8<\/strong>. Lament<\/em> ] The verb is fem in the Hebrew, the community, personified as a woman, the “daughter of Judah,” or “daughter of my people,” being addressed. So often in the prophets: comp. on Amo 5:2<\/span>. The word rendered lament<\/em> ( ’lh<\/em>) occurs only here in the O.T., though it is common in Aramaic.<\/p>\n like a virgin<\/em>, &c.] “The interruption of the fellowship between the land and Jehovah through the failure of the sacrifices the prophet throws into the figure of a young wife bereaved and in mourning. The land is the virgin; the dreary bleak aspect of it is the mourning which she wears. The bereavement lies in this: that through the cutting off of the meal-offering and the drink-offering, the tokens of Jehovah’s presence and favour, manifested in His acceptance of the offerings, have been removed; communications between the land and its God have been removed, and the land is bereaved” (A. B. Davidson).<\/p>\n sackcloth<\/em> ] The regular sign of mourning in the East (Amo 8:10<\/span>).<\/p>\n husband<\/em> ] lit. possessor, owner<\/em> (Deu 24:4<\/span>; 2Sa 11:26<\/span> al<\/em>.).<\/p>\n 8 10<\/strong>. Interruption of the public services of the Temple.<\/p>\n Lament like a virgin – <\/B>The prophet addresses the congregation of Israel, as one espoused to God ; Lament thou, daughter of Zion, or the like. He bids her lament, with the bitterest of sorrows, as one who, in her virgin years, was just knit into one with the husband of her youth, and then at once was, by Gods judgment, on the very day of her espousal, ere yet she ceased to be a virgin, parted by death. The mourning which God commands is not one of conventional or becoming mourning, but that of one who has put away all joy from her, and takes the rough garment of penitence, girding the haircloth upon her, enveloping and embracing, and therewith, wearing the whole frame. The haircloth was a coarse, rough, formless, garment, girt close round the waist, afflictive to the flesh, while it expressed the sorrow of the soul. God regarded as a virgin, the people which He had made holy to Himself Jer 2:2<\/span>.<\/P> He so regards the soul which He has regenerated and sanctified. The people, by their idolatry, lost Him who was a Husband to them; the soul, by inordinate affections, is parted from its God. : God Almighty was the Husband of the synagogue, having espoused it to Himself in the patriarchs and at the giving of the law. So long as she did not, through idolatry and other heavy sins, depart from God, she was a spouse in the integrity of mind, in knowledge, in love and worship of the true God. : The Church is a Virgin; Christ her Husband. By prevailing sins, the order, condition, splendor, worship of the Church, are, through negligence, concupiscence, avarice, irreverence, worsened, deformed, obscured. The soul is a virgin by its creation in nature; a virgin by privilege of grace; a virgin also by hope of glory. Inordinate desire maketh the soul a harlot; manly penitence restoreth to her chastity; wise innocence, virginity. For the soul recovereth a sort of chastity, when through thirst for righteousness, she undertakes the pain and fear of penitence; still she is not as yet raised to the eminence of innocence. – In the first state she is exposed to concupiscence; in the second, she doth works of repentance; in the third, bewailing her Husband, she is filled with the longing for righteousness; in the fourth, she is gladdened by virgin embraces and the kiss of Wisdom. For Christ is the Husband of her youth, the Betrother of her virginity. But since she parted from Him to evil concupiscence, she is monished to return to Him by sorrow and the works and garb of repentance. : So should every Christian weep who has lost Baptismal grace, or has fallen back after repentance, and, deprived of the pure embrace of the heavenly Bridegroom, embraced instead these earthly things which are as dunghills Lam 4:5<\/span>, having been brought up in scarlet, and being in honor, had no understanding Psa 49:12<\/span>, Psa 49:20<\/span>. Whence it is written, let tears run down like a river day and night; give thyself no rest Lam 2:18<\/span>. Such was he who said; rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not Thy law Psa 119:136<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n Joe 1:8-10<\/span><\/p>\n Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.<\/em><\/p>\n The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off from the house of the Lord. <\/em><\/p>\n The worship of God sadly neglected through the allure of temporal resource<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>That anything which tends to <\/strong>increase the temporal resource of a people gives them an increased power of temple-worship. It is the duty of man to give himself to industry and profitable labour that he may win the means which shall enable him to come into the sanctuary with the offering of the Lord.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>That our temporal resources are not to be devoted merely to the secular needs of a people but also to the worship of God. The people of Judah were required not merely to supply their own need with the fruit of the vine and of the field, they were required out of it to support the service of the temple and the worship of God. The fine flour and oil they gave to the priest they first received from God, and hence it was right that they should recognise the Divine beneficence. How many rich men amongst us would see the daily offering of the temple languish before they would aid it even by a small gift! Wealth can be consecrated to no higher service than that of the temple.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>That the agencies of Divine retribution are likely to prevent a sinful people from the enjoyment of secular prosperity. It is not improbable that the vines and fields Of a wicked people will be destroyed by the retributive hand of God. Secular prosperity is more dependent upon moral character than many are inclined to admit. Sin blights many harvests.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>That a well-maintained temple-worship is an evidence of the Divine favour. A well-supported temple-worship is an index of sanctified wealth and of the Divine approval.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>That a neglected worship should awaken deep grief of soul. Lamentation in the hour of bereavement is commended by men, but in the cause of God is regarded as a sign of mental weakness. Ought this to be so?<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>That a neglected worship should lead to outward tokens of the grief of the soul, Judah was not merely to lament like a bereaved virgin, but was to be girded with sackcloth.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>That ministers of the truth are often the first to be affected by great calamities. The priests of Judah would pre-eminently feel the effect of the terrible devastation that had come upon the land; they would suffer through the, neglected worship of the temple, as they would cease to fulfil their office, and Would be deprived of their livelihood. He stands at the very heart of society, and the most deeply feels the woe inflicted by the retributive agencies of God.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>That ministers of the truth ought to be the first to set an example of repentance In the hour of calamity. Lessons–<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>That all temporal resource should be regarded as the gift of God.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>That the withdrawal of temporal prosperity is calculated to affect the worship of God.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>That the suspension of the worship of the sanctuary is a token of the Divine displeasure. (J. S. Exell, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>land mourneth.<\/strong><\/p>\n Natures voice<\/strong><\/p>\n The poets of all nations give nature a voice, and make her share mans feeling, as man shares her plenty or calamity. The Hebrew preacher shews the sanctity of life by mourning the dearth of Jehovahs altar. Instead of the abandoned license which in Florence, London, etc., great calamities produce, or the bloody offerings which the Phoenicians and earliest Greeks practised, he calls for prayer and solemnity. In all ages, when human effort is at an end, an irrepressible instinct bids us cry to God. We may be tempted to doubt whether unblest seasons are the days of the Lord (Joe 1:14<\/span>), or are shortcomings of nature, bound by wider necessity than the law of our convenience; and such doubts are not useless in bidding us exhaust the range of human effort, while the preacher joins the philosopher in bidding us not appease God with cruelty or wrong; yet the instinct remains unreproved by anything we know of the Divine government; and our own prayers (Joe 1:18<\/span>), justified by reason, seem joined by the instinctive cries (Joe 1:19<\/span>) of brute creatures in distress. (Rowland Williams, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Verse 8. Lament like a virgin – for the husband of her youth.<\/B><\/I>] Virgin<\/I> is a very improper version<\/I> here. The original is bethulah<\/I>, which signifies a young woman<\/I> or bride<\/I> not a virgin,<\/I> the proper Hebrew for which is almah<\/I>. See Clarke on Isa 7:14<\/span>, and “<\/I>Mt 1:23<\/I><\/span>“<\/I>.<\/P> <\/p>\n The vicious and wicked among the Jews were alarmed and threatened in the former part of the chapter; now the prophet bespeaks the good and godly among them to prepare for mournful times. <\/P> Lament:<\/B> this is minatory, and threatens calamitous times shall come, as well as directive, what to do when they are come; when God calls for weeping we must not rejoice. <\/P> Like a virgin:<\/B> this tells us to whom the prophet directs this part of his sermon, it is to those who amidst the Jews were like chaste and modest virgins, whose heart was fixed on one, her own, her chosen beloved husband. <\/P> Girded with sackcloth:<\/B> in deep mournings the people of those countries did use sackcloth in their mourning habit, and wore it girded close to their skin. <\/P> For the husband of her youth; <\/B>either married to her in youth, or espoused to her, but snatched away from her by an untimely death, which she doth most bitterly lament. <\/P> <\/p>\n 8. Lament<\/B>O “my land”(Joe 1:6<\/span>; Isa 24:4<\/span>).<\/P> virgin . . . for thehusband<\/B>A virgin betrothed was regarded as married (Deu 22:23<\/span>;Mat 1:19<\/span>). The Hebrew<\/I> for”husband” is “lord” or “possessor,” thehusband being considered the master of the wife in the East. <\/P> of her youth<\/B>when theaffections are strongest and when sorrow at bereavement isconsequently keenest. Suggesting the thought of what Zion’s griefought to be for her separation from Jehovah, the betrothed husband ofher early days (Jer 2:2<\/span>; Eze 16:8<\/span>;Hos 2:7<\/span>; compare Pro 2:17<\/span>;Jer 3:4<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n Lament like a virgin<\/strong>,…. This is not the continuation of the prophet’s speech to the drunkards; but, as Aben Ezra observes, he either speaks to himself, or to the land the Targum supplies it, O congregation of Israel; the more religious and godly part of the people are here addressed; who were concerned for the pure worship of God, and were as a chaste virgin espoused to Christ, though not yet come, and for whom they were waiting; these are called upon to lament the calamities of the times in doleful strains, like a virgin:<\/p>\n girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth<\/strong>; either as one that had been betrothed to a young man, but not married, he dying after the espousals, and before marriage; which must be greatly distressing to one that passionately loved him; and therefore, instead of her nuptial robes, prepared to meet him and be married in, girds herself with sackcloth; a coarse hairy sort of cloth, as was usual, in the eastern countries, to put on in token of mourning: or as one lately married to a young man she dearly loved, and was excessively fond of, and lived extremely happy with; but, being suddenly snatched away from her by death, puts on her widow’s garments, and mourns not in show only, but in reality; having lost in her youth her young husband, she had the strongest affection for: this is used to express the great lamentation the people are called unto in this time of their distress.<\/p>\n The whole nation is to mourn over this devastation. Joe 1:8<\/span> . “Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.<\/em> Joe 1:9<\/span>. The meat-offering and the drink-offering are destroyed from the house of Jehovah. The priests, the servant of Jehovah. mourn.<\/em> Joe 1:10<\/span>. The field is laid waste, the ground mourns: for the corn is laid waste: the new wine is spoiled, the oil decays.<\/em> Joe 1:11<\/span>. Turn pale, ye husbandmen; howl, ye vinedressers, over wheat and barley: for the harvest of the field is perished.<\/em> Joe 1:12<\/span>. The vine is spoiled, and the fig-tree faded; the pomegranate, also the palm and the apple tree: all the trees of the field are withered away; yea, joy has expired from the children of men.” <\/em> In Joe 1:8<\/span> Judah is addressed as the congregation of Jehovah. is the imperative of the verb , equivalent to the Syriac ‘ela’ <\/em>, to lament. The verb only occurs here. The lamentation of the virgin for the , i.e., the beloved of your youth, her bridegroom, whom she has lost by death (Isa 54:6<\/span>), is the deepest and bitterest lamentation. With reference to , see Delitzsch on Isa 3:24<\/span>. The occasion of this deep lamentation, according to Joe 1:9<\/span>, is the destruction of the meat-offering and drink-offering from the house of the Lord, over which the servants of Jehovah mourn. The meat and drink offerings must of necessity cease, because the corn, the new wine, and the oil are destroyed through the devastation of the field and soil. Hokhrath minchah <\/em> does not affirm that the offering of the daily morning and evening sacrifice (Exo 29:38-42<\/span>) – for it is to this that chiefly, if not exclusively, refers – has already ceased; but simply that any further offering is rendered impossible by the failure of meal, wine, and oil. Now Israel could not suffer any greater calamity than the suspension of the daily sacrifice; for this was a practical suspension of the covenant relation – a sign that God had rejected His people. Therefore, even in the last siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, the sacrificial worship was not suspended till it had been brought to the last extremity; and even then it was for the want of sacrificers, and not of the material of sacrifice (Josephus, de bell. Jud.<\/em> vi. 2, 1). The reason for this anxiety was the devastation of the field and land (Joe 1:10<\/span>); and this is still further explained by a reference to the devastation and destruction of the fruits of the ground, viz., the corn, i.e., the corn growing in the field, so that the next harvest would be lost, and the new wine and oil, i.e., the vines and olive-trees, so that they could bear no grapes for new wine, and no olives for oil. The verbs in Joe 1:11<\/span><\/em> are not perfects, but imperatives, as in the fifth verse. has the same meaning as bosh <\/em>, as in Jer 2:26<\/span>; Jer 6:15<\/span>, etc., to stand ashamed, to turn pale with shame at the disappointment of their hope, and is probably written defectively, without , to distinguish it from , the hiphil<\/em> of , to be parched or dried up (Joe 1:10<\/span> and Joe 1:12<\/span>). The hope of the husbandmen was disappointed through the destruction of the wheat and barley, the most important field crops. The vine-growers had to mourn over the destruction of the vine and the choice fruit-trees (Joe 1:12<\/span>), such as the fig and pomegranate, and even the date-palm ( gam<\/em> – tamar <\/em>), which has neither a fresh green rind nor tender juicy leaves, and therefore is not easily injured by the locusts so as to cause it to dry up; and tappuach <\/em>, the apple-tree, and all the trees of the field, i.e., all the rest of the trees, wither. “All trees, whether fruit-bearing or not, are consumed by the devastating locusts” (Jerome). In the concluding clause of Joe 1:12<\/span>, the last and principal ground assigned for the lamentation is, that joy is taken away and withered from the children of men ( hobbsh min <\/em>, constr. praegn.<\/em>). introduces a reason here as elsewhere, though not for the clause immediately preceding, but for the and in Joe 1:11<\/span>, the leading thought in both verses; and we may therefore express it by an emphatic yea<\/em>.<\/p>\n Threatenings of Judgment.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD> B. C.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> 720.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> <\/TABLE> 8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. 9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD<\/B>; the priests, the LORD<\/B>‘s ministers, mourn. 10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. 12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even<\/I> all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. 13 Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.<\/P> The judgment is here described as very lamentable, and such as all sorts of people should share in; it shall not only rob the drunkards of their pleasure (if that were the worst of it, it might be the better borne), but it shall deprive others of their necessary subsistence, who are therefore called to lament (v.<\/I><\/span> 8<\/span>), as a virgin laments the death of her lover to whom she was espoused, but not completely married, yet so that he was in effect her husband, or as a young woman lately married, from whom the husband of her youth,<\/I> her young husband, or the husband to whom she was married when she was young, is suddenly taken away by death. Between a new-married couple that are young, that married for love, and that are every way amiable and agreeable to each other, there is great fondness, and consequently great grief if either be taken away. Such lamentation shall there be for the loss of their corn and wine. Note, The more we are wedded to our creature-comforts that harder it is to part with them. See that parallel place, Isa. xxxii. 10-12<\/span>. Two sorts of people are here brought in, as concerned to lament this devastation, countrymen and clergymen.<\/P> I. Let the husbandmen and vine-dressers lament, v.<\/I><\/span> 11<\/span>. Let them be ashamed of the care and pains they have taken about their vineyards, for it will be all labour lost, and they shall gain no advantage by it; they shall see the fruit of their labour eaten up before their eyes, and shall not be able to save any of it. Note, Those who labour only for the meat that perishes<\/I> will, sooner or later, be ashamed of their labour. The vine-dressers<\/I> will then express their extreme grief by howling,<\/I> when they see their vineyards stripped of leaves and fruit, and the vines withered, so that nothing is to be had or hoped for from them, wherewith they might pay their rent and maintain their families. The destruction is particularly described here: The field is laid waste<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 10<\/span>).; all is consumed that is produced; the land mourns;<\/I> the ground has a melancholy aspect, and looks ruefully; all the inhabitants of the land are in tears for what they have lost, are in fear of perishing for want, Isa 24:4<\/span>; Jer 4:28<\/span>. “The corn,<\/I> the bread-corn, which is the staff of life, is wasted;<\/I> the new wine,<\/I> which should be brought into the cellars for a supply when the old is drunk, is dried up,<\/I> is ashamed<\/I> of having promised so fair what it is not now able to perform; the oil languishes,<\/I> or is diminished,<\/I> because (as the Chaldee renders it) the olives have fallen off.<\/I>” The people were not thankful to God as they should have been for the bread that strengthens man’s heart,<\/I> the wine<\/I> that makes glad the heart,<\/I> and the oil that makes the face to shine<\/I> (Psa 104:14<\/span>; Psa 104:15<\/span>); and therefore they are justly brought to lament the loss and want of them, of all the products of the earth, which God had given either for necessity or for delight (this is repeated, Joe 1:11<\/span>; Joe 1:12<\/span>)– the wheat and barley,<\/I> the two principal grains bread was then made of, wheat for the rich and barley for the poor, so that the rich and poor meet together in the calamity. The trees are destroyed, not only the vine and the fig-tree<\/I> (as before, v.<\/I><\/span> 7<\/span>), which were more useful and necessary, but other trees also that were for delight–the pomegranate, palm-tree,<\/I> and apple-tree,<\/I> yea, all the trees of the field,<\/I> as well as those of the orchard, timber-trees as well as fruit-trees. In short, all the harvest of the field has perished,<\/I> v.<\/span> 11<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. And by this means joy has withered away from the children of men<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 11<\/span>); the joy of harvest,<\/I> which is used to express great and general joy, has come to nothing, is turned into shame, is turned into lamentation. Note, The perishing of the harvest is the withering of the joy of the children of men. Those that place their happiness in the delights of the sense, when they are deprived of them, or in any way disturbed in the enjoyment of them, lose all their joy; whereas the children of God, who look upon the pleasures of sense with holy indifference and contempt, and know what it is to make God their hearts’ delight, can rejoice in him as the God of their salvation<\/I> even when the fig-tree does not blossom;<\/I> spiritual joy is so far from withering then, that it flourishes more than ever, Hab 3:17<\/span>; Hab 3:18<\/span>. Let us see here, 1. What perishing uncertain things all our creature-comforts are. We can never be sure of the continuance of them. Here the heavens had given their rains in due season, the earth had yielded her strength, and, when the appointed weeks of harvest were at hand, they saw no reason to doubt but that they should have a very plentiful crop; yet then they are invaded by these unthought-of enemies, that lay all waste, and not by fire and sword. It is our wisdom not to lay up our treasure in those things which are liable to so many untoward accidents. 2. See what need we have to live in continual dependence upon God and his providence, for our own hands are not sufficient for us. When we see the full corn in the ear,<\/I> and think we are sure of it–nay, when we have brought it home,<\/I> if he blow upon it,<\/I> nay, if he do not bless it, we are not likely to have any good of it. 3. See what ruinous work sin makes. A paradise is turned into a wilderness, a fruitful land, the most fruitful land upon earth, into barrenness,<\/I> for the iniquity of those that dwelt therein.<\/I><\/P> II. Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, lament, for they share deeply in the calamity: Gird yourselves<\/I> with sackcloth (v.<\/I><\/span> 13<\/span>); nay, they do mourn,<\/I> v.<\/span> 9<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. Observe, The priests are called the ministers of the altar,<\/I> for on that they attended, and the ministers of the Lord<\/I> (of my God,<\/I> says the prophet), for in attending on the altar they served him, did is work, and did him honour. Note, Those that are employed in holy things are therein God’s ministers, and on him they attend. The ministers of the altar used to rejoice before the Lord, and to spend their time very much in singing; but now they must lament and howl,<\/I> for the meat-offering<\/I> and drink-offering<\/I> were cut off from the house of the Lord<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 9<\/span>), and the same again (v.<\/I><\/span> 13<\/span>), from the house of your God.<\/I> “He is your God in a particular manner; you are in a nearer relation to him than other Israelites are; and therefore it is expected that you should be more concerned than others for that which is a hindrance to the service of his sanctuary.” It is intimated, 1. That the people, as long as they had the fruits of the earth brought in in their season, presented to the Lord his dues out of them, and brought the offerings to the altar and tithes to those that served at the altar. Note, A people may be filling up the measure of their iniquity apace, and yet may keep up a course of external performances in religion. 2. That, when the meat and drink failed, the meat-offering and drink-offering failed of course; and this was the sorest instance of the calamity. Note, As far as any public trouble is an obstruction to the course of religion it is to be upon that account, more than any other, sadly lamented, especially by the priests, the Lord’s ministers. As far as poverty occasions the decay of piety and the neglect of divine offices, and starves the cause of religion among a people, it is indeed a sore judgment. When the famine prevailed God could not have his sacrifices, nor could the priests have their maintenance; and therefore let the Lord’s ministers mourn.<\/I><\/P> <\/p>\n The Prophet now addresses the whole land. Lament, he says; not in an ordinary way, but like a widow, whose husband is dead, whom she had married when young. The love, we know, of a young man towards a young woman, and so of a young woman towards a young man, is more tender than when a person in years marries an elderly woman. This is the reason that the Prophet here mentions the husband of her youth; he wished to set forth the heaviest lamentation, and hence he says “The Jews ought not surely to be otherwise affected by so many calamities, than a widow who has lost her husband while young, and not arrived at maturity, but in the flower of his age.” As then such widows feel bitterly their loss, so the Prophet has adduced their case. <\/p>\n The Hebrews often call a husband בעל bol, because he is the lord of his wife and has her under his protection. Literally it is, “For the lord of her youth;” and hence it is, that they also called their idols בעלים bolim, as though they were as we have often said in our comment on the Prophet Hosea, their patrons. <\/p>\n The sum of the whole is, That the Jews could not have continued in an unconcerned state, without being void of all reason and discernment; for they were forced, willing or unwilling, to feel a most grievous calamity. It is a monstrous thing, when a widow, losing her husband when yet young, refrains from mourning. Now then, since God had afflicted his land with so many evils, he wished to bring on them, as it were, the grief of widowhood. It follows — <\/p>\n CRITICAL NOTES.]<\/strong> <\/p>\n Joe. 1:8<\/span><\/strong>. A virgin<\/strong>] The impersonated nation to lament with the sorrow and despair of a young girl, whose hopes have been blighted, and her beloved taken away by a stroke (Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>That a neglected worship is often consequent upon the failure of the temporal resource of a people. To the Jews the suspension of the daily sacrifice was the suspension of the appointed sign indicating that they were in covenant with God, and therefore the last of evils. And so there is ever an intimate connection between temporal resource and the worship of God; a desolated commerce will probably involve a neglected temple. When the harvests fail the offerings of the soul are not brought into the sanctuary.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>That a suspended worship cannot but be regarded as an indication of the Divine displeasure. Surely the announcement of the prophet, that the temple offerings were suspended, would run throughout the land of Judah, and would lead many souls to ask the reason why. Hence we gather–<\/p>\n
III.<\/strong> that a neglected worship calls for the deep grief of all reflective minds. The land of Judah waste lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth, who had been snatched from her when she was betrothed to him, but had not yet been taken to his house. The time of betrothal varied from a few days iii the Patriarchal age (Gen 24:55<\/span>) to a full year in later times. Hence the people of Judah were not to regard the judgments which had come upon them With indifference, with a mere conventional grief, but with an anguish akin to that experienced by a youthful wife bereaved of her husband. We see–<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>That a suspended worship will especially awaken painful solicitude within the heart of the true minister. The priests, the Lords ministers, mourn.<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/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
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n