We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth
us
As persons overwhelmed with a sense of sin, and so pressed with
the guilt of it on their consciences, that they can neither stand
up, nor look up, but throw themselves on the ground, and cover
their faces, being ashamed of what they have done: for we
have sinned against the Lord our God;
as by breaking the law of God, so by despising the Gospel;
rejecting the ordinances of it; disbelieving the Messiah, and
speaking reproachfully of him and his people: we and our
fathers, from our youth even unto this day;
in a long series of years, from the time that Christ was upon
earth, to the day of their conversion, in the latter times of the
Gospel dispensation: and have not obeyed the voice of the
Lord our God;
the voice of his forerunner, John the Baptist, of the Messiah
himself, and of his apostles, and of his ministers, since; so the
Targum,
``and have not obeyed the Word of the Lord our God.''Christ the essential Word.