Please read the passage before reading the commentary
We hear the exact day, the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year. That is the date the king of Babylon and his army advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it and starved the city. Then on the ninth day of the fourth month in the eleventh year, a year and a half later, the walls are breached, and the city fell. The king’s sons were killed, the king himself was blinded, everybody was removed except for the poorest people left. The city was destroyed, the kingdom defunct. Everything was over.
This was the situation after this war, and it is the situation after every war. People are subjugated, forced to move, forced to give up their own customs in favor of following someone else’s flag. Everyone dies in war. Even the winners are losers.
“If only” describes the scene. If only we had done … or if only this had not happened. We discover the justice we should have had, the greed we should have discarded, the haughtiness and pride we should have replaced with a more sincere humility.
For us there is still time to repent. Many nations and peoples find fault with our nation for an apparent smug overbearing attitude and an apparent lack of humility and compassion. We often show the same pride and disregard for others in our personal relationships. In every war even the winners are losers. It js time for repentance for us as individuals and as a nation.