John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 9:19

"For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings." — Jeremiah 9:19 (ASV)

We have said before that when Jeremiah addressed the people in these words, they were still in a reasonably good condition, so that the king had confidence in his own resources. His counselors also thought that some aid would come to them from Egypt, and the people were likewise deceived. But the Prophet speaks of future events and points out, as if with his finger, the evils which were still concealed from view. For otherwise, he could not teach with any authority, since he had to deal with men of iron hearts. Since he saw that his teaching had no effect and was completely disregarded by such slothful men, he felt it necessary to shape his style to touch their feelings.

For this reason, he says that a voice was heard, a voice of wailing from Zion, while everyone there still exulted with joy. Then he adds, How have we been destroyed! and made greatly ashamed! The Jews thought this was a fable until they found by experience that they had been extremely hard-hearted and obstinate; but this really happened. Though they were then indulging in their pleasures, he nevertheless proclaims lamentations to them, as if they were already destroyed. A voice, he says, has been heard, as if the Jews were bewailing the calamity about which they thought the Prophet was telling fables, for no danger was yet apparent.

But, as I have said, in order to condemn the hardness of their hearts, he portrays them in another role, as bewailing their ruinous condition and saying, We have left the land; in which, however, they thought their dwelling would be perpetual. For they boasted that they could never be excluded, as it had been declared:

“This is my rest forever,
here will I dwell, for I have chosen it.” (Psalms 132:14).

Since God had testified that it would be a quiet dwelling place for his people, they thought they were fortified by a triple wall and rampart and that the city was altogether unassailable. But Jeremiah represents them as saying that they had left their own land—that is, that they had been drawn and driven into exile. Then he adds, because they have cast us out. This seems to refer to their enemies who had cast them out—that is, who pulled down their dwellings. Some understand 'dwellings' as the subject of the verb in the phrase, “Our dwellings have cast us out.” But the first meaning reads better: I therefore consider the sense to be simply this—that they were cast out and their houses were destroyed by their enemies.