We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah. Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
The Prophet harps upon this string of the enemies' oppression, knowing, that God's jealousy for his people would be justly excited thereby. The Prophet knew, that Jehovah had himself declared, in instances that were past, that he would have scattered his people into corners, had it not been that the enemy would have triumphed. And as this restrained the Lord's hand then, he pleaded this with an hope, that the same cause would work now. See Deuteronomy 32:26-27. Reader! mark this scripture; and take it with thee to the throne in times of oppression. Jesus's cause is his people's cause; and our foes are his foes.