I will make your cities waste
By suffering the enemy to besiege them, enter into them, and
plunder them, and destroy the houses in them, and reduce them to
the most desolate condition, as Jerusalem, their metropolis, was
more than once: and bring your sanctuaries unto
desolation;
the temple, so called from the several apartments in it, the
court, the holy place, and the most holy; or rather both
sanctuaries or temples are intended, the first built by Solomon,
and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; the second rebuilt by
Zerubbabel, and adorned by Herod, and reduced to ashes by Titus
Vespasian: the Jews understand this of their synagogues, which
were many both in Jerusalem, and in other parts of their country,
but cannot be intended, since it follows: and I will not
smell the savour of your sweet odours:
of their incense offered on the altar of incense; or the savour
of their offerings, as the Targum of Jonathan, of their burnt
offerings, and the fat of their other offerings burnt on the
altar of burnt offering; signifying, that these would not be
acceptable to him, or he smell a savour of rest in them; see (
Genesis
8:21 ) ; now these were only offered in the temple, not in
synagogues.