A.D. 379 – 1871 6 witnesses
“This alone among all evils is without comparison. This is a new act of shamelessness in life. "Go over to the islands of Kittim and see," the Lord says. "Send to Kedar and consider carefully whether anything like this has ever been done—if a nation has changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.)." But the virgin "has changed her glory," and her glory is in her shame.”
“the isles of the Kittites To the isles of the Kittites. איי is (isles in French). and send to Kedar And send to Kedar to see their custom. and consider diligently And put your heart to it to consider the matter diligently. whether Heb. הן, like אם, if. Whether either of those nations exchanged its god although they are no gods, yet My nation exchanged their glory, with which they were honored. The Kittites and the Kedarites were tent dwellers and cattle herders, who would travel, go, and wander from pasture to pasture and from desert to desert, and they carry their gods with them to the place where they encamp. But I carried you until I established you, yet you forsook Me. This is how Jonathan paraphrased it. Our Sages said however: The Kittites worshipped water and the Kedarites worshipped fire. And although they know that water quenches fire, they did not forsake their god.”
“Here he aggravates their guilt from the enormity of the deed: and first he sets forth what he intends, namely judgment: 'I will yet contend' — concerning the enormity, as before for ingratitude — 'with the children,' who imitate the malice of their fathers. Mich. 6: 'The judgment of the Lord is with his people, and with Israel he will be judged.' Second, he carries out his proposal, showing in the judgment the enormity of the sin: and first from a comparison of worshippers: 'Pass over,' by consideration — 'Cethim': the Westerners beyond Cyprus, or the city named Cedar, where the Ishmaelites dwell. 'If a nation has changed'; as if he were to say, it has not changed. Hence it is clear that in comparison with others they are condemned. Ezech. 5: 'She has despised my judgments, so as to be more wicked than the nations, and my precepts more than the lands that are round about her.' Second, from a comparison of gods, bursting forth into astonishment: 'be astonished'; as if he were to say: if it were possible, the heavens would be astonished; or the Angels, who are in the heavens, as the city of its king. 'Its gates' — the more principal among the Angels, who are as princes and judges of the others. Likewise Isa. 1: 'Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.' Second, he adds the reason for the astonishment. For there are two things, against two parts of the precept. Exod. 20: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall not have strange gods before me,' et cetera. And again: 'You shall not make gods of silver, nor shall you make gods of gold for yourselves.' 'The fountain of water' — I who can give them true consolation. Psal. 35: 'With you is the fountain of life.' 'Cisterns' — idols, which cannot save — 'they have dug,' because they themselves made them. Psal. 113: 'The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the works of the hands of men.'”
“Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?.... Though they are not by nature gods which they worship, only nominal and fictitious deities, yet they did not change them for others; but when they once embraced the worship of them, continued therein; so did the Chittim, the inhabitants of the isles, who though they traded to distant countries, from place to place; and so the Kedarenes, who dwelt in tents, and fed cattle, and moved from one desert to another, and from one pasture to another, as Jarchi observes; yet they carried their gods with them, and did not exchange them for new ones where they came. The Jewish writers say (b), that the Kedarenes worshipped water, and the Chittim fire; and though they knew that water would quench fire, yet the latter would not change their gods. Kimchi and Abendana relate it just the reverse, and say the Kedarenes worshipped fire, and the Chittim water, which is most likely; and so it is said elsewhere (c). But my people have changed their glory; the true God, who is glorious in himself, and whom they should have glorified, and have counted it their highest honour and glory that they knew him, and were the worshippers of him; yet they changed him, their glory, into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass, Psa 106:20, wherefore it is justly added, for that which doth not profit; meaning Baal, and such like idols; see the note on Jer 2:8. (b) T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 5. 2. (c) Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 60. 3.”
“Cethim; Macedon. It here denotes the western nations, as Cedar does those on the east.”
“pass over the isles--rather, "cross over to the isles." Chittim . . . Kedar--that is, the heathen nations, west and east. Go where you will, you cannot find an instance of any heathen nation forsaking their own for other gods. Israel alone does this. Yet the heathen gods are false gods; whereas Israel, in forsaking Me for other gods, forsake their "glory" for unprofitable idols. Chittim--Cyprus, colonized by PhÅ“nicians, who built in it the city of Citium, the modern Chitti. Then the term came to be applied to all maritime coasts of the Mediterranean, especially Greece (Num 24:24; Isa 23:1; Dan 11:30). Kedar--descended from Ishmael; the Bedouins and Arabs, east of Palestine.”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.