O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 17. Hardened, and so forth The meaning is, that God, in punishment of their great and manifold crimes, and their long abuse of his mercy and grace, had withdrawn his graces from them, and so given them up to error and hardness of heart. Challoner.—They had abused his patience, to sin the more. Theodoret—The Jews are accustomed to attribute all to God, though they agree with us in reality God might prevent any sin. Calmet.—But he chooses to leave man to the free exercise of his liberty. He hardens ( Bible.) “not by infusing malice, but by not shewing mercy; and those to whom he shews it not, are undeserving.” Saint Augustine ep. ad Sixt. cxciv. 14.—God is never the author of error. Man takes occasion from his indulgence to become obdurate. Saint Jerome Worthington.