Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? The prophet again returns to God, and expostulates with him, humbly imploring mercy for his people, which shows that he did not understand God's words to him,
(Jeremiah 14:11,) as an absolute prohibition to pray for them. Hath thy soul loathed Zion? Which was formerly thy delight, and the place thou didst choose for thy special residence. Why hast thou smitten, &c. That is, So smitten that there is no healing Wounded us past recovery; none else can, and thou wilt not heal us. We looked for peace, &c. All our hopes and expectations have been frustrated. We acknowledge our wickedness The accumulated guilt of our land; and the iniquity of our fathers
Which we have imitated, and therefore are justly punished for it. We do not cover our sin, in which case we know we should not obtain mercy; we confess it, and hope to find thee faithful and just in forgiving it. Do not abhor us Hebrew, שׁל תנאצ, do not despise, or reject us. What he deprecates is the judgments come already, and further coming on the people, the famine, sword, and pestilence, with the drought, under the sad effects of which they at present laboured; and he prays for their removal or prevention in these words, in which he implies, that the love of God to a people is the source of all the good which they can expect, and his wrath the source of all evil that can befall them. To enforce his petition he pleads, 1st, God's honour: For thy name's sake That name of thine on which we call, and by which we are called; thy nature and attributes; let not these suffer an eclipse; let it not be said or thought by the heathen that thou art either unable or unwilling to protect and save thy people. Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory The temple, with the ark in it, the especial symbol of thy presence, termed (Jeremiah 17:12,) a glorious high throne from the beginning. Let not the desolations of it give occasion to idolaters to reproach him that used to be worshipped there, as if he wanted power or inclination to protect it; or, as if the gods of Babylon had been too strong for him. 2d, He pleads God's promise and covenant with Israel: Remember, break not thy covenant with us “Thou hast promised to be our God, and that we should be thy people, chap. Jeremiah 11:4; that is, That thou wouldst take us under thy protection. We have indeed forfeited all our title to thy promises by our sins, yet we beseech thee still to remember the relation we bear to thee.” Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles The vain idols, the imaginary beings, which have no existence save in the fancies of their worshippers, or the gods made by men's hands; that can give rain? or can the heavens give showers? Without thy providence. Are showers purely owing to natural causes? Dost thou not direct when and where they shall fall? The giving rain in its season is an argument for God's providence, often insisted upon in the Scriptures: see note on Jeremiah 5:24. And the prophet, imploring from God a removal of the drought, argues from the impossibility of obtaining relief in any other way, neither the heathen idols, nor the clouds, without God's will, being able to give rain. Art not thou he, O Lord our God? Namely, that givest it. Therefore we will wait upon thee For this blessing, and for the supply of all our other wants.