Neither is there at this time prince, or prophet, or leader, or burnt offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or place to sacrifice before you, and to find mercy.
Read Chapter 3
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Thee, in Jerusalem, (Haydock) or Judea. There were chiefs and judges, (Chap. xiii.) as well as prophets, (Ezechiel) among the captives. Yet the republic was in disorder. (Calmet)
Sedecias was dead, Joakim in prison, so that no Jewish king ruled over the people; nor was there any prophet in the promised land, Jeremias being either dead or in Egypt. (Worthington)
Prophets were at least very rare. (Menochius)
When they were in Babylon and their enemies wanted to make them sing, they neither listened nor obeyed, because they were prisoners and the servants of masters who maltreated them. But having been deprived of their homeland and their freedom (and even their lives were in danger) and compelled by the hands of their enemies as in a trap, when they were commanded to sing that song with their harps, they said, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept, because those who deported us asked us to sing. How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land?” We must not say that they acted thusly because they had no harps. They give the reason: “How can we sing the songs of the Lord in a foreign land?” And they had their harps with them: “On the poplars of that land we hung up our harps.” But they were not allowed even to fast. This is what the prophet had said to them: “ ‘Have you fasted for these seventy years?’ says the Lord.” That the offering of sacrifices or libations was prohibited is...
