All that found them have devoured them: as they are in the condition of lost sheep, so they have been under the fate of lost sheep, which every dog, fox, wolf devours. And those that are their enemies have pretended that in destroying them they have done no ill, because they had sinned; so as the sins of the Jews did both expose them to the wrath of God, and also imboldened their enemies, and encouraged them to think that they did God service in destroying them. The habitation of justice: some think this is a name here given to God, who indeed is the habitation of justice, but whether the Chaldeans would call him so may be a question. Others therefore think the preposition in is understood, making this the aggravation of the Jews sins, that they were committed in a land which ought to have been a habitation of justice; as, Isaiah 26:10, it is said that the wicked man in a land of uprightness will deal unjustly. Mr. Calvin hath another notion, viz. that the prophet here encourageth himself against what the adversaries had promised themselves because the people had offended God; viz. that notwithstanding this, God was a righteous God, in whom justice dwelt, and who would be faithful to his promises. The hope of their fathers; and he was their hope, and had been he in whom their fathers before them had hoped, and that not in vain.

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