*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
He mentions here another kind of reproach, that women had been ravished in Jerusalem, and in other cities. [1] God had commanded chastity to be observed among his people. When, therefore, virgins and women were thus defiled, it was a thing extremely disgraceful. But the Prophet mentioned this also, in order that God might at length show himself propitious to his people after having been entreated. (Deuteronomy 22:21-24.) And he mentioned Sion rather than Jerusalem, -- it was indeed to state a part for the whole; but that place, we know, had been chosen by God that his name might be there worshipped. Sion, then, was a holy place above any other; it was, in a word, the earthly dwelling of God. As, then, God had there his palace, that he might dwell in the midst of his people, it was a disgraceful sight in the extreme to see women ravished there, for the temple of God was thus violated. It was not only a thing disgraceful to the people, that women were thus ravished, but it was a filthy profanation of God's worship, and therefore sacrilegious. We now see the design of the Prophet. He mentions also the cities of Judah, but with reference to the same thing. It follows --
1 - There is here a delicate word for a disgraceful act. The words literally are, -- Women in Sion they humbled (or, were humbled,) And virgins in the cities of Judah. It is humbled by the Sept. and Vulg. "And" before "virgins" is supplied by the Vulg. and Syr. -- Ed.
They ravished - They humbled.
They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah - The evil mentioned here was predicted by Moses, Deuteronomy 28:30, Deuteronomy 28:32, and by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 6:12.
They ravished the women in Zion,.... Or "humbled" them (w); an euphemism; the women that were married to men in Zion, as the Targum; and if this wickedness was committed in the holy mountain of Zion, it was still more abominable and afflicting, and to be complained of; and if by the servants before mentioned, as Aben Ezra interprets it, it is another aggravating circumstance of it; for this was done not in Babylon when captives there; but at the taking of the city of Jerusalem, and by the common soldiers, as is too often practised:
and the maids in the cities of Judah; in all parts of the country, where the Chaldean army ravaged, there they ravished the maids. The Targum is,
"the women that were married to men in Zion were humbled by strangers; (the Targum in the king of Spain's Bible is, by the Romans;) and virgins in the cities of Judah by the Chaldeans;''
suggesting that this account has reference to both destructions of the city, and the concomitants and consequences thereof.
(w) Sept. "humiliaverunt", V. L. Munster.
So in just retribution Babylon itself should fare in the end. Jerusalem shall for the last time suffer these woes before her final restoration (Zac 14:2).
*More commentary available at chapter level.