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As to the application of the Prophecy, the Prophet then distinctly describes it; but he sets forth with sufficient clearness the main point, when he says, Thus will I mar the stateliness ( altitudinem the altitude or height) of Judah and the great stateliness of Jerusalem Other interpreters unanimously render the word, pride; but as גאון gaun, may be taken in two senses, it means here, I have no doubt, excellency, and this will appear more fully from what follows. (72) The word then signifies here that dignity with which God had favored the seed of Abraham, when he intended them to be an ornament to himself. So it is said in Exo_15:7,
“ thy greatness thou wilt destroy the nations.”
And in Isaiah he says,
“ will make thee the excellency of ages.” (Isa_60:15)
There no doubt it is to be taken in a good sense. And these things harmonize together, — that God had prepared the Jews for himself as a belt, and then that he cast them from him into a cavern, where they would be for a time without any light and without any glory.
The import of this clause then is, “ the dignity of Judah and Jerusalem has been great, (for the people whom God had adopted were renowned according to what is said in Psa_73:0) though then the stateliness of Judah and Jerusalem has been great, yet I will mar it.” We see how the Prophet takes from the Jews that false confidence by which they deceived themselves. They might indeed have gloried in God, had they acted truly and from the heart: but when they arrogated all things to themselves, and deprived God of his authority, whose subjects they were, how great was their vanity and folly, and how ridiculous always to profess his sacred name, and to say, We are God’ people? for he was no God to them, as they esteemed him as nothing; nay, they disdainfully and reproachfully rejected his yoke. We hence see that the word גאון gaun, is to be taken here in a good sense. The Prophet at the same time reproachfully taunts them, that they abused the name of God and falsely pretended to be his people and heritage. The rest we cannot finish; we shall go on with the subject to-morrow.
(72) It is strangely rendered “ — ὕζριν,” by the Septuagint, but “” by the Vulgate, — “ haughty ones,” by the Syriac, — “” by the Arabic, and “” by the Targum. Blayney agrees with Calvin and renders it “” and Horsley, “” — Ed.