The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 421

Ver. L-" The sin of Judah." That which the prophet has to say· conaerning -it' in this part of his prophecy is in answer to the question of eh. xvi. 10, 11, where Judali inquires what their sin is. In reply, the prophet- ,, ' L RECITES TIIEIR INIQIJITIES. (Vers. 11, 12.) IL DENOUNCES Goo's JUDGMENTS. (Vers. 13-18.) IIL CITES WITNESSES AGAINST THEM.,-0. Ver. 12.-" Tlw 'place of our sanctuary!' Some four hundred years had passed between the date of these words· and the marriage of Solomon ,vith the daughter of the Egyptian king. But that remote ev.ent, fruitful of consequences as it was at the time, was fruitful also in results for generation after generation in.the centuries to come: And it is to one of those results that this verse has reference, or ro.ther was-occasioned by it. J:<'or ever since that marriage there had been an Egyptian party in the court of Juclah, which sought to sway the aff~irs of Judah in harmony with those of: E,gypt, On the other hand, there were the representatives of another near and •·mighty monarchy which sought to render Judah subservient to their interests. This_was the Assyrian power. There wa;s consequen·tly a perpetual tendency on the part of Judah, wLen trouble came, to make alliance with on:e party or another; Now the Egyptian alliance was preferred, and now the Assyrian-,-lsa. xx:x. and the history of the reign of Josiah and his death are instances in proof. But the prophets of· God were ever against these alliances, and lifted up their voices, though in vain, in protest. 'l'hese verses, 5-12, are one of those despised utterances, denouncing the false trust and exhorting to the true. This twelfth verse- I. SPEAKS OF THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM, 1. For that temple has a throne. It was the earthly throne of God. '!'here was the mercy-seat and the cherubim bow- iug in profound homage over it, and between them was the visible presenoe of the glory of God, that Shechinah, that wondrous appearance so bright and awful that but one out of all Israel, and he only once a year, could look thereupon and live. "In Salen1 was Lis tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion." 2. And it was a glol'ious throne. lly reason of its external magnificence; but more especially of the glorious manifesta- tions of God which had been seen in connection with it. 3; And a high as Wt'll as a glorious tl,rone. Not only because Jerusalem was a mountain-city, the loftiest in the "'.>rlu, so high and lifted up was the" mountain of the Lord's house,'' but also because ol the_ si,iritual glory-so far excelling all othor--which belonged to it. 'J'he ancient 1,salw1.Sls and proph~ls were never tired of declaring and demonstrating how the Lon] CH, xvu. 1-27.] 'l'IIrn IlOOK OF THE PROPHET JETIEMIAH.