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Zep_3:18 I will gather [them that are] sorrowful for the solemn assembly, [who] are of thee, [to whom] the reproach of it [was] a burden.
Ver. 18. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly] Which now they cannot celebrate, as being in captivity; and are therefore in great heaviness; as was David, Psa_42:2-3; Psa_42:5. Nothing goes nearer to a good heart than to be debarred the benefit of God’s holy ordinances, than to hear the sabbaths mocked at by the enemies, as these good souls did, Lam_2:7, and to be asked, as David was, "Where is now thy God," Psa_42:3. All outward comforts in this case are mere Ichabods. When the ark was taken Eli could live no longer; that word struck him down backward, and killed him in the fall. No sword of a Philistine could have slain him more painfully; neither is it easy to say whether his neck or heart were first broken.
Who are of thee] True children of the Church, as appeareth by their strong affections to the ordinances, 1Pe_2:2. Luther said he would not live in paradise without the word; as with it he could easily live in hell. An infant cannot be quieted with gauds {a} or fine clothes without the dug; so neither can a true Christian with anything but the public services, the solemn assemblies.
To whom the reproach of it was a burden] It lay heavy upon their spirits, and made them send up many a deep sigh to God, who heareth the breathings of his people, Lam_3:56, and will restore comfort to such his mourners, Isa_57:18. He that helped his Levites to bear the ark, 1Ch_15:26, will help those that grieve at the want of it and groan under the reproach cast upon it, which they ever honoured as the face of God, Psa_105:4. Yea, as God himself, Psa_132:5.
{a} One of the larger and more ornamental beads placed between the decades of ‘aves’ in a rosary. ŒD