7. devoured--
(Ps 79:7).
"Found them" implies that they were exposed to the attacks of those
whoever happened to meet them.
adversaries said--for instance, Nebuzara-dan
(Jer 40:2, 3;
compare
Zec 11:5).
The Gentiles acknowledged some supreme divinity. The Jews' guilt was so
palpable that they were condemned even in the judgment of heathens.
Some knowledge of God's peculiar relation to Judea reached its heathen
invaders from the prophets
(Jer 2:3;
Da 9:16);
hence the strong language they use of Jehovah here, not as worshippers
of Him themselves, but as believing Him to be the tutelary God of
Judah ("the hope of their fathers,"
Ps 22:4;
they do not say our hope), as each country was thought to have
its local god, whose power extended no farther.
habitation--
(Ps 90:1; 91:1).
Alluding to the tabernacle, or, as in
Eze 34:14,
"fold," which carries out the image in
Jer 50:6,
"resting-place" of the "sheep." But it can only mean "habitation"
(Jer 31:23),
which confirms English Version here.
hope of their fathers--This especially condemned the Jews that their
apostasy was from that God whose faithfulness their fathers had
experienced. At the same time these "adversaries" unconsciously use
language which corrects their own notions. The covenant with the Jews'
"fathers" is not utterly set aside by their sin, as their adversaries
thought; there is still "a habitation" or refuge for them with the God
of their fathers.
JFB.
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