18.
The people of thy Holiness have pos∣sessed it but a little while,] i. e. Thy people, or thy holy people the Jews, have possessed the Land of Canaan, which is thine inhe∣ritance, but a little while: Supple, There∣fore bring us back again, O Lord, out of our captivity in Babylon, into thine inhe∣ritance, that we may possess it yet longer, according to thy promise.
He saith, that they had possessed the Land of Canaan, the Lords inheritance, but a little while, though they had possessed it•• eight or nine hundred years, because the Lord promised that they should inherit it for ever, Exod. 32.13. And what is eight or nine hundred years, to that which is for ever?
The people of thine Holiness] Of thine Ho∣liness may be put here, for Of thee, (Gods Holiness being put for God himself,) per Metonymiam Adjuncti: q. d. Thy people. Or the substantive of the Genitive case may be put here for an Adjective (as the Hebrews often put it) and so the people of thine Ho∣liness may be put for thine holy people.
And the Jews, the children of Israel, might be called Gods holy people, because God took them to himself, and separated them from all the people in the Earth, to be his servants: for Holiness is nothing else but a separation from others, by way of eminency.
It] i. e. Thine inheritance, mentioned Vers. 17.
Our adversaries have broken down thy Sanctuary.] i. e. The Babylonians, which are our adversaries, and which hold us in hard captivity, have broken down thy holy Temple: Supple, Therefore destroy thou them for so doing, that we may be freed out of their hands.
The Temple was called the Sanctuary, be-of the sanctity and holiness thereof.
How the Babylonians trod down the Temple, see 2 Chron. 36.19.