, as treating it as if it were a temporary shelter, as disregarding all its glory, and merely throwing it from him as men might tear down and cast away a shed from an orchard, a garden, or a field. God’s destruction was complete: it overturned the places of assembly; it drove away as if in wrath solemn feast and holy Sabbath; it cast down with a violent hand the holy altar and the sanctuary once beloved. Who can set a measure to the wrath of God? Continually does the Lord assert that he will have nothing to do with mere form or ceremony, with mere locality or consecration; he will only accept living obedience, living faithfulness, living sacrifice. He will have no mercy upon polluted temples and polluted altars; nor will his own Book be spared if men have used it as an idol: he will destroy and utterly drive away everything that once was sacred if it has been perverted to unholy purposes. When the Sabbath has been desecrated it is no longer a Sabbath; when the altar has been used for selfish purposes it no longer reaches unto heaven. Let not men say that they will be safe in God’s temple from God’s wrath, because when law has been violated there is no sanctuary where God will regard man as safe from the visitation of his penal sword. How living and real does all this make the providence of Heaven! How near does this bring God to our daily life and conduct! How clearly does this show that it is the heart on which God looks, and not the handiwork or mechanism, which may but represent, not our skill only, but our religious vanity.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Lam 2:6 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.
Ver. 6. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle. ] Redit ad deplorandam religionem: nothing grieves a good soul so much as the loss of religious opportunities. Old Eli’s heart was broken before his neck at the news of the ark taken.
As if it were of a garden.
He hath destroyed his places of the assembly.
The king and the priest.
“ Haec iam pro vill, sub pedibusque iacent. ”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
tabernacle = dwelling, or pavilion. Hebrew. sok. Occurs only here.
as if it were of a garden: or, as [a booth in] a garden [is destroyed] See note on Isa 1:8. Septuagint reads “like a vine”. Ginsburg thinks “like a thief”.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
solemn feasts = appointed seasons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
he hath violently: “He hath destroyed the temple, as if it had been no better than a cottage erected in a garden, while the fruit is gathering, and then removed, or suffered to decay.” Psa 80:12, Psa 89:40, Isa 5:5, Isa 63:18, Isa 64:11
tabernacle: or, hedge
as if: Isa 1:8
caused: Lam 1:4, Zep 3:18
the king: Lam 4:16, Lam 4:20, Lam 5:12, Isa 43:28, Jer 52:11-27, Eze 12:12, Eze 12:13, Eze 17:18, Mal 2:9
Reciprocal: Deu 32:19 – abhorred them 1Ki 9:7 – this house Job 19:10 – destroyed Job 27:18 – as a booth Psa 53:5 – because Psa 81:3 – solemn Isa 1:13 – the new Jer 4:20 – suddenly Jer 14:21 – disgrace Jer 50:28 – vengeance of his Lam 2:15 – Is this Eze 8:6 – that I Eze 24:21 – I will Mat 25:29 – shall be taken Luk 21:6 – there
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 2:6. Tabernacle is from a word that means a fence or barricade, and the idea is that God had withdrawn
his protection from his people and suffered the enemy to invade the land. The solemn feasts had been caused to cease in that the assembling place (Jerusalem) had been taken over by the enemy. To despise means to belittle or humiliate any person or thing. God had shown this attitude toward his rulers in the capital city where the kings and priests had their place of operations.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Lam 2:6-7. He hath violently taken away his tabernacle as of a garden The Vulgate reads, dissipavit, quasi hortum, tentorium suum; he hath dissolved, broke in pieces, scattered, or laid waste, his tent as a garden. Thus also Houbigant: that is, he hath destroyed the temple, the place of his residence, and of our religious assemblies, as if it had been no better than a tent or cottage set up in a garden, or vineyard, just while the fruit was gathering, and then to be taken down again. This interpretation of the original text, which is, , supposes to be written for words exactly alike in sound, though not always in sense, and frequently put the one for the other. But, as the former, from , to hedge, originally signifies his hedge, many think the most proper rendering of the Hebrew, and the true sense of the passage is, as in the margin, He hath taken away his hedge as of a garden; that is, he hath withdrawn his protection, and left us exposed to the mercy of our enemies. He hath destroyed his places of the assembly This translation, as also that of the Vulgate, understands this as a repetition of the former clause; but, as sixty MSS. and one edition, instead of , read at large, Blaney takes the congregation of Jehovah to be intended, rather than the place of their assembly, and renders the words, He hath destroyed his congregation, namely, the people of Israel, the vineyard, which he had heretofore kept under his special protection. The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts, &c., to be forgotten Or rather, as is more properly rendered, hath forgotten the solemn feasts, &c., that is, holds those services no longer in esteem, but slights and disregards them: compare Isa 1:14-15. And hath despised the king and the priest Hath shown no regard for either of those honourable offices, but hath suffered the kingdom to be destroyed, and the temple to be laid waste. He hath abhorred his sanctuary It had been defiled with sin, that only thing which he hates, and for the sake of that he hath abhorred it, though he had formerly delighted in, and called it his rest for ever, Psa 132:14. They have made a noise in the house of the Lord, &c. Instead of the joyful sound of praises and thanksgivings to God, such as used to be solemnly performed in the temple at the public festivals, there was nothing to be heard there but the noise of soldiers, and the rudeness of infidels, profaning that sacred place, and insulting the true God, who was worshipped there: compare Psa 74:4. Lowth.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
He tore down His temple like a temporary booth-the kind that farmers erected in their fields for a short time and then demolished. He caused the ending of feasts and Sabbath observances in Zion, and showed no regard for the kings and priests of Judah.