(17) Therefore he brought up.--And He caused to come up; alluding to "the wrath . . . went up."

In the house of their sanctuary.--Which they had polluted (2Chronicles 36:14). The scene of their sin witnessed their destruction.

Him that stooped for age.--Rather, greyheaded, hoary (y?sh?sh). (Comp. Ezekiel 9, where the horrors of the capture of Jerusalem are ascribed expressly to the Divine working; see also Jeremiah 15:1-9; Deuteronomy 32:25.)

He gave them all into his hand.--Comp. Jeremiah 37:6; Jeremiah 32:3-4.

Them all.--Literally, the whole, everything, ?? ?????. "Them all" would be hull?m, whereas the text is hakk?l. (So 2Chronicles 36:18, "all these.") Jerusalem was taken 588 B.C.

Verse 17. - Powerful illustrations of this verse may be read in Lain. 2. and Ezekiel 9. throughout the length of the chapters.

36:1-21 The ruin of Judah and Jerusalem came on by degrees. The methods God takes to call back sinners by his word, by ministers, by conscience, by providences, are all instances of his compassion toward them, and his unwillingness that any should perish. See here what woful havoc sin makes, and, as we value the comfort and continuance of our earthly blessings, let us keep that worm from the root of them. They had many times ploughed and sowed their land in the seventh year, when it should have rested, and now it lay unploughed and unsown for ten times seven years. God will be no loser in his glory at last, by the disobedience of men. If they refused to let the land rest, God would make it rest. What place, O God, shall thy justice spare, if Jerusalem has perished? If that delight of thine were cut off for wickedness, let us not be high-minded, but fear.Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees,.... Nebuchadnezzar; and though it was the rebellion of Zedekiah which was the cause and occasion of his coming against them, yet it was the Lord that moved him to it, and gave him success:

who slew their young men with the sword, in the house of the sanctuary; in the temple, where they took sanctuary, imagining that sacred place would protect them from the rage of the enemy, but it did not:

and had no compassion on young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age; spared none on account of age or sex, but put them all to the sword, or carried them captive:

he gave them into his hand; that is, the Lord delivered them into the hand of the king of Babylon, for their sins.