29<\/strong>. hair<\/em> ] lit. (as mg.) crown<\/em>, Heb. nezer<\/em>, and used of the long hair worn in fulfilment of the Nazirite’s<\/em> vow (Num 6:7<\/span>). Jerusalem must now shew by outward sign her faithlessness to her vows of loyalty to her God.<\/p>\n bare heights<\/em> ] See on ch. Jer 3:2<\/span>.<\/p>\n Jeremiah summons the people to lament over the miserable consequences of their rejection of God. In the valley of Hinnom, where lately they offered their innocents, they shall themselves fall before the enemy in such multitudes that burial shall be impossible, and the beasts of the field unmolested shall prey upon their remains.<\/P> Jer 7:29<\/B><\/span><\/P> The daughter of Zion, defiled by the presence of enemies in her sanctuary, and rejected of God, must shear off the diadem of her hair, the symbol of her consecration to God, just as the Nazarite, when defiled by contact with a corpse, was to shave his crowned head.<\/P> Take up a lamentation … – <\/B>Or, lift up a lamentation on the bare hill-sides Jer 3:2<\/span>.<\/P> Jer 7:30<\/B><\/span><\/P> They have set their abominations … – <\/B>Probably a reference to the reign of the fanatic Manasseh, in whose time the worship of Astarte and of the heavenly bodies was the established religion of the land 2Ki 21:3-5<\/span>, and even the temple was used for idolatrous services. The people had never heartily accepted Josiahs reformation.<\/P> Jer 7:31<\/B><\/span><\/P> The high places – <\/B>Here, probably, not natural hills, but artificial mounts, on which the altars were erected.<\/P> Tophet (marginal reference note) is not here a proper name; as applied to Baal-worship the term is not an ordinary one, but almost unique to Jeremiah. Comparing this verse with Jer 19:5<\/span>; Jer 32:35<\/span>, it will be found that Baal is in those passages substituted for Tophet. Just as it is the practice of the prophets to substitute Bosheth, shame, for Baal (see Jer 3:24<\/span>), so here Jeremiah uses Tophet, an object of abhorrence (compare Job 17:6<\/span> note), in just the same way.<\/P> Valley of the son of Hinnom – <\/B>See Jos 15:8<\/span> note.<\/P> To burn … – <\/B>The children were not burned alive, but slain first Eze 16:21<\/span>.<\/P> Jer 7:32<\/B><\/span><\/P> The valley of slaughter – <\/B>Where they killed their helpless children, there shall they be slaughtered helplessly by their enemies.<\/P> Till there be no place – <\/B>Rather, for want of room elsewhere.<\/P><\/p>\n Verse 29<\/span>. Cut off thine hair<\/B><\/I>] gozzi nizrech, shear thy<\/I> nazarite<\/I>. The Nazarite was one who took upon him a particular vow, and separated himself from all worldly connexions for a certain time, that he might devote himself without interruption to the service of God; and during all this time no razor was to pass on his head, for none of his hair was to be taken off. After the vow was over, he shaved his head and beard, and returned to society. See Nu 6:2<\/span>, c., and the notes there. Jerusalem is here considered under the notion of a Nazarite, by profession devoted to the service of God: but that profession was empty it was not accompanied with any suitable practice. God tells them here to cut off their hair; to make no vain pretensions to holiness or religion; to throw off the mask, and attempt no longer to impose upon themselves and others by their hypocritical pretensions. On the same ground he orders them, Jer 7:21<\/span>, to devote to common use the animals destined for sacrifice; and to make no more vain shows of religion while their hearts were not right with him. Dr. Blayney<\/I> thinks the address is to the prophet<\/I>, who was a Nazarite by virtue of his office, and who was called to cut off his hair as a token of mourning<\/I> for the desolations which were coming upon his people. That cutting off the hair<\/I> was a sign of distress<\/I> and mourning<\/I> may be seen, Ezr 9:3<\/span>; Isa 15:2<\/span>; Jer 41:5<\/span>, &c. But I think the other the more natural construction.<\/P> <\/P> On high places<\/B><\/I>] That the lamentation may be heard to the greater distance.<\/P> <\/P> The generation of his wrath.<\/B><\/I>] Persons exposed to punishment: used here as children of wrath<\/I>, Eph 2:3<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n Cut off thine hair; it was a usual token of sorrow among the Jews to cut off the hair, Job 1:20<\/span>; Isa 15:2<\/span>; Mic 1:16<\/span>. But here he speaketh either, <\/P> 1. To Jeremiah; for <\/P> O Jerusalem is not in the text; or, <\/P> 2. To the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and so speaks to them as a woman, whose hair is for an ornament, 1Co 11:15<\/span>. Therefore this must needs signify a higher degree of sorrow. Cutting the hair among the ancients did signify, <\/P> 1. Mourning. <\/P> 2. Bondage. For the cutting off the hair in servants was a token of subjection; so that this speaks Jerusalems mournful condition in her captivity. <\/P> Cast it away; it is not to be reserved, as sometimes men and women both do for some use; but to be cast away, and as a thing good for nought. And thus it may agree with the churchs lamentation, Lam 5:16<\/span>; for it is not here exhorted to as a token of repentance, but as a threatening of judgments. <\/P> Take up a lamentation on high places: see Jer 3:21<\/span>. Lift up thy voice on high in lamentation, when thou hast thine eye or thoughts upon the high places where thou wentest a whoring from me, for which thou now goest into captivity. <\/P> The generation of his wrath; or, of his overrunning anger, as some render it, i.e. with whom he is extremely vexed, this present generation, that by their provocations have brought themselves under his wrath, Jer 7:18<\/span>,20<\/span>, a generation destined to the wrath of God, called elsewhere the people of his curse, Isa 34:5<\/span>, and such as the apostle calls vessels of wrath, Rom 9:22<\/span>, so far as it concerns the phrase. <\/P> <\/p>\n 29.<\/B> Jeremiah addresses Jerusalemunder the figure of a woman, who, in grief for her lost children,deprives her head of its chief ornament and goes up to the hills toweep (Jdg 11:37<\/span>; Jdg 11:38<\/span>;Isa 15:2<\/span>). <\/P> hair<\/B>flowing locks,like those of a Nazarite. <\/P> high places<\/B>The sceneof her idolatries is to be the scene of her mourning (Jer3:21<\/span>). <\/P> generation of his wrath<\/B>thegeneration with which He is wroth. So Isa10:6<\/span>; “the people of My wrath.”<\/P><\/p>\n Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away<\/strong>,…. This supplement is made, because the word is feminine; and therefore cannot be directed to the prophet, but to Jerusalem, and its inhabitants; shaving the head is a sign of mourning, Job 1:20<\/span> and this is enjoined, to show that there would soon be a reason for it; wherefore it follows:<\/p>\n and take up a lamentation on high places<\/strong>: that it might be heard afar off; or because of the idolatry frequently committed in high places. The Targum is,<\/p>\n “pluck off the hair for thy great ones that are carried captive, and take up a lamentation for the princes:”<\/p>\n for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath<\/strong>; a generation of men, deserving of the wrath of God, and appointed to it, on whom he determined to pour it out; of which his rejection and forsaking of them was a token: this was remarkably true of that generation in which Christ and his apostles lived, who disbelieved the Messiah, and had no faith in him, and spoke lying and blasphemous words concerning him; and therefore were rejected and forsaken by the Lord; and wrath came upon them to the uttermost.<\/p>\n Therefore the Lord has rejected the backsliding people, so that it shall perish shamefully. – <\/em> Jer 7:29<\/span>. “Cut off thy diadem (daughter of Zion), and cast it away, and lift up a lamentation on the bald peaked mountains; for the Lord hath rejected and cast out the generation of His wrath. <\/em> Jer 7:30<\/span>. For the sons of Judah have done the evil in mine eyes, saith Jahveh, have put their abominations in the house on which my name is named, to pollute it; <\/em> Jer 7:31<\/span>. And have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of Benhinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire; which I have not commanded, neither came it into my heart. <\/em> Jer 7:32<\/span>. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jahveh, that they shall no longer say, Tophet and Valley of Benhinnom, but, The valley of slaughter; and they shall bury in Tophet for want of room. <\/em> Jer 7:33<\/span>. And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth, with no one to fray them away. <\/em> Jer 7:34<\/span>. And I make to cease out of the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for a waste shall the land become. <\/em> Jer 8:1<\/span>. At that time, saith Jahveh, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of his princes, the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. <\/em> Jer 8:2<\/span>. And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, after which they have walked, and which they have sought and worshipped: they shall not be gathered nor buried; for dung upon the face of the earth shall they be. <\/em> Jer 8:3<\/span>. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue which is left of this evil race, in all the places whither I have driven them that are left, saith Jahveh of hosts.”<\/em> <\/p>\n In these verses the judgment of Jer 7:20<\/span> is depicted in all its horror, and the description is introduced by a call upon Zion to mourn and lament for the evil awaiting Jerusalem and the whole land. It is not any particular woman that is addressed in Jer 7:29<\/span>, but the daughter of Zion (cf. Jer 6:23<\/span>), i.e., the capital city personified as a woman, as the mother of the whole people. Cut off , thy diadem. There can be no doubt that we are by this to understand the hair of the woman; but the current opinion, that the words simply and directly means the hair, is without foundation. It means crown, originally the diadem of the high priest, Exo 29:6<\/span>; and the transference of the same word to the hair of the head is explained by the practice of the Nazarites, to wear the hair uncut as a mark of consecration to the Lord, Num 6:5<\/span>. The hair of the Nazarite is called in Num 6:7<\/span> the consecration ( ) of his God upon his head, as was the anointing oil on the head of the high priest, Lev 21:12<\/span>. In this sense the long hair of the daughter of Zion is called her diadem, to mark her out as a virgin consecrated to the Lord. Cutting off this hair is not only in token of mourning, as in Job 1:20<\/span>; Mic 1:16<\/span>, but in token of the loss of the consecrated character. The Nazarite, defiled by the sudden occurrence of death near to his person, was bound to cut off his long hair, because by this defilement his consecrated hair had been defiled; and just so must the daughter of Zion cut off her hair and cast it from her, because by her sins she had defiled herself, and must be held as unconsecrate. Venema and Ros. object to this reference of the idea to the consecrated hair of the Nazarite: quod huc non quadrat, nec in faeminis adeo suetum erat <\/em>; but this objection is grounded on defective apprehension of the meaning of the Nazarite’s vow, and on misunderstanding of the figurative style here employed. The allusion to the Nazarite order, for the purpose of representing the daughter of Zion as a virgin consecrated to the Lord, does not imply that the Nazarite vow was very common amongst women. Deprived of her holy ornament, Zion is to set up a lament upon bare hill-tops (cf. Jer 3:21<\/span>), since the Lord has rejected or cast out (Jer 7:30<\/span>) the generation that has drawn His wrath down on it, because they have set idols in the temple in which He has revealed His glory, to profane it. The abominations are the image of Asherah which Manasseh set up in the temple, and the altars he had built to the host of heaven in both the courts (2Ki 21:5<\/span>, 2Ki 21:7<\/span>). Besides the desecration of the temple of the Lord by idolatry, Jeremiah mentions in Jer 7:31<\/span>, as an especially offensive abomination, the worship of Moloch practised in the valley of Benhinnom. Here children were burnt to this deity, to whom Manasseh had sacrificed his son, 2Ki 21:6<\/span>. The expression “high altars of Tophet<\/em> ” is singular. In the parallel passages, where Jeremiah repeats the same subject, Jer 19:5<\/span> and Jer 32:35<\/span>, we find mentioned instead high altars of Baal; and on this ground, Hitz. and Graf hold in our verse to be a contemptuous name for Baal Moloch. is not derived from the Persian; nor is it true that, as Hitz. asserts, it does not occur till after the beginning of the Assyrian period, since we have it in Job 17:6<\/span>. It is formed from , to spit out, like from ; and means properly a spitting out, then that before or on which one spits (as in Job 17:6<\/span>), object of deepest abhorrence. It is transferred to the worship of Moloch here and Jer 19:6<\/span>, Jer 19:13<\/span>., and in 2Ki 23:10<\/span>. In the latter passage the word is unquestionably used for the place in the valley of Benhinnom where children were offered to Moloch. So in Jer 19:6<\/span>, Jer 19:13<\/span> (the place of Tophet), and Jer 19:14<\/span>; and so also, without a doubt, in Jer 7:32<\/span> of the present chapter. There is no valid reason for departing from this well-ascertained local signification; “high altars of the Tophet” may perfectly well be the high altars of the place of abominable sacrifices. With the article the word means the ill-famed seat of the Moloch-worship, situated in the valley of Ben or Bne Hinnom, to the south of Jerusalem. Hinnom<\/em> is nomen propr<\/em>. of a man of whom we know nothing else, and ( ) is not an appellative: son of sobbing, as Hitz., Graf, Bttcher explain (after Rashi), rendering the phrase by “Valley of the weepers,” or “of groaning, sobbing,” with reference to the cries of the children slain there for sacrifices. For the name Ben-hinnom<\/em> is much older than the Moloch-worship, introduced first by Ahaz and Manasseh. We find it in Jos 15:8<\/span>; Jos 18:16<\/span>, in the topographical account of the boundaries of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. As to Moloch-worship, see on Lev 18:21<\/span> and Eze 16:20<\/span>. At the restoration of the public worship of Jahveh, Josiah had extirpated Moloch-worship, and had caused the place of the sacrifice of abominations in the valley of Ben-hinnom to be defiled (2Ki 23:20<\/span>); so that it is hardly probable that it had been again restored immediately after Josiah’s death, at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign. Nor does the present passage imply this; for Jer. is not speaking of the forms of idolatry at that time in favour with the Jews, but of the abominations they had done. That he had Manasseh’s doings especially in view, we may gather from Jer 15:4<\/span>, where the coming calamities are expressly declared to be the punishment for Manasseh’s sins. Neither is it come into my heart, i.e., into my mind, goes to strengthen: which I have not commanded.<\/p>\n Jer 7:32<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong> Therefore God will make the place of their sins the scene of judgment on the sinners. There shall come days when men will call the valley of these abominations the valley of slaughter, i.e., shall make it into such a valley. Where they have sacrificed their children to Moloch, they shall themselves be slaughtered, massacred by their enemies. And in this valley, as an unclean place (Jer 19:13<\/span>), shall they be buried “for want of room;” since, because of the vast numbers of the slain, there will be nowhere else to put them.<\/p>\n Jer 7:33<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong> Even the number of the dead will be so great that the corpses shall remain unburied, shall become food for beasts of prey, which no one will scare away. This is taken almost literally from Deu 28:26<\/span>.<\/p>\n Jer 7:34<\/span><\/p>\n <\/strong> Thus the Lord will put an end to all joyfulness in life throughout the land: cf. Hos 2:13<\/span>; Eze 26:13<\/span>. The voice of the bridegroom and the bride is a circumlocution for the mirth of marriage festivities; cf. 1 Macc. 9:39. All joy will be dumb, for the land shall become a waste; as the people had been warned, in Lev 26:31<\/span>, Lev 26:33<\/span>, would be the case if they forsook the Lord.<\/p>\n The Desolation of Judah.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD> B. C.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> 606.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> <\/TABLE> 29 Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem,<\/I> and cast it<\/I> away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD<\/B> hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD<\/B>: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is<\/I> in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them<\/I> not, neither came it into my heart. 32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD<\/B>, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place. 33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them<\/I> away. 34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.<\/P> Here is, I. A loud call to weeping and mourning. Jerusalem, that had been a joyous city, the joy of the whole earth, must now take up a lamentation on high places<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 29<\/span>), the high places where they had served their idols; there must they now bemoan their misery. In token both of sorrow and slavery, Jerusalem must now cut off her hair and cast it away;<\/I> the word is peculiar to the hair of the Nazarites, which was the badge and token of their dedication to God, and it is called their crown.<\/I> Jerusalem had been a city which was a Nazarite to God, but now must cut off her hair,<\/I> must be profaned, degraded, and separated from God, as she had been separated to him. It is time for those that have lost their holiness to lay aside their joy.<\/P> II. Just cause given for this great lamentation.<\/P> 1. The sin of Jerusalem appears here very heinous, nowhere worse, or more exceedingly sinful (v.<\/I><\/span> 30<\/span>): “The children of Judah<\/I>” (God’s profession people, that came forth out of the waters of Judah,<\/I> Isa. xlviii. 1<\/I><\/span>) “have done evil in my sight,<\/I> under my eye, in my presence; they have affronted me to my face, which very much aggravates the affront:” or, “They have done that which they know to be evil in my sight,<\/I> and in the highest degree offensive to me.” Idolatry was the sin which was above all other sins evil in God’s sight. Now here are two things charged upon them in their idolatry, which were very provoking: (1.) That they were very impudent in it towards God and set him at defiance: They have set their abominations<\/I> (their abominable idols and the altars erected to them) in the house that is called by my name,<\/I> in the very courts of the temple, to pollute it<\/I> (Manasseh did so, 2Ki 21:7<\/span>; 2Ki 23:12<\/span>), as if they thought God would connive at it, or cared not though he was ever so much displeased with it, or as if they would reconcile heaven and hell, God and Baal. The heart is the place which God has chosen to put his name there;<\/I> if sin have the innermost and uppermost place there, we pollute the temple of the Lord, and therefore he resents nothing more than setting up idols in the heart,<\/I> Ezek. xiv. 4<\/I><\/span>. (2.) That they were very barbarous in it towards their own children, v.<\/I><\/span> 31<\/span>. They have particularly built the high places of Tophet,<\/I> where the image of Moloch was set up, in the valley of the son of Hinnom,<\/I> adjoining to Jerusalem; and there they burnt their sons and their daughters in the fire,<\/I> burnt them alive, killed them, and killed them in the most cruel manner imaginable, to honour or appease those idols that were devils and not gods. This was surely the greatest instance that ever was of the power of Satan in the children of disobedience, and of the degeneracy and corruption of the human nature. One would willingly hope that there were not many instances of such a barbarous idolatry; but it is amazing that there should be any, that men could be so perfectly void of natural affection as to do a thing so inhuman as to burn little innocent children, and their own too, that they should be so perfectly void of natural religion as to think it lawful to do this, nay, to think it acceptable. Surely it was in a way of righteous judgment, because they had changed the glory of God into the similitude of a beast, that God gave them up to such vile affections that changed them into worse than beasts. God says of this that it was what he commanded them not, neither cam it into his heart,<\/I> which is not meant of his not commanding them thus to worship Moloch (this he had expressly forbidden<\/I> them), but he had never commanded that his worshippers should be at such an expense, nor put such a force upon their natural affection, in honouring him; it never came into his heart to have children offered to him, yet they had forsaken his service for the service of such gods as, by commanding this, showed themselves to be indeed enemies to mankind.<\/P> 2. The destruction of Jerusalem appears here very terrible. That speaks misery enough in general (v.<\/I><\/span> 29<\/span>), The Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.<\/I> Sin makes those the generation of God’s wrath that had ben the generation of his love. And God will reject and quite forsake those who have thus made themselves vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.<\/I> He will disown them for his. “Verily, I say unto you, I know you not.” And he will give them up to the terrors of their own guilt, and leave them in those hands. (1.) Death shall triumph over them, Jer 7:32<\/span>; Jer 7:33<\/span>. Sin reigns unto death; for that is the wages of it, the end of those things. Tophet,<\/I> the valley adjoining to Jerusalem, shall be called the valley of slaughter,<\/I> for there multitudes shall be slain, when, in their sallies out of the city and their attempts to escape, they fall into the hands of the besiegers. Or it shall be called the valley of slaughtered ones,<\/I> because thither the corpses of those that are slain shall be brought to be buried, all other burying places being full; and there they shall bury until there be no more place<\/I> to make a grave. This intimates the multitude of those that shall die by the sword, pestilence, and famine. Death shall ride on prosperously, with dreadful pomp and power, conquering and to conquer. The slain of the Lord shall be many.<\/I> This valley of Tophet was a place where the citizens of Jerusalem walked to take the air; but it shall now be spoiled for that use, for it shall be so full of graves that there shall be no walking there, because of the danger of contracting a ceremonial pollution by the touch of a grave. There it was that they sacrificed some of their children, and dedicated others to Moloch, and there they should fall as victims to divine justice. Tophet had formerly been the burying place, or burning place, of the dead bodies of the besiegers, when the Assyrian army was routed by an angel; and for this it was ordained of old,<\/I> Isa. xxx. 33<\/I><\/span>. But they having forgotten this mercy, and made it the place of their sin, God will now turn it into a burying place for the besieged. In allusion to this valley, hell is in the New Testament called Gehenna–the valley of Hinnom,<\/I> for there were buried both the invading Assyrians and the revolting Jews; so hell is a receptacle after death both for infidels and hypocrites, the open enemies of God’s church and its treacherous friends; it is the congregation of the dead;<\/I> it is prepared for the generation of God’s wrath.<\/I> But so great shall that slaughter be that even the spacious valley of Tophet shall not be able to contain the slain; and at length there shall not be enough left alive to bury the dead, so that the carcases of the people shall be meat<\/I> for the birds and beasts of prey, that shall feed upon them like carrion, and none shall have the concern or courage to frighten them away, as Rizpah did from the dead bodies of Saul’s sons, 2 Sam. xxviii. 26<\/span>, Thy carcase shall be meat to the fowls and beasts, and no man shall drive them away.<\/I> Thus do the law and the prophets agree, and the execution with both. The decent burying of the dead is a piece of humanity, in remembrance of what the dead body has been–the tabernacle of a reasonable soul. Nay, it is a piece of divinity, in expectation of what the dead body shall be at the resurrection. The want of it has sometimes been an instance of the rage of men against God’s witnesses, Rev. xi. 9<\/span>. Here it is threatened as an instance of the wrath of God against his enemies, and is an intimation that evil pursues sinners<\/I> even after death. (2.) Joy shall depart from them (v.<\/I><\/span> 34<\/span>): Then will I cause to cease the voice of mirth.<\/I> God had called<\/I> by his prophets, and by less judgments, to weeping and mourning;<\/I> but they walked contrary to him, and would hear of nothing but joy and gladness, Isa 22:12<\/span>; Isa 22:13<\/span>. And what came of it? Now God called to lamentation<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 29<\/span>), and he made his call effectual, leaving them neither cause nor heart for joy and gladness. Those that will not weep shall weep; those that will not by the grace of God be cured of their vain mirth shall by the justice of God be deprived of all mirth; for when God judges he will overcome.<\/I> It is threatened here that there shall be nothing to rejoice in. There shall be none of the joy of weddings; no mirth, for there shall be no marriages. The comforts of life shall be abandoned, and all care to keep up mankind upon earth cast off; there shall be none of the voice of the bridegroom and<\/I> the bride,<\/I> no music, no nuptial songs. Nor shall there be any more of the joy of the harvest, for the land shall be desolate,<\/I> uncultivated and unimproved. Both the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem<\/I> shall look thus melancholy; and when they thus look about them, and see no cause to rejoice, no marvel if they retire into themselves and find no heart to rejoice. Note, God can soon mar the mirth of the most jovial, and make it to cease, which is a reason why we should always rejoice with trembling, be merry and wise.<\/P><\/p>\n Va. 29-34: THE VALLEY OF SLAUGHTER<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Jerusalem is called to mourning – the polling of the hair being a symbol of deep sorrow, (vs. 29; Job 1:20<\/span><\/strong>; Mic 1:16<\/span><\/strong>; Eze 19:1<\/span><\/strong>); God has rejected this people because of their multiplied abominations! – a. This may allude to the vow of the Nazarites, whose unshorn hair symbolized their loyal dedication and devotion to Jehovah, their God.<\/p>\n b. The cutting of the hair, then, would suggest that their vow had been broken.<\/p>\n c. Thus, Jehovah has REJECTED and turned His back on this people as a “generation” upon whom His wrath must fall. 2. The temple has been polluted and defiled by Judah’s setting up of her abominable idols in its very precincts! (vs. 30; Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n