The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
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The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
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The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
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The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying:
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 30:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 1:1-2 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. Yahweh’s word came to him in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
- Jeremiah 26:15 Only know for certain that, if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its inhabitants; for in truth Yahweh has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain This and the next chapter contain, as we shall…
This and the next chapter contain, as we shall see, a most profitable truth; and that the people might be the more attentive, God introduced these prophecies by a preface. Jeremiah spoke many things which afterwards, as it has elsewhere appeared, had been collected and inserted in one volume by the priests and Levites; but God reminds us in these words, that the prophecies which are to follow respecting the liberation of the people, were especially to be remembered.
There is, however, another circumstance to be noticed. We have seen that such was the stubbornness of the people, that Jeremiah spent his labor among them in vain, for he addressed the deaf, or rather stocks and stones, for they were so possessed by stupor that they understood nothing, for God had even blinded them, a judgment which they fully deserved. Such was the condition of the people. We must further bear in mind the comparison between the doctrine of Jeremiah and the fables of those who fed the miserable people with flatteries, by giving them the hope of a return after two years. God knew what would be the event; but the people ceased not to entertain hope and to boast of a return at the end of two years. Thus they despised God’s favor, for seventy years was a long period: “What! God indeed promises a return, but after seventy years who of us will be alive? Hardly one of us will be found then remaining, therefore so cold a promise is nothing to us.” They, at the same time, as I have said, were filled with a false confidence, as with wind, and behaved insolently towards God and his prophets, as though they were to return sound and safe in a short time.
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But profane men always run to extremes; at one time they are inflated with pride, that is, when things go on prosperously, or when a hope of prosperity appears, and they carry themselves proudly against God, as though nothing adverse could happen to them; then when hope and false conceit disappoint them, they are wholly disheartened, so that they will receive no comfort, but plunge into the abyss of despair. God saw that this would be the case with the people, except he came to their aid. Hence he proposes here the best and the fittest remedy — that the Prophet, as he had effected nothing by speaking, should write and convert as it were into deeds or acts what he had spoken, so that after the lapse of two years they might gather courage, and afterwards acknowledge that they had been deceived by unprincipled men, and thus justly suffered for their levity, so that they might at length begin to look to God and embrace the promised liberation, and not wholly despond. This, then, is the reason why the Prophet was commanded to write the words which he had before declared with his mouth.
Now, as we understand the design of God, let us learn that when it happens that we go astray and wander after false imaginations, we are not on that account to cast away the hope of salvation; for we see that God here stretches forth his hand to those who had erred, and who had even wilfully cast themselves into ruin, for they had been more than enough admonished and warned by true and faithful prophets; their ears they had stopped; their hearts they had hardened; and yet when they had sought as it were designedly to ruin themselves, we see how God still recalled them to himself.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 30:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from…
Jer 30:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Ver. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.] This chapter and the next are Jeremiah’s thirteenth sermon, as some reckon them, and it is wholly consolatory. The author of it he showeth to be the "God of all consolation"; and this the prophet inculcateth six different times in the five first verses, pro maiori efficacia, that it may take the better.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This title is thought to extend to all we…
This title is thought to extend to all we have both in this and the next chapter, both which mostly consist of comfortable promises of the restoration of this people, and teacheth us what ought to be the matter of our sermons; we ought to speak nothing for substance but what we can justify to come from the Lord, which all doctrine doth that is bottomed on Scripture, though opened and made more plain and intelligible by words formed in our own minds.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here, I. Jeremiah is directed to write what God…
Here, I. Jeremiah is directed to write what God had spoken to him, which perhaps refers to all the foregoing prophecies. He must write them and publish them, in hopes that those who had not profited by what he said upon once hearing it might take more notice of it when in reading it they had leisure for a more considerate review. Or, rather, it refers to the promises of their enlargement, which had been often mixed with his other discourses. He must collect them and put them together, and God will now add unto them many like words. He must write them for the generations to come, who should see them accomplished, and thereby have their faith in the prophecy confirmed. He must write them not in a letter, as that in the chapter before to the captives, but in a book, to be carefully preserved in the archives, or among the public rolls or registers of the state. Daniel understood by these books when the captivity was about coming to an end, Dan 9:2. He must write them in a book, not in loose papers: "For the days come, and are yet at a great distance, when I will bring again the captivity of Israel and Judah, great numbers of the ten tribes, with those of the two," Jer 30:3. And this prophecy must be written, that it may be read then also, that so it may appear how exactly the accomplishment answers the prediction, which is one end of the writing of prophecies. It is intimated that they shall be beloved for their fathers' sake (Rom 11:28); for therefore God will bring them again to Canaan, because it was the land that he gave to their fathers, which therefore they shall possess.
II. He is directed what to write. The very words are such as the Holy Ghost teaches, Jer 30:4. These are the words which God ordered to be written; and those promises which are written by his order are as truly his word as the ten commandments which were written with his finger. 1. He must write a description of the fright and consternation which the people were now in, and were likely to be still in upon every attack that the Chaldeans made upon them, which will much magnify both the wonder and the welcomeness of their deliverance (Jer 30:5): We have heard a voice of trembling - the shrieks of terror echoing to the alarms of danger. The false prophets told them that they should have peace, but there is fear and not peace, so the margin reads it. No marvel that when without are fightings within are fears. The men, even the men of war, shall be quite overwhelmed with the calamities of their nation, shall sink under them, and yield to them, and shall look like women in labour, whose pains come upon them in great extremity and they know that they cannot escape them, Jer 30:6. You never heard of a man travailing with child, and yet here you find not here and there a timorous man, but every man with his hands on his loins, in the utmost anguish and agony, as women in travail, when they see their cities burnt and their countries laid waste. But this pain is compared to that of a woman in travail, not to that of a death-bed, because it shall end in joy at last, and the pain, like that of a travailing woman, shall be forgotten. All faces shall be turned into paleness. The word signifies not only such paleness as arises from a sudden fright, but that which is the effect of a bad habit of body, the jaundice, or the green sickness. The prophet laments the calamity upon the foresight of it (Jer 30:7): Alas! for that day is great, a day of judgment, which is called the great day, the great and terrible day of the Lord (Joe 2:31, Jde 1:6), great, so that there has been none like it. The last destruction of Jerusalem is thus spoken of by our Saviour as unparalleled, Mat 24:21. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, a sad time, when God's professing people shall be in distress above other people. The whole time of the captivity was a time of Jacob's trouble; and such times ought to be greatly lamented by all that are concerned for the welfare of Jacob and the honour of the God of Jacob. 2. He must write the assurances which God had given that a happy end should at length be put to these calamities. (1.) Jacob's troubles shall cease: He shall be saved out of them. Though the afflictions of the church may last long, they shall not last always. Salvation belongs to the Lord, and shall be wrought for his church. (2.) Jacob's troublers shall be disabled from doing him any further mischief, and shall be reckoned with for the mischief they have done him, Jer 30:8. The Lord of hosts, who has all power in his hand, undertakes to do it: "I will break his yoke from off thy neck, which has long lain so heavy, and has so sorely galled thee. I will burst thy bonds and restore thee to liberty and ease, and thou shalt no more be at the beck and command of strangers, shalt no more serve them, nor shall they any more serve themselves of thee; they shall no more enrich themselves either by thy possessions or by thy labours." And, (3.) That which crowns and completes the mercy is that they shall be restored to the free exercise of their religion again, Jer 30:9. They shall be delivered from serving their enemies, not that they may live at large and do what they please, but that they may serve the Lord their God and David their king, that they may come again into order, under the established government both in church and state. Therefore they were brought into trouble and made to serve their enemies because they had not served the Lord their God as they ought to have done, with joyfulness and gladness of heart, Deu 28:47. But, when the time shall come that they should be saved out of their trouble, God will prepare and qualify them for it by giving them a heart to serve him, and will make it doubly comfortable by giving them opportunity to serve him. Therefore we are delivered out of the hands of our enemies, that we may serve God, Luk 1:74, Luk 1:75. And then deliverances out of temporal calamities are mercies indeed to us when by them we find ourselves engaged to and enlarged in the service of God. They shall serve their own God, and neither be inclined, as they had been of old in the day of their apostasy, nor compelled, as they had been of late in the day of their captivity, to serve other gods. They shall serve David their king, such governors as God should from time to time set over them, of the line of David (as Zerubbabel), or at least sitting on the thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David, as Nehemiah. But certainly this has a further meaning. The Chaldee paraphrase reads it, They shall obey (or hearken to) the Messiah (or Christ), the Son of David, their king. To him the Jewish interpreters apply it. That dispensation which commenced at their return out of captivity brought them to the Messiah. He is called David their King because he was the Son of David (Mat 22:42) and he answered to the name, Mat 20:31, Mat 20:32. David was an illustrious type of him both in his humiliation and in his exaltation. The covenant of royalty made with David had principal reference to him, and in him the promises of that covenant had their full accomplishment. God gave him the throne of his father David; he raised him up unto them, set him upon the holy hill of Zion. God is often in the New Testament said to have raised up Jesus, raised him up as a King, Act 3:26; Act 13:23, Act 13:33. Observe, [1.] Those that serve the Lord as their God must also serve David their King, must give up themselves to Jesus Christ, to be ruled by him. For all men must honour the Son as they honour the Father, and come into the service and worship of God by him as Mediator. [2.] Those that are delivered out of spiritual bondage must make it appear that they are so by giving up themselves to the service of Christ. Those to whom he gives rest must take his yoke upon them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord,....…
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord,.... The word of prophecy, us the Targum. Some make this to be the "thirteenth" sermon of the prophet's; it is a consolatory one, as Kimchi observes:
saying; as follows:
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain God shews Jeremiah the deliverance and return of the…
God shews Jeremiah the deliverance and return of the Jews, ver. 1-9. He comforts Jacob, ver. 10-17. Their return shall be gracious. Wrath on the wicked, ver. 18-24.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain This and the following chapter must relate to a…
CHAPTER XXX
This and the following chapter must relate to a still future
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restoration of the posterity of Jacob from their several
dispersions, as no deliverance hitherto afforded them comes up
to the terms of it; for, after the return from Babylon, they
were again enslaved by the Greeks and Romans, contrary to the
prediction in the eighth verse; in every papistical country
they have laboured under great civil disabilities, and in some
of them have been horribly persecuted; upon the ancient people
has this mystic Babylon very heavily laid her yoke; and in no
place in the world are they at present their own masters; so
that this prophecy remains to be fulfilled in the reign of
David, i.e., the Messiah; the type, according to the general
structure of the prophetical writings, being put for the
antitype. The prophecy opens by an easy transition from the
temporal deliverance spoken of before, and describes the mighty
revolutions that shall precede the restoration of the
descendants of Israel, 1-9,
who are encouraged to trust in the promises of God, 10, 11.
They are, however, to expect corrections; which shall have a
happy issue in future period, 12-17.
The great blessings of Messiah's reign are enumerated, 18-22;
and the wicked and impenitent declared to have no share in
them, 23, 24.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXX
Verse 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord] This prophecy was delivered about a year after the taking of Jerusalem; so Dahler. Dr. Blayney supposes it and the following chapter to refer to the future restoration of both Jews and Israelites in the times of the Gospel; though also touching at the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, at the end of seventy years. Supposing these two chapters to be penned after the taking of Jerusalem, which appears the most natural, they will refer to the same events, one captivity shadowing forth another, and one restoration being the type or pledge of the second.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 30:1. The word that came to Jeremiah, &c.…
Jer 30:1. The word that came to Jeremiah, &c. — “There is no particular date annexed to this prophecy, whereby to ascertain the precise time of its delivery, but it may not unreasonably be presumed to have followed immediately after the preceding one, in which the restoration of the people from their Babylonish captivity is in direct terms foretold. From hence the transition was natural and easy to the more glorious and general restoration that was to take place in a more distant period, and was designed for the ultimate object of the national hopes and expectations. Both events are frequently thus connected together in the prophetic writings, and perhaps with this design, that when that which was nearest at hand should be accomplished, it might afford the strongest and most satisfactory evidence that the latter, how remote soever its period, would in like manner, be brought about by the interposition of Providence, in its due season.” — Blaney.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain In Jer. 30–39, not all written at the same…
In Jer. 30–39, not all written at the same time, are gathered together whatsoever God had revealed to Jeremiah of happier import for the Jewish people. This subject is “the New covenant.” In contrast then with the rolls of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, we here have one containing the nation’s hope. A considerable portion was written in the 10th year of Zedekiah, when famine and pestilence were busy in the city, its capture daily more imminent, and the prophet himself in prison. Yet in this sad pressure of earthly troubles Jeremiah could bid his countrymen look courageously onward to the fulfillment of those hopes, which had so constantly in his darkest hours comforted the heart and nerved the arm of the Jew. The scroll consists of three portions:
(1) “a triumphal hymn of Israel’s salvation,” Jer. 30–31;
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(2) Jer. 32; and
(3) Jer. 33.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 10. The Book of Consolation
10. The Book of Consolation
A. The Tenth Discourse
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Jeremiah 30, 31
The close of the prophetic discourses referring to the entire Theocracy is formed by two prophecies of exclusively consolatory purport, of which, at least, the first (chh. 30 and 31) was intended to be preserved as a special writing (and only as such. Comp. rems. on Jer_30:1). It is quite natural that these consolatory prophecies should form the close of the discourses; for salvation and peace will in reality be the end of God’s ways.
The first of these consolatory prophecies is also the earlier in date. It is indeed one of the oldest parts of the whole book. The absence of any mention of the Chaldeans (the general “north country” occurs in Jer_31:8) is a sure sign of its composition before the fourth year of Jehoiakim. This discourse moreover is so closely related in its subject-matter to the second discourse (chh. 3–6), or to its consolatory part (Jer_3:11-25), that we cannot but attribute it to the same period. We may indeed say that it is only a further development of the consolatory section mentioned. The relationship is seen both in general and in particulars. With respect to the first it may be remarked that Israel and Judah, here as there, form the ground of the division of the discourse, for as in Jer_3:6-10 a comparison is instituted between Judah and Israel in reference to the past, and in Jer_3:11-17 to the future, first of Israel, then (with a gradual transition) of Judah, and in Jer_3:18-25 the future return of both is described, so in Jeremiah 30 the prophet directs his attention first to entire Israel, in Jer_31:1-22 to Ephraim alone, in Jer_31:23-26 to Judah, in Jer_31:27-40 again to both. Though Jeremiah elsewhere also (Comp. rems. on Jer_30:4) in single intimations views the nation according to its two divisions, yet he does this nowhere in so marked a manner as in chh. 3 and 30–31—Further, as in Jer_3:14-20 the return of the two halves of the nation into the holy land is the basis of all further prosperity, so also in chh. 30 and 31. Compare Jer_30:3; Jer_30:10; Jer_30:18; Jer_31:2; Jer_31:8; Jer_31:12; Jer_31:16; Jer_31:21; Jer_31:23.—As further in Jer_3:21 sqq. the return is represented as the consequence of an honest inward turning, so also in Jer_31:18 the sincere penitence of the people is the reason of the return graciously permitted them. It should here be especially observed that in the section Jer_30:16-22 the prophet gives variations of the idea of שׁוּב in the same way as he did in Jeremiah 3. Comp. Exeg. rems. on Jer_31:22. The way also in which the penitential return is described in Jer_31:9; Jer_31:18-19 reminds us at many points of Jer_3:21. A series of expressions further may be specified which occur only in chh. 30, 31 and 3–4: עשׂה כלה only in Jer_30:11 and Jer_4:27; Jer_5:10; Jer_5:18, and besides in Jer_46:28, as a quotation from Jer_30:11.—תעדי only in Jer_31:4 and Jer_4:30. בכי ותחנונים only in Jer_31:9 and Jer_3:21. אָב used of Jehovah in reference to Israel only in Jer_31:9 and Jer_3:19.—-מֵעִים only in Jer_31:20 and Jer_4:19. עָרֵב in the sense of to be sweet only in Jer_31:26 and Jer_6:20.—עצמו of sins only in Jer_30:14-15 and Jer_5:6. תמררים only in Jer_31:15 and Jer_6:26.—בָּעַל to rule only in Jer_31:32 and Jer_3:14. We meet besides with expressions and utterances which are taken from chh. 1 and 2, which also belong to that initial period. Thus above all Jer_31:28 coll. Jer_1:10; Jer_1:12; Jer_31:3 coll. Jer_2:2; Jer_31:10 איים coll. Jer_2:10 (the plural is found only in these two clauses)-—מנעי only in Jer_31:16 and Jer_2:25.—There are further many points of contact with chh. 22 and 23, which are, however, to be explained by the use of this chapter there. For as the prophet had occasion in Jer_23:3-8 to deliver a glorious Messianic prophecy, it was natural that he should be thus reminded of the earlier one of similar purport. In the main point, indeed, the words referring to the person of the Messiah (Jer_30:9-10; Jer_30:21 coll. Jer_23:5-6), the similarity is only topical. With respect to expression, both prophecies retain their own individuality. Still in the less important points there is an agreement in expression: Jer_30:13 coll. Jer_22:16; Jer_30:14 coll. Jer_22:20; Jer_22:22; Jer_30:16 coll. Jer_22:22; Jer_30:5-6 coll. Jer_22:23.—With respect to the verses Jer_30:23-24, consult the Exposition.
On account of the undeniable specific relationship, which exists between the present chapters and the second discourse (chh. 3–4), especially the consolatory portion (Jeremiah 3), I am convinced that chh. 30 and 31 owe their origin to the same time, the reign of Josiah (comp. Jer_3:6).
With the exception of Jer_30:22-24, I cannot discover any spurious elements in these chapters. Movers and Hitzig have thought they could repeatedly recognize the hand of the assumed Isaiah II., but have been so satisfactorily refuted by Graf, that I now only refer to him. Graf himself regards Jer_31:35-40 as a latter addition. I think, however, that I have shown in the Exposition that these verses fit into the connection as integral parts, and that therefore, as the diction betrays no foreign traces, they are to be recognized as genuine and original.
The articulation of the discourse is as follows:—
The glorious Future of the People Israel at the end of days.
I. The Theme, Jer_30:1-3.
II. The Deliverance of Entire Israel, Jer_30:4-22.
1. The great day of judgment of the world and deliverance of Israel, Jer_30:4-11.
2. The turn of affairs: The Lord for the chastised, against the chastiser, Jer_30:12-17.
3. The consummation of salvation, Jer_30:18-22.
III. The Special Distribution of Salvation to the two Halves of the Nation, Jer_31:1-26.
a. Ephraim’s share, Jer_31:1-22.
1. The decree of restoration, Jer_31:1-6.
2. Its execution, Jer_31:7-14.
3. The threefold turn, Jer_31:15-22.
b. Judah’s share.
The blessing of the sanctuary, Jer_31:23-26.
IV. The Entire Renewal, Jer_31:27-40.
1. The new life, Jer_31:27-30.
2. The new covenant, Jer_31:31-40.
_________
The Glorious Future of the People Israel at the End of Days
I. The Theme
Jer_30:1-3
1, 2The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord [Jehovah] saying, Thus speaketh the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I 3have spoken unto thee in a book. For [Namely] lo, the days come, saith the Lord [Jehovah], that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and Judah, saith the Lord [Jehovah]; and will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The superscription is one of the greater sort. It pertains to chh. 30 and 31, a similar one not recurring till Jer_32:1. Jeremiah had certainly received this prophecy before, as follows from the words that I have spoken in Jer_30:2. Nevertheless Jer_30:1 is not merely the announcement of what is said in Jer_30:2-3, as Hitzig supposes, but the superscription of the oracle, for such superscriptions always stand as the introduction to the larger sections. As it here introduces the command to write and what is to be written directly follows (Jer_30:4 sqq.), the superscription refers to both. J. D. Michaelis is of opinion that we have here the expression mandatum to collect the prophecies into a book, and that this is the first book, which closes with Jeremiah 32. The Paralipomena, collected after the death of Jeremiah, form the second book. It is plain, however, that this view is altogether untenable, for this, apart from other reasons, that in Jer_30:2-4 the command to write is referred to the next following prophecy, as Schnurrer has already proved against Michaelis. These chapters also cannot be parts of that book which Jeremiah was caused to write in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jer_36:2). For this book, according to Jer_36:6 sqq., was intended to be read to the people, that they might hear “all the evil which the Lord purposed to do with them, that they might return every man from his evil way and the Lord might forgive them,” so that it appears merely to have contained an exhortation and threatening. This also explains the great displeasure occasioned by it. It was cut into pieces from the first to the last leaf and cast into the fire (Jer_36:23), which was certainly not the case with these chapters. Even Rosenmueller calls attention to the circumstance that Jeremiah here (Jer_30:2) receives the command, “non, ut ante concionem habere et quæ ab eo sint annuntianda ad populum per sermonem deferre, sed libro inscribere.” This prophecy was not to be delivered orally, but merely committed to writing, just as the prophecy against Babylon (Jer_51:60 sqq.). The people were not then in the mood to hear these great beaming predictions of salvation. These were to be bequeathed as written documents, that on the one hand they might serve to encourage the people in their deepest distress, and on the other hand it might be evident that the Lord and no other had brought about this favorable turn in their affairs (Isa_48:5), but also, that the Lord had not afterwards altered His purpose, but already in the times of the deepest decline, when the people were receiving only threatening words from the mouth of the prophet, He had conceived and made known the plan of salvation. Comp. Isa_30:8; Job_2:2. The prophecy was thus preserved separately and only afterwards incorporated into the entire collection. It does not seem probable to me, as Graf thinks, that it was included in the second enlarged book (Jer_36:32). The words in Jer_36:27 sqq. make throughout the impression that the second book in relation to the first contained only a heightened repetition. Nor can we see why, if these chapters are portions of a large book, they alone should bear at their head the special command to write them down. This command must either be found before all the single portions or only where the origin of the whole is mentioned. The special command to commit to writing which we find here (Jer_30:2) shows that here also we have to do with a special independent writing.
Jer_30:3. For lo. The construction seems to require כִּי to be taken in a causal sense, for it would be somewhat harsh to take it in the sense of “that,” or “namely,” on account of the following הִנֵה and נְאֻם י׳, which seems rather to require לִאמֹרֹ before it. On the other hand, the causal rendering also has its difficulties. For then in Jer_30:3 the main point is not expressed in the statement of the reason, viz.: the Lord wishes that when the good days come He may be able to point to the documentary evidence of His purpose of salvation, as a proof of His being the author of the present prosperity. This thought would have still to be supplied, while the words as they stand evidently state only the purport of the words, Jer_30:2. It will therefore be correct here to take כִּי=“that” or “namely,” in the sense in which לאמרsaying, occurs elsewhere. This latter word would not be suitable after in a book, because it would have meant that the purport of what was to be written in the book was to be stated, whereas it is the tenor of the words already spoken which is to be quoted summarily. This was necessary in order to define the general phrase all the words, which was liable to be misunderstood. Hence I think that כִּי is to be taken here as introducing the direct statement, which radically also is used only for the more common לאמר. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 109, 1 a. The original act of speaking itself is certainly not related here, but the purport of a discourse already delivered is quoted, by which the כִּי obtains the somewhat modified (explicative) meaning of namely. The words from הִנֵּה to וִירֵשׁוּהָ are therefore to be regarded as a quotation. Hence הִנֵּה and נְאֻם י׳. They are not found verbatim as a whole in the following chapters or anywhere in Jeremiah; but they are an accurate synopsis of the words and thoughts which form the heads of the following promise of prosperity. For in Jer_30:18 sqq.; Jer_31:27-32, the return of the whole people of Israel to their home is represented as the close of the mournful past and the basis of a new and glorious future. Comp. Jer_3:14-18.—On bring again the captivity comp. Comm. on Jer_29:14.—[“The four following chapters display a beautiful contrast to the three foregoing ones. The former denunciations of judgment and captivity for sin are here succeeded by promises of mercy and restoration to Jerusalem—promises to be fulfilled in the bringing back of all true Israelites to God by the Divine Deliverer and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. The joyful transition is marked by a sudden change from grave and mournful accents in solemn prose, to a jubilant outburst of poetic ecstasy.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Joh. Conr. Schaller, pastor at Cautendorf, says in his Gospel Sermons, (Hof. 1742, S. 628), “These chapters are like a sky in which sparkle many brilliant stars of strong and consolatory declarations, a paradise and pleasure-garden in which a believing soul is refreshed with delightsome flowers of instruction, and solaced with sweetly flavored apples of gracious promise.”
2. On Jer_30:1-3. The people of Israel were not then capable of bearing such a prophecy, brimming over with happiness and glory. They would have misused it, hearing to the end what was promised them, and then only the more certainly postponing what was the only thing then necessary—sincere repentance. Hence they are not yet to hear this gloriously consolatory address. It is to be written, that it may in due time be perceived that the Lord, even at the time when He was obliged to threaten most severely, had thoughts of peace concerning the people, and that thus the period of prosperity has not come by chance, nor in consequence of a change of mind, but in consequence of a plan conceived from the beginning and executed accordingly.
3. On Jer_30:7. The great and terrible day of the Lord (Joe_3:4) has not the dimensions of a human day. It has long sent out its heralds in advance. Yea, it has itself already dawned. For since by the total destruction of the external theocracy judgment is begun at the house of God (1Pe_4:17), we stand in the midst of the day of God in the midst of the judgment of the world. Then the time of trouble for Jacob has begun (Jer_30:7), from which he is to be delivered, when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in (Romans 11.)
4. On Jer_30:9. Christ is David in his highest potency, and He is also still more. For if we represent all the typical points in David’s life as a circle, and draw a line from each of these points, the great circle thus formed would comprise only a part of the πλήρωμα given in Christ. Nevertheless Christ is the true David, who was not chosen like Saul for his bodily stature, but only for his inward relation to God (comp. Psa_2:7), whose kingdom also does not cease after a short period of glory, but endures forever; who will not like Saul succumb to his enemies, but will conquer them all, and will give to his kingdom the widest extent promised; all this however not without, like David, having gone through the bitterest trials.
5. On Jer_30:11. “Modus paternæ castigationis accommodatus et quasi appensus ad stateram judicii Dei adeoque non immensus sed dimensus.” “Christus ecclesiam crucis suæ hæredem constituit. Gregor. M.” Förster.
6. On Jer_30:14. “Cum virlutem patientiæ nostræ flagella transeunt, valde metuendum est, ne peccatis nostris exigentibus non jam quasi filii a patre, sed quasi hostes a Domino feriamur. Gregor. M. Moral. XIV. 20, on Job_19:11.” Ghisler.
7. On Jer_30:17. “Providentia Dei mortalibus salutifera, antequam percutiat, pharmaca medendi gratiâ componit, et gladium iræ suæ φιλανθρωπίᾳ acuit. Evagr. Hist. Ecc_4:6.”—“Quando incidis in tentationem, crede, quod nisi cognovisset te posse illam evadere, non permisisset te in illam incidere. Theophyl. in cap. 18 Joh.” Förster.—“Feriam prius et sanabo melius. Theophyl. in Hosea 11.” Ghisler.
8. On Jer_30:21. “This church of God will own a, Prince from its midst—Jesus, of our flesh and blood through the virgin Mary, and He approaches God, as no other can, for He is God’s image, God’s Son, and at the same time the perfect, holy in all His sufferings, only obedient son of man. This king is mediator and reconciler with God; He is also high-priest and fulfilled all righteousness, as was necessary for our propitiation. What glory to have such a king, who brings us nigh unto God, and this is our glory!” Diedrich.
9. On Jer_31:1. “There is no greater promise than this: I will be thy God. For if He is our God we are His creatures, His redeemed, His sanctified, according to all the three articles of the Christian faith.” Cramer.
10. On Jer_31:2. “The rough heap had to be sifted by the sword, but those who survived, though afflicted in the desert of this life, found favor with God, and these, the true Israel, God leads into His rest.” Diedrich.
11. On Jer_31:3. “The love of God towards us comes from love and has no other cause above or beside itself, but, is in God and remains in God, so that Christ who is in God is its centre. For herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us (1Jn_4:10).” Cramer. “Totum gratiæ imputatur, non nostris meritis. Augustine in Psalms 31.” Förster. “Before I had done anything good Thou hadst already moved towards me. Let these words be written on your hearts with the pen of the living God, that they may light you like flames of fire on the day of the marriage. It is your certificate of birth, your testimonial. Let me never lose sight of how much it has cost Thee to redeem me.” Zinzendorf. “God says: My chastisement even was pure love, though then you did not understand it; you shall learn it afterwards.” Diedrich. [“I incline to the construction given in the English version, both because the suffix to the verb is more naturally, ‘I have drawn thee,’ than ‘I have drawn out toward thee,’ and because there seems to be a tacit allusion to Hos_11:4, ‘With loving kindness have I drawn thee.’—-A great moral truth lies in this passage so construed, viz., that the main power which humbles man’s pride, softens his hard heart and makes him recoil in shame and sorrow from sinning, comes through his apprehension of God’s love as manifested in Christ and His cross. It is love that, draws the fearful or stubborn soul to the feet of divine mercy.” Cowles.—S. R. A.]
12. On Jer_31:6. “It is well: the watchmen on Mount Ephraim had to go to Zion. They received however another visit from the Jewish priests, which they could not have expected at the great reformation, introduced by John, and which had its seat among other places on Mount Ephraim. The Samaritans were not far distant, and Mount Ephraim had even this honor that when the Lord came to His temple He took His Seat as a teacher there.” Zinzendorf. [“God’s grace loves to triumph over the most inveterate prejudices… No words could represent a greater and more benign change in national feeling than these: Samaria saying through her spiritual watchmen, ‘Let us go up to Zion to worship, for our God is there.’ ” Cowles. “ ‘Ascendamus in Sion, hoc est in Ecclesiam’ says S. Jerome. According to this view, the watchmen here mentioned are the Preachers of the Gospel.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_31:9. “I will lead them. It is an old sighing couplet, but full of wisdom and solid truth:—
‘Lord Jesus, while I live on earth, O guide me,
Let me not, self-led, wander from beside Thee.’ ”
—Zinzendorf.
14. On Jer_31:10. “He who has scattered Israel will also collect it. Why? lie is the Shepherd. It is no wolf-scattering. He interposes His hand, then they go asunder, and directly come together again more orderly.” Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer_31:12-14. “Gaudebunt electi, quando videbunt supra se, intra se, juxta se, infra se. Augustine.”—“Præmia cœlestia erunt tam magna, ut non possint mensurari, tam multa, ut non possint numerari, tam copiosa, ut non possint terminari, tam pretiosa, ut non possint æstimari. Bernhard.” Förster.
16. On Jer_31:15. “Because at all times there is a similar state of things in the church of God, the lament of Rachel is a common one. For as this lament is over the carrying away captive and oppressions of Babylon, so is it also a lament over the tyranny of Herod in slaughtering the innocent children (Mat_2:1-7.)”Cramer. “Premuntur justi in ecclesia ut clament, clamantes exaudiuntur, exauditi glorificent Deum. Augustin.” Förster.—With respect to this, that Rachel’s lament may be regarded as a type of maternal lamentation over lost children, Förster quotes this sentence of Cyprian: non amisimus, sed præmisimus (2Sa_12:23). [On the application of this verse to the murder of the innocents consult W. L. Alexander, Connexion of the Old and New. Testament, p. 54, and W. H. Mill in Wordsworth’s Note in loc.—S. R. A.]
17. On Jer_31:18. The conversion of man must always be a product of two factors. A conversion which man alone should bring about, without God, would be an empty pretence of conversion; a conversion, which God should produce, without man, would be a compulsory, manufactured affair, without any moral value. The merit and the praise is, however, always on God’s side. He gives the will and the execution. Did He not discipline us, we should never learn discipline. Did He not lead back our thoughts to our Father’s house which we have left (Luke 15) we should never think of returning.
18. On Jer_31:19. “The children of God are ashamed their life long, they cannot raise their heads for humiliation. For their sins always seem great to them, and the grace of God always remains something incomprehensible to them.”Zinzendorf. The farther the Christian advances in his consciousness of sonship and in sanctification, the more brilliantly rises the light of grace, the more distinctly does he perceive in this light, how black is the night of his sins from which God has delivered him. [“It is the ripest and fullest ears of grain which hang their heads the lowest.”—S. R. A.]
19. On Jer_31:19. “The use of the dear cross is to make us blush (Dan_9:8) and not regard ourselves as innocent (Jer_30:11). And as it pleases a father when a child soon blushes, so also is this tincture a flower of virtue well-pleasing to God.” Cramer. “Deus oleum miserationis suæ non nisi in vas contritum et contribulatum infundit. Bernhard.”Förster.
20. On Jer_31:19. The reproach of my youth. “The sins of youth are not easily to be forgotten (Psa_25:7; Job_31:18). Therefore we ought to be careful so to act in our youth as not to have to chew the cud of bitter reflection in our old age. It is a comfort that past sins of youth will not injure the truly penitent. Non nocent peccata præterita, cum non placent præsentia. Augustine. To transgress no more is the best sign of repentance.” Cramer.
21. On Jer_31:20. “Comforting and weighty words, which each one should lay to heart. God loves and caresses us as a mother her good child. He remembers His promise. His heart yearns and breaks, and it is His pleasure to do us good.” Cramer. “lpsius proprium est, misereri semper et parcere.” Augustine.—“Major est Dei misericordia quam omnium hominum miseria.” Idem.
22. On Jer_31:23. The Lord bless thee, thou dwelling-place of righteousness, thou holy mountain. “Certainly no greater honor was ever done to the Jewish mountains than that the woman’s seed prayed and wept on them, was transfigured, killed and ascended above all heaven.” Zinzendorf. “ It cannot be denied that a church sanctifies a whole place …. Members of Jesus are real guardian angels, who do not exist in the imagination, but are founded on God’s promise (Mat_25:40).” Idem.
23. On Jer_31:29-30. “The so-called family curse has no influence on the servants of God; one may sleep calmly nevertheless. This does not mean that we should continue in the track of our predecessors, ex. gr., when our ancestors have gained much wealth by sinful trade, that we should continue this trade with this wealth with the hope of the divine blessing…. If this or that property, house, right, condition be afflicted with a curse, the children of God may soon by prudent separation deliver themselves from these unsafe circumstances. For nothing attaches to their persons, when they have been baptized with the blood of Jesus and are blessed by Him.” Zinzendorf.
24. On Jer_31:29-30. “In testamento novo per sarguinem mediatoris deleto paterno chirographo incipit homo paternis debitis non esse obnoxius renascendo, quibus nascendo fuerat obligatus, ipso Mediatore di cente: Ne vobis patrem dicüis in terra (Mat_23:9). Secundum hoc utique, quod alios natales, quibus non patri succederemus, sed cum patre semper viveremus, invenimus.” Augustine, contra Julian, VI. 12, in Ghisler.
25. On Jer_31:31. “In veteribus libris aut nusquam aut difficile præter hunc propheticum locum legitur facta commemoratio testamenti novi, ut omnino ipso nomine appellaretur. Nam multis locis hoc significalur et prænuntiatur futurum, sed non ita ut etiam nomen lega’ ur expressum.” Augustine, de Spir. et Lit. ad Marcellin, Cap. 19 (where to Cap. 29 there is a detailed discussion of this passage) in Ghisler.—“In the whole of the Old Testament there is no passage, in which the view is so clearly and distinctly expressed as here that the law is only παιδαγαγός. And though some commentators have supposed that the passage contains only a censure of the Israelites and not of the Old Covenant, they only show thus that they have not understood the simple meaning of the words.” Ebrard. Comm. zum Hebräerbr. S. 275.
26. On Jer_31:31, sqq. “Propter veteris hominis noxam, quæ per literam jubentem et minantem minime sanabatur, dicitur illud testamentum vetus; hoc antem novum propter novitatem spiritus, quæ hominem novum sanat a vitio vetustatis.” Augustine, c. Lit. Cap. 19.
27. On Jer_31:33. “Quid sunt ergo leges Dei ab ipso Deo scriptæ in cordibus, nisi ipsa præsentia Spiritus sancti, qui est digitus Dei, quo præsente diffunditur charitas in cordibus nostrio, quæ plenitudo legis est et præcepti finis?” Augustine, l. c. Cap. 20.
28. On Jer_31:34. “Quomodo tempus est novi testamenti, de quo propheta dixit: et non docebit unusquisque civem suum, etc. nisi quia rjusdem testamenti novi æternam mercedem, id est ipsius Dei beatissimam contemplationem promittendo conjunxit?” Augustine, l. c. Cap. 24.
29. On Jer_31:33-34. “This is the blessed difference between law and Gospel, between form and substance. Therefore are the great and small alike, and the youths like the elders, the pupils more learned than their teachers, and the young wiser than the ancients (1Jn_2:20 sqq.). Here is the cause:—For I will forgive their iniquities. This is the occasion of the above; no one can effect this without it. Forgiveness of sins makes the scales fall from people’s eyes, and gives them a cheerful temper, clear conceptions, a clear head.”Zinzendorf.
30. On Jer_31:35-37. “Etsi particulares ecclesiæ intotum deficere possunt, ecclesia tamen catholica nunquam defecit aut deficiet. Obstant enim Dei amplissimæ promissiones, inter quas non ultimum locum sibi vindicut quæ hic habetur Jer_31:37.” Förster.
31. On Jer_31:38-40. “Jerusalem will one day be much greater than it has ever been. This is not to be understood literally but spiritually. Jerusalem will be wherever there are believing souls, its circle will be without end and comprise all that has been hitherto impure and lost. This it is of which the prophet is teaching, and which he presents in figures, which were intelligible to the people in his time. The hill Gareb, probably the residence of the lepers, the emblem of the sinner unmasked and smitten by God, and the cursed valley of Ben-Hinnom will be taken up into the holy city. God’s grace will one day effect all this, and Israel will thus be manifested as much more glorious than ever before.” Diedrich.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_30:5-9. Sermon on one of the last Sundays after Trinity or the second in Advent. The day of the judgment of the world a great day. For it is, (1) a day of anxiety and terror for all the world; (2) a day of deliverance from all distress for the church of the Lord; (3) a day of realization of all the happiness set in prospect before it.
2. On Jer_30:10-12. Consolation of the church in great trial. 1. It has well deserved the trial (Jer_30:12); 2. it is therefore chastised, but with moderation; 3. it will not perish but again enjoy peace.
3. On Jer_30:17. [“The Restorer of mankind. 1. Faith in the Christian Sacrament and its attendant revelation of divine character alone answer the demand of the heart and reason of man for a higher state of moral perfection. 2. Christianity offers to maintain a communication between this world and that eternal world of holiness and truth. 3. It commends itself to our wants in the confirmation and direction of that principle of hope, which even in our daily and worldly life, we are perpetually forced to substitute for happiness, and 4. By the adorable object, which it presents to our affections.” Archer Butler—S. R. A.]
4. On Jer_31:1-2. Gesetz and Zeugniss (Law and Testimony) 1864, Heft. 1. Funeral sermon of Ahlfeld.
5. On Jer_31:2-4. lb. 1865. Heft 1. Funeral sermon of Besser, S. 32 ff.
6. On Jer_31:3. C. Fr. Hartmann (Wedding, School, Catechism and Birth-day sermons, ed. C. Chr. Eberh. Ehemann. Tüb. 1865). Wedding sermon. 1. A grateful revival in the love of God already received. 2. Earnest endeavor after a daily enjoyment of this love. 3. Daily nourishment of hope.
7. On Jer_31:3. Florey. Comfort and warning at graves. I. Bändchen, S. 253. On the attractions of God’s love towards His own children. They are, 1. innumerable and yet so frequently overlooked; 2. powerful and yet so frequently resisted; 3. rich in blessing and yet so frequently; unemployed. [For practical remarks on this text see also Tholuck, Stunden der Andacht, No. 11.—S. R. A.]
8. On Jer_31:9. Confessional sermon by Dekan V. Biarowsky in Erlangen (in Palmer’s Evang. Casual-Reden, 2 te Folge, 1 Band. Stuttgart, 1850.) Every partaking of the Lord’s supper is a return to the Lord in the promised land, and every one who is a guest at the supper rises and comes. 1. How are we to come? (weeping and praying). 2. What shall we find? (Salvation and blessing, power and life, grace and help).
9. On Jer_31:18-20. Comparison of conversion with the course of the earth and the sun. 1. The man who has fallen away is like the planet in its distance from the sun; he flees from God as far as he Song of Solomon 2. Love however does not release him: a. he is chastened (winter, cold, long nights, short days); b. he accepts the chastening and returns to proximity to the sun (summer, warmth, light, life). Comp. Brandt, Altes und Neues in i extemporirbaren Entwürfen. Nüremberg, 1829, II. 5. [The stubborn sinner submitting himself to God. I. A description of the feelings and conduct of an obstinate, impenitent sinner, while smarting under the rod of affliction: He is rebellious—till subdued. II. The new views and feelings produced by affliction through divine grace: (a) convinced of guilt and sinfulness; (b) praying; (c) reflecting on the effects of divine grace in his conversion. III. A correcting but compassionate God, watching the result, etc., (a) as a tender father mindful of his penitent child; (b) listening to his complaints, confessions and petitions; (c) declaring His determination to pardon. Payson.—S. R. A.]
10. On Jer_31:31-34. Sermon on 1 Sunday in Advent by Pastor Diechert in Gröningen, S. Stern aus Jakob. I. Stuttg. 1867.
11. On Jer_31:33-34. Do we belong to the people of God? 1. Have we holiness? 2. Have we knowledge? 3. Have we the peace promised to this people? (Caspari in Predigtbuch von Dittmar, Erlangen, 1845).
12. On Jer_31:33-34. By the new covenant in the bath of holy baptism all becomes new. 1. What was dead becomes alive 2. What was obscure becomes clear. 3. What was cold becomes warm. 4. What was bound becomes free (Florey, 1862).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain The section of this book upon which we now…
INTRODUCTORY — THE THEME, 1-3.
The section of this book upon which we now enter stands in pleasing contrast with the body of the volume. For the most part Jeremiah is occupied with the sins and sorrows of the people, the calamities in the midst of which he lived, and by which God was chastening them into a deeper spirituality and a higher purity. But in these four chapters he goes below the present adverse fortunes of God’s people, and dwells joyfully on the nation’s relation to a covenant-keeping God, by whom they will be made to triumph. And it is a most interesting fact, and one which illustrates impressively the victorious faith of this”man of sorrows,” that a portion of this passage was written in the tenth year of Zedekiah, when the despair and misery of the people were approaching their culmination. Just as the old Romans actually mapped out and sold the very ground on which their confident enemies were encamped, so Jeremiah calmly reckons on the possession of this land by his people in spite of their long captivity; and, as symbolical of their possession, buys the field at Anathoth.
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These four chapters have been divided by Hengstenburg into three portions. 1) Chaps. 30 and 31, “a triumphal hymn of Israel’s salvation.” 2) Chap. 32 gives an account of the symbolical act of the buying a piece of hereditary property in Anathoth, and the message of God’s explanation thereof. 3) Chap. 33 dwells in prophetic language on the re-establishment of the Levitical priesthood and the Davidic throne. The whole passage is thus devoted to God’s changeless, invincible covenant with his people, assuring them of mercy and salvation.
1. The word, etc. — The heading of the entire prophecy to the end of chap. 31.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1–4. Introduction to the section. The standpoint (see above)…
1–4. Introduction to the section. The standpoint (see above) is that of one writing after the final catastrophe (b.c. 586), but this fact is of course by no means inconsistent with Jeremiah’s authorship. Moreover, the words of comfort that follow harmonize with his commission “to build and to plant” (Jer_1:10).
The greater part of the ch. follows a regular three beat metre or is in the Ḳinah measure.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain This and the three next chapters form a kind…
This and the three next chapters form a kind of book in themselves, which contrasts admirably with ch. 27-29. In the latter Jeremiah aimed at casting down the delusive hope that the time of trial would soon be over and the captives restored; here he assumes that all are aware of the sad reality, and concentrates himself on the happier topics of comfort and encouragement. Ch. 30 and 31 shine out among all Jeremiah"s prophecies; there is a combination of softness and vigour which, even from a purely literary point of view, is most attractive. Strictly speaking, they ought to form but one chapter; they represent (as ver. 4 states) the revelation from Jehovah "concerning Israel and concerning Judah." It is, indeed, most touching, this yearning of the inspired prophet for the reunion of the two branches of the nation. (comp. Jer_3:1-25; Jer_4:1-2) A "union in spirit" was not enough for him; there must be a visible drawing together, to prove to all men that, as God is one, so his people is one. God"s love is imperishable, and, his election of Israel cannot be reversed. The very extent of Israel"s misery is a pledge that her God will not leave her to herself too long. And how is the restoration of Israel to be conceived? Surely nothing less than a new covenant will satisfy the conditions of the problem a new covenant written in the heart. Something akin to this encouraging prophecy may be traced here and there in earlier chapters; (see Jer_3:14-19 Jer_16:14, 15 23:3-8) but here the prophet is entirely absorbed in that glorious future which could alone save him from utter despondency.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 1-3. Written in a book; or, words held over.
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The portion of these prophecies here referred to (probably ch. 30, 31) contains the most tender expressions of the Divine love. It is full of revelations of the deep unalterable affection and gracious purpose of God for his people, even when they were as yet unrepentant. They are regarded in it as sorrowing for their sin, and returning spiritually to him who restored them to their land. Now, many of these statements it would have been inexpedient for the exiles to hear, whilst as yet they showed no sign of contrition. The prophet is therefore bidden to write them in a book, that they may be read at the fitting season. The words of Christ, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now," are strikingly parallel. This command impresses us with
I THE FULNESS OF THE DIVINE WORD. It is not one communication but many, and under circumstances of the utmost conceivable variety. Not in one book but many a library, representing every stage of human history and spiritual progress. No age or exigency of human nature has found God silent. How great is the multitude of his messages! How many words have been spoken and acted that have not been recorded! (cf. Joh_21:25) The written book is like a vessel let down into the great ocean of the unwritten words and deeds of the Eternal.
II GOD"S CARE AND ADAPTATION WITH RESPECT TO IT. This prophecy was to be preserved in a book, that no portion of it should be allowed to perish until its fitting time should arrive. The words it contained were all precious, and of pregnant significance in the future of the Church and the world. The adaptation of the prophecy is not less striking. It would not bear public announcement at the time of its communication to the prophet, and it might have imperilled his life; but it occurred then in the natural order of God"s thought and purpose; by and by the people would be in a better mood and frame to consider it; therefore it was held over. It is written in a book that it may present a faithful transcript of the Divine thought. The progress of revelation has been slow; but that is not the fault of the Revealer, but the necessity imposed by the conditions of human progress. "In the fulness of the time God sent forth his Son". (Gal_4:4; cf. 1Pe_1:20)
III THE REASONS THERE MAY BE FOR THE DARK DISPENSATIONS OF PROVIDENCE. Who in these stem times could tell the depth of the tenderness of God? It is necessary on such occasions to appeal to the fears of transgressors. The most awful calamities that befall the Church and the individual Christian are inflicted in love; but that love cannot express itself until the requirements of righteousness have been satisfied. The soul that is afflicted ought, therefore, to submit itself to the mighty hand of God, and wait patiently for light. The best wine is kept to the last; the gospel interprets all antecedent revelations.
IV THE INFINITE RICHES OF REVELATION THAT AWAIT THE SPIRITUAL MATURITY OF THE SAINTS. There are educative, wayfaring truths; and there are truths at which we are to arrive in the end of our growth and pilgrimage. Truth is not only prospective but reflective; not only directive to the feet of the Christian, but revealing the mind and heart of God. How much is held over until these earthly days are ended? (cf. 1Co_13:12) M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Chronology of the Chapter.—Though without a…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Chronology of the Chapter.—Though without a date, yet the probability is that it was “written in a book” (see Jer_30:2) in the tenth year of Zedekiah; and that this date [given at the head of chap. 32] applies to the four chapters, 30 to 33 inclusive. But it is open to dispute whether the prophecies contained in chapters 30 and 31 were not delivered at a considerably earlier date. Naegelsbach dates these two chapters as “the oldest part of the whole book” of Jeremiah; and, carefully comparing their subject-matter with the prophecies of chapters 3–6, declares that their correspondence, “both in general and in particular,” fixes them as belonging to “the same period;” specially pointing out that the absence of all mention of the Chaldeans, and the use of the early indefinite phrase, “the north country” (Jer_31:8). “is a sure sign of its composition before the fourth year of Jehoiakim.” Vide Chronological Notes on chaps. 3 and 7. Also same references for Contemporary Scriptures, National Affairs, and Contemporary History.
Literary Criticisms.—Jer_30:5. “For thus saith the Lord;” rather, “Surely thus,” &c. “Of fear and not of peace;” of “fear and no peace.”
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Jer_30:10-11. “Therefore fear thou not,” to end of Jer_30:11, are omitted by the LXX., Hitzig, Movers, and Kuenen, and regarded as an interpolation from chap. Jer_46:27-28.
Jer_30:11. “Correct thee in measure:” “in justice,” vide Jer_10:24.
Jer_30:13. “Bound up: healing medicines.” The verse, more correctly punctuated and rendered, may read thus: “None undertakes thy case to heal thee; for binding thy wounds, healing-plaister thou hast none.”
Jer_30:15. “Thine affliction:” thy breach. “For the multitude,” &c.; rather, “Because of the greatness of thine iniquity, because thy sins are innumerable,” &c.
Jer_30:18. “Her own heap:” תֵּל, elevation, mound, specially of ruins; it may refer to the city, heap of ruins. “And the palace shall remain:” rather, “be inhabited.” “After the manner thereof;” i.e., with suitable splendour.
Jer_30:21. “And their nobles shall be of themselves.” An important alteration necessary. Both אַדִּיר and משֵׁל refer to one person, and is here described as “their Glorious One” and “their Ruler.” Further, He is “to draw near and approach unto Me;” a phrase distinctively used of one in the priestly office (Exo_19:22; Lev_21:21). Yet more, it is asked as in wonder, “Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto Me?” and should read, “Who is He that hath pledged His heart,” &c.; i.e., that hath risked His life in the daring approach; for death sealed that action (Num_8:19). The combination of these qualities—“Glorious One and Ruler,” priestly approach to God; and exposure of His very life in His zeal for His people;—all this points to none other than the Person and ministry of THE MESSIAH.
SURVEY OF CHAPTERS 30 AND 31
THE GLORIOUS FUTURE OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AT THE END OF DAYS
I. GENERAL THEME, Jer_31:3.
II. THE DELIVERANCE OF ENTIRE ISRAEL, Jer_30:4-22.
1. The great day of judgment for the world and deliverance of Israel, Jer_30:4-11.
2. The turn of affairs: Jevovah for the chastised against the chastisers, Jer_30:12-17.
3. The consummation of salvation, Jer_30:18-22.
III. THE SPECIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SALVATION TO THE TWO DIVISIONS OF THE NATION, Jer_31:1-22.
A. Ephraim’s share—
1. The decree of restoration, Jer_31:1-6.
2. The execution, Jer_31:7-14.
3. The threefold turn, Jer_31:15-22.
B. Judah’s share—
The blessing of the sanctuary, Jer_31:23-26.
IV. THE ENTIRE-RENEWAL, Jer_31:27-40.
1. The new life, Jer_31:27-30.
2. The new covenant, Jer_31:31-40.
—Naegelsbach in Lange.
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES ON CHAPTER 30
Jer_30:2. Theme: GOD’S MESSAGE IN WRITING. “Write thee all the words which I have spoken to thee in a book.” This was in distinction from messages in speech—oral prophecy.
I. Written words travel farther than spoken. Absent ones—Israel scattered abroad—were to receive it; as well as Judah, who was within the hearing of Jeremiah’s voice. The prophecy could not reach them unless copies were distributed in the different countries wherein they were dispersed.
II. Written words are preserved better than spoken.
1. In their exactness. Not a jot or tittle falls. But memory might let some items fail if left unwritten.
2. In their entirety. Hearers only gather half, or fractions, of a message.
3. In their significance. Words of vast meaning require to be studied to see all their suggestiveness; and for this the “book” is best.
III. Written words fulfil a more enduring ministry than spoken. These “words” were—
1. For every nation and age: having a spiritual purport and universal value.
2. And they would, if written, prove a monument to prophetic veracity. This would strengthen the faith and assure the hearts of God’s people in every emergency.
IV. Written words fill a sphere which spoken cannot reach.
1. They go into privacy, for meditation.
2. Into scenes of banishment and affliction and sorrow, for comfort.
3. Into despised and neglected scenes, where none would expect to find interested hearers, carrying light and hope to the abandoned and despairing.
As the people went into exile, they could carry these words of Jeremiah with them to be their consolation and strength amid coming distress and trial.
Jer_30:3. Theme: EXILES RESTORED. Comp. on chap. Jer_16:15, &c., and Jer_24:6. Specially see Sectional Treatment of chap. 3. pp. 58 to 60 supra. Also see on Jer_4:31.
Jer_30:5-6 : Theme: CONSTERNATION OF THE GUILTY. Comp. Sectional Homily on Jer_6:18-26, pp. 120, 121, and on Jer_6:22-26, p. 133. Also Homily on chap. Jer_22:20-23, Hastening Desolations.
Jer_30:7. Theme: THE GREAT DAY. “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it.” The day of judgment for the world: “none like it.” For it will be—
I. A day of anxiety and terror for all the world.
II. A day of deliverance from distress for the children of God.
III. A day of realisation of all the happiness set in prospect before us.—Naegelsbach.
Jer_30:7. Theme: DELIVERANCE FROM TROUBLE. “It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”
Bacon has magnificently remarked of some of the PROPHECIES of Scripture that they have “springing and germinant accomplishment, throughout many ages, though the height or fulness of them may refer to some one age.” This is true of many of the prophecies concerning the Jews; for though many of them were fulfilled in their ancient captivities, they still continue to be fulfilled in their present dispersion.
But what is true of the prophecies is eminently true of the PROMISES of Scripture—they have a springing and germinant accomplishment. They are framed with such an exquisite knowledge of human nature, and so accurately accord with the principles of the Divine government, which are the same in every age, that they are adapted to all the circumstances in which Christians can be placed, and receive a distinct fulfilment in the history of each individual believer. Thus, “instead of the fathers are the children.” As the troubles of God’s people are similar, so the supports they enjoy are similar—they are identical—and the deliverances of one age form the hope and consolation of all. “It is even the time,” &c.
I. It is a part of God’s merciful dispensations that they endure trouble.
II. It is equally so that they should be supported in and delivered from it.
I. It is a part of God’s merciful dispensations that they should be called to endure trial. Like their Lord, they must expect to be made acquainted with grief; and like Jacob, in the text, they must expect to have their time of trouble.
It is a part of God’s dispensation; for “trouble does not spring from the dust.” Is there evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it? And it is a part of God’s merciful dispensation, however oppositely it may appear to us; “for He doth not afflict willingly.”
Every season of life, and every period of the Christian’s life, has its trouble.
1. The time of conversion is a time of Jacob’s trouble. He goes forth weeping. Sorrow for sin is real sorrow; doubts of his acceptance and fears of his rejection often fill him with dejection and alarm, and he says, “Oh, that I knew,” &c. But there is a balm for his sorrow, there is a remedy for his grief: “He shall be saved out of it,” by looking to the cross. “Yea, he wept; he found Him in Bethel.”
2. The time of spiritual dejection, and darkness, and disconsolation, is a time of Jacob’s trouble. This is sometimes produced by consciousness of sin, without sufficient apprehension of the power and willingness of Christ to save, sometimes by distrust, sometimes by neglect of duties, sometimes by a constitutional tendency to gloom and despondency; but, from whatever cause arising, it is often difficult to bear. David found it so when he said, “Hath God forgotten?” &c.; and Hezekiah when he said, “I shall go softly all my years;” and Daniel when he ate no pleasant bread; and Jonah when he said, “I am cast out.” yet, “he shall be saved out of it;” “I have seen his ways and will heal;” “He that walketh in darkness,” &c.
3. The time of worldly perplexities and disappointments—cares, anxieties, vexations, reproaches, are the Christian’s lot here; losses in business, domestic grievances, straitened circumstances, actual poverty, are the means which God employs to teach the Christian this is not his rest, to draw off his mind from the vanity of life, and to teach him that his final hope must be in God. What was true of Israel is true of us: “God led them by the right way.” We know it was not the shortest way, nor the smoothest, but it was the right way. And God leads His people still in those paths best adapted to try character, to develop principle, to promote sanctity of spirit and spirituality of mind. “By these things,” says Hezekiah, “men live, and in all these things are the life.” Every one has his trial fitted to his state of mind.
(a.) Some have a resolute, independent, self-willed spirit. God suffers them to be wounded with reproach, to suffer with the scourge of tongues, and chastens them with the rod of men; or they are wasted with disease and visited with strong pain.
(b.) Some are ambitious, and aspiring, and sanguine, and given to enterprise; but as they climb, so they fall. God unravels their schemes, breaks up their plots and purposes, advances them to poverty, and feeds them with the bread of tears. Why all this? Was it to ruin them? No; but to save them from ruin.
(c.) Others fix their affections too deeply upon the creature, upon the smile of friends, the love of parents, the endearments of family connections. God removes these to bring them nearer to Himself. They are afflicted in the creature, and the time of their trouble is the time in which they witness the sorrows of those they love.
4. The time of death is the time of Jacob’s trouble.
II. Whatever their calamity, they shall be supported in it, carried through it, delivered from it. They have always a Resource; the Arm that upholds the universe upholds them; the Wisdom that ordains the trial guides and guards them through it. The irreligious has no refuge, no tower, but “the name of the Lord is,” &c. Every creature hath a retiring-place: the conies the rocks, the lion his den; the foxes have holes and the birds nests, but the wicked no hiding-place.
God is your friend. His character is your hope; His promises your security; His heaviest chastisements are your encouragements.
1. What He has said to others He says to you: “Fear not, Abram;” “I am God all-sufficient; “I will not leave.”
2. What He has done for others He will do for you.
3. What He has already done for you and yours should warrant hope: “delivered in six troubles.”—Rev. S. Thodey, A.D. 1824.
On Jer_30:7. For similar themes, see on chap. Jer_17:17, “The Soul’s Hope in the Time of Terror;” and chap. Jer_23:6, “A Bright Era for Mankind.”
Comments—
The partial deliverance at the downfall of Babylon prefigures the final and complete deliverance of Israel, literal and spiritual, at the downfall of mystical Babylon (Rev_18:19).—Jamieson.
The day of restoration is contrasted with the day of destruction. “In that day” the yoke of Babylon, which Jeremiah had symbolised by his own act, at God’s command (Jer_28:2-12), will be broken from the neck of Judah; and this phrase, “that day,” doubtless, is to be extended, in a larger sense, to the day of Christ’s coming, when all Israel would be delivered from a worse yoke than that of Babylon. Comp. Isa_10:27; Eze_34:27.—Wordsworth.
Jer_30:8-9. Theme: SLAVERY EXCHANGED FOR SERVICE. “Strangers shall no more hold him in servitude (Henderson’s rendering), but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.”
I. Tyranny rules over men with grievous severity. “Yoke” and “bonds” are symbols of despotic oppression.
1. National and political despotism; its iron-handed and iron-hearted government.
2. Ecclesiastical and spiritual despotism; its usurpation of all natural relationships, social ties, and religious liberties.
Note.—The shameful selfishness which prompts despotism, “serve themselves of him;” for greed of power, delight in securing abject submission, spoliation of possessions, &c., are the lust of all tyrants over the lives or souls of men.
II. Liberty unbridled will prove no special advantage even to its possessor. “If all “yokes” are gone and “bonds” broken from men, without any healthful control being substituted, men would become furious, victims of their own passions and self-will.
1. Liberty from tyranny is an advantage only when the control of God is substituted and accepted in its stead, e.g., “They shall serve the Lord their God,” &c.
2. This subjection to God is better and safer than all human government and rule. It is a guarantee of good when God becomes our Governor, to rule us and care for our safety.
III. Divine rule is exercised through the kingship of Christ. “Serve the Lord their God and David their king.”
1. God will not govern otherwise than by His Son. Rejecting Him as “king,”—Him whom God has set over us, and by whom God would have us governed—we shall be rejected by God. It is not God’s intention to rule us directly, without the mediation of His Son. We must therefore obey Christ, and thus serve God.
2. It is in the sway of Jesus that this promise is fulfilled. David was dead when Jeremiah wrote, he never lived again to rule, yet God promised to perpetuate David’s throne; but no king ever rose subsequent to this prophecy to rule the nation. Zerubbabel only held a fleeting and precarious dignity; and only Christ has realised and fulfilled this promise. But Jesus does rule—“the King of saints”—and blessed are they that serve Him.
IV. All our gracious liberty in Christ must be traced to God. “Whom I will raise up unto them.”
1. We must rejoice in Christ’s kingship as God’s gift of grace to us.
2. Christ, and all blessings which flow to us in Him, must be viewed as the outflow of God’s great goodness to us. “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.”
Jer_30:10. Theme: RECOVERY OF LOST ISRAEL. See Homilies indicated under Jer_30:3 of this chapter; also see Topic, Recovery of the Lost Ten Tribes, chap. Jer_33:8, on pp. 458, 459.
On “He shall return, and be in rest, and be quiet,” see Homily on chap. Jer_23:1-4.
Jer_30:11. Theme: NATIONS OBLITERATED; ISRAEL PRESRVED. “A full end of all nations, yet not a full end of thee.”
We have here ocular proof of prophecy accomplished in an instance without parallel. It was repeatedly foretold, both in the Old and New Testaments, that, for the rejection and murder of their Messiah, the Jews should be dispersed into all the countries; yet that they should not be lost and swallowed up among their conquerors, but should still subsist, to latest times, a distinct people. By Jeremiah God declared “He would make an end of all nations,” their oppressors, “but He would not make an end of them.” It cannot be said this prediction was written since the event; and certainly an occurrence more singular, or improbable, could not have been predicted. In the course of human affairs, who hath heard such a thing? Yet so it is. The mighty monarchies of Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome are vanished like the shadows of the evening, or the phantoms of the night. Their places know them no more. Nothing remains of them but their names. Whilst this little despised people, strangely secure, without a friend or protector, amidst the wreck of empires, oppressed, persecuted, harassed always, by edict and executioners, by murders and massacres, have outlived the very ruins of them all. “Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe.” Behold, then, a sign and wonder: the accomplishment of prophecy is a standing miracle. Contemplate the sight as it deserves, and be not faithless but believing.—Bishop Horne.
“NOT MAKE A FULL END OF THEE.” See on chap. Jer_4:27; Jer_5:18.
Also for Theme: LENIENT CORRECTION: “I will correct thee in measure,” &c. See chap. Jer_10:24.
Jer_30:12-15. Theme: FAITHLESS HEALERS AND VAIN REMEDIES. On—
“Bruise incurable,” see Jer_8:22; also Jer_17:9.
“Wound is grievous, see Jer_10:19; Jer_14:17; Jer_15:18.
“No healing,” see Jer_6:14; Jer_8:11; Jer_15:18.
“All thy lovers have forgotten thee,” see Jer_3:1; Jer_4:30; Jer_22:20; Jer_22:22; Jer_27:3.
“Thy sins are increased,” see Jer_5:6. I. Helpless: “Incurable;” “wounds grievous,” Jer_30:12.
II. Hopeless: “None to plead;” “no healing medicines,” Jer_30:13.
III. Deserted by man: “Lovers have forgotten thee; seek thee not,” Jer_30:14.
IV. Smitten by God: “Wounded thee;” “chastised thee,” Jer_30:14.
V. Justly suffering: “For the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins are increased,” Jer_30:14.
VI. Rejected outcries: “Why criest thou,” &c., Jer_30:15.
VII. Sins’ woes: “Because sins—I have done these things unto thee.”
VIII. Remedy implied: Cease sins and escape their doom.
Jer_30:13. Theme: HEALING MEDICINES. “Thou hast no healing medicines.” Doctors abound who undertake the cure of souls; but they heal not their maladies. “Ye are physicians of no value.”
I. There are healing medicines adapted to heal all the maladies of the sin-stricken soul. Though “thou hast them not,” yet such there are!
1. They are found in Christ. “Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”
2. There are none besides. Though professed spiritual healers offer other remedies, they have “no healing medicines,” if they offer aught else but what the Gospel offers.
II. There are cruel delusions practised. By priests and ministers of the sanctuary, who flatter themselves that they have effected a cure, and deceive their patients. “They have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Who are these?—
1. Teachers of the confessional abominations.
2. Teachers of the baptismal regeneration fallacies.
3. Those who administer the Lord’s Supper to the dying as a means of peace with God.
4. Preachers of self-reliance and self-righteousness for salvation.
It is one thing to deaden a pain, another to heal a wound!
III. For mourners over sin there is efficient healing. On no other truth can there be explained—
1. The angels’ joy over penitent sinners.
2. The Saviour’s gladness in reclaiming the guilty.
3. The remonstrances of Scripture over the unhealed (chap. Jer_8:22).
4. The assurance of the blessedness following true sorrow. “Blessed are they that weep, for they shall be comforted.”
Jer_30:16. Theme: IF GOD’S PEOPLE SUFFER, SHALL HIS FOES ESCAPE? “Therefore all that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity,” &c.
I. Though evil men seem now to prevail against Israel, their day of woe is coming.
II. Though God may use our adversaries for our chastisement because we sin, they shall bear the iniquity and punishment of their deeds.
III. Though for a while the judgment of God spares the wicked while afflicting the righteous, yet the very afflictions of His people are a prophecy and guarantee that the heavier woes pronounced against the guilty will in due time fall on them.
IV. Though mercy rules the afflictions of God’s people, softening their sorrows, and working all for their good, judgment without mercy shall sweep down on “every one” of God’s and His people’s adversaries.
V. Though from the “devourer,” the “captivity,” and the “spoil,” there will be sure escape for banished Israel, yet from the doom coming upon the foes of God and Israel there shall be no alleviation or escape.
Jer_30:19. Theme: How GOD REGARDS THE TREATMENT SHOWN TO THE JEWS. “This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.”
Was man justified in despising them, because they were under chastisements from an offended God? Though the Jews were the authors of their own misery, the contempt poured upon them by their adversaries He will punish.
I. What is the treatment almost universally shown to the Jewish people? The historic view of the conduct of different nations specially since their dispersion by the Romans.
Cruelties inflicted upon them by different potentates of Europe, not excepting those of our own country. Cite, in example, the clamour raised throughout our land against the Act for removing Jewish disabilities. Nor is this civic intolerance all: their religious interests are disregarded and neglected.
The serious fact is, not that we persecute them, or even neglect them, but this—the self-vindication which we cherish in the midst of this neglect, and the eagerness with which we catch at anything by which we may justify that neglect.
II. The light in which such conduct is viewed by God. This contempt of others leads Him here to declare, by way of recompense, that He would restore to His favour the people so contemned.
1. Mark the inhumanity of it. Jews, no less than ourselves, have immortal souls; yet we make no effort for their salvation! Note Deu_23:3-4. Yet we hold from them the Bread of Life, &c.
2. The injustice of it. Gospel to be preached to “every creature,” beginning at Jerusalem (see Rom_11:30-31). We are debtors to them (Rom_15:26-27).
3. The ingratitude of it. Jews—the Apostles—laboured for Gentiles; should not we, in return, for them? (Php_2:17-18.)
4. The impiety of it. Christ became “a curse” for us; surely it is our reasonable service to do all we can for His glory. Alas! Eze_34:6.
III. The explanation of this sinful negligence towards the Jews.
1. Ignorance of the prophetic writings which so generally prevails.
2. Indifference to all spiritual interests which prevails—even about your own souls. Too many of us have never sought salvation for ourselves; how, then, be concerned for others?—Rev. C. Simeon, M.A.
See Comments, &c., on chap. Jer_15:4-5.
Theme: HEALING PROMISED.
i. Statement of our case: “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; there is no soundness in us,” &c. (Isa_1:5).
ii. Prayer of the consciously sick: “Lord, be merciful unto me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee” (Psa_41:4).
iii. Promise from God: “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds” (Jer_30:17).
Believe in your sickness. Believe in the Divine Physician. Believe in His promise, and pray.
Jer_30:18-20. ZION REPEOPLED. See on chap. Jer_17:25-26.
Jer_30:21. Theme: ISRAEL’S OWN GLORIOUS KING. See Lit. Crit. on verse.
The words should read: “And his Glorious One shall spring from himself [Israel]; and his Ruler shall go forth from his midst; and I will cause Him to draw near, and He shall approach unto ME; for Who is this that hath pledged His heart to draw near unto Me?”
1. This verse emphatically repudiates a foreign and alien kingship; for, after the return from exile, Israel’s Glorious Ruler is to be a native Prince springing “from the midst” of the people themselves.
2. Next, Jehovah will cause Him to draw near, i.e., to Himself; in like sacred access to that exclusively permitted to consecrated priests in the fulfilment of their solemn office. So that He is to fulfil a Sacred Office as well as to possess personal Royalty.
3. Then, He pledges His very life in approaching God, i.e., He will carry His life, His “heart,” into the effort of mediation with God. And Messiah alone has made His life responsible as a Surety (Heb_7:22; Heb_9:11-15), in order to gain access, not only for Himself, but for us to God. “Heart” is here put for “life,” in order to express the courage, the intense purpose required, to undertake so tremendous a suretyship. This question therefore implies admiration, astonishment at One being found ready and competent for the task.
I. In origin: Messiah’s humanity, and His affiliation with us.
He springs from “our midst;” is a native, born of us and amongst us.
II. In Person: Messiah’s dignity, and His superiority over us.
He is indeed of Israel, but far transcends man in His own natural majesty. He is Israel’s “Glorious One.” Standing alone in His dignity; the Crown of humanity; the “One” who is “Glorious.”
III. In office: Messiah’s royalty, and His priesthood for us.
He is our “Ruler;” and He “draws near” God as a priest.
IV. In suretyship: Messiah’s self-devotion; His approach to God for us.
And who but He; who, in nature Divine, “thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” yet made Himself of no reputation, could possess “the heart”—of courage, consecration, and love—to approach God as man’s Representative and Redeemer?
Comments—
Lowth says: “The Hebrew word is in the singular number, and literally signifies their “Mighty One,” a title given to God Himself (Psa_93:4), and to a mighty Angel (Isa_10:34), probably the WORD, or Son of God. He shall have near attendance upon Me (‘I will cause Him to draw near’); for I will make Him a Priest to Me as well as a King, according to the prophecy concerning the Messiah (Psa_110:4). ‘For who is this,’ &c.,—who is there but the Messiah that is so entirely devoted to My service? See Psa_40:8; Joh_4:34; Joh_14:31.”
Henderson remarks: “Who this illustrious Governor is, has been disputed. Michaelis and Scholz think it may have been John Hyrcanus; Grotius and others, Zerubbabel. But with neither of these will the predicates properly agree. That the person spoken of was to be a priest is generally allowed; but though Hyrcanus was hereditarily high-priest and ruler, yet there was nothing so peculiar about him or his office to call for the declaration that he should ‘approach unto’ Jehovah; for this all his predecessors had done in the way which he did; or to warrant the pointed and emphatic interrogatory, ‘But who is he?’ &c. The question is put as something altogether unique. Such an approach had never been made before.”
Diedrich (in Lange): “This Church of God will own a Prince ‘from its midst’—Jesus, of our flesh and blood through the Virgin Mary. And He ‘approaches God’ as no other can; for He is God’s image, God’s Son; and at the same time the perfect, holy in all His sufferings, the only obedient Son of man. This King is Mediator and Reconciler with God; He is also High-Priest, and fulfilled all righteousness, as was necessary for our propitiation. What glory to have such a King, who brings us nigh to God! And this is our glory.”
Jer_30:21. Theme: ENGAGING THE HEART IN RELIGIOUS SERVICE. “For who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto Me, saith the Lord?”
The promises of God in times past become the encouragement of the Church in times to come.
Because these promises are ratified in Christ. “Yea, and Amen.”
Because the dispensations of God proceed upon fixed and settled principles.
The promises here respect recovery from Babylon.
The immediate reference of the text may be to NEHEMIAH.
I. The nature of religion described.
II. The motives that it suggested.
I. The nature and requisites of religion described.
“Engaging the heart towards God.” Without this all profession is false and all worship vain.
It supposes the free choice of God’s service, and a full and heartfelt consecration to it. God’s service chosen—
i. Deliberately, without rashness. “If the Lord be God, serve Him;” “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord;” “CHOOSE ye this day.”
God will not accept a blind faith. Aaron was to light the lamps before he offered incense. Solomon first prescribes, “Know thou the God of thy fathers,” and then adds, “Serve Him.” God made the heart that He might dwell in it.
ii. Sincerely, without hypocrisy. Serve Him with a perfect heart; because you choose such a Master as is at once the Heart-Maker and the Heart-Searcher. Now therefore, as Joshua tells Israel, “Fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and truth.” As if he had said, If you intend to serve Him, you must serve Him in uprightness, or you do not serve Him at all. God requires good aims as well as good actions; and He abhors that service, though ever so costly, if the aim of him who serves Him be not good. This is the difference between the service of God and of man. Man can but see the outside, and can only punish outward disobedience and defects; but God unveils motive. “God is a spirit.”
iii. Cheerfully, without constraint. Serve the Lord with “gladness.” A bad omen when the victim struggled at the altar. God loves a cheerful giver and a cheerful worshipper (2Ch_15:14).
iv. Constantly, without end. In all things, in all places; in private as in public; in all times, prosperity and adversity, life and death; and with all faculties. As the Dutch minister said to Œcolampadius, Let God speak, and though we had six hundred necks, yet we will make them all stoop in obedience to Him.
II. Motives to induce this choice of God’s service.
i. From God’s rightful claim to it. God made man to serve Him and to seek his own happiness in God’s service; his own honour in God’s glory. We are His workmanship, and it becomes us to improve our gifts and capacities to Him from whom we receive them, as all rivers return to the ocean whence they come. As Aulius Fulvius said to his son, when he found him in conspiracy with Catiline, You were not born for Catiline, but for your country “(Non ego te Catilinæ genui, sed patriæ”).
So God says, I did not give thee soul and body to serve the world and sin, but to serve Me withal.
Consider the infinite excellences which reside in God, as a motive to His service. The lustre of His perfections fills heaven and earth.
Consider the rich mercies you receive. So many mercies, so many motives. In creation, in providence, in redemption. We are therefore “delivered out of the hand of our enemies, that we should serve Him without fear.” God makes the deliverance from Egypt a motive for keeping the ten commandments: “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, therefore thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath.” Much more may we argue from redemption: “Ye are not your own.”
“Render to Cœsar the things that are Cœsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” If service be not due, do not give it Him; but if it be, it is sacrilege to withhold it.
ii. From His gracious acceptance of it. “Who is willing?” He speaks with wonder and delight, shewing that God notices all hearts. There is no service any man does or desires to do, but God marks and registers it. God noticed Abraham’s willingness to offer Isaac. Christ noticed every circumstance connected with Mary’s anointing His head and washing His feet. God holds up the obedience of Job to Satan: “Hast thou considered?”
iii. From happiness consequent upon it. “His service perfect freedom.” “A day in Thy courts.” “Ethiopian went his way,” &c. God’s service is a type of heaven. We have communion with the “God of all consolation”—with the Spirit, the Comforter.
God alone can fill the heart. In His service you have encouraging promises, examples, providences, experiences, prospects.
iv. From consequences of not serving Him (Jer_30:23-24).
III. Hints of direction.
i. To those who have engaged their hearts to God. Walk worthy.
Study to attain a temper of mind more and more spiritual.
Strictly guard the avenues of the inward man.
Bear yourself as the inhabitant of a better country.
Comprehend the entire frame of that holy rectitude in which the image of God consists.
Converse with the Word of God. Occupy your thoughts with God.
“Delight thyself in Him.”
ii. To those who have not. Take care you do not carry the controversy into another world.
By how much nature revolts, by so much seek grace.
Jer_30:22. “Ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.” Comp. chap. Jer_24:7.
Jer_30:23-24. “The whirlwind of the Lord.” Comp. chap. Jer_23:19; Jer_23:29, and Jer_25:32.
Jer_30:24. Theme: CONSIDERATION. “In the latter days ye shall consider it.”
After denouncing the Lord’s judgments upon a people laden with iniquity, and looking beyond to a time of restoration and peace, Jeremiah rebukes their present carelessness and indifference by assuring them that, in that better time to come, they will look back with very different feelings upon their present conduct as a nation.
I. There comes a closing period of a course of action or conduct, when it can all be looked back upon, and the effects are seen and the results experienced.
The great practical point is to urge upon us—
1. The necessity of closely examining our own heart and life, with especial reference to the light in which they will appear even to ourselves hereafter. For
2. The crisis will arrive when we shall reap that which we have sown; or, above all, when we shall come to cast one long look behind, as our feet totter on the borders of the grave.
II. It may seem difficult thus, by due consideration, to realise at one time of life, or at one station in the course of action, the point of view which seems to belong to another. But the attainment is not difficult.
1. It is, in fact, easy to those who wish for it and strive for it. It is simply the true point of view.
2. Our case would be hard if the Lord had not provided for our guidance into all truth, not only of doctrine, but of life and conduct, at every period of our course.
3. We have in the Scriptures a sure and certain light unto our path; and he who has been careful to store his mind with its holy teachings, will never be at a loss to decide upon his conduct, or upon any course of conduct he contemplates.
4. If a man hears these words, whether, at the time, he heeds them or not, receives them or not, they fail not to judge him in his own consciousness (Joh_12:48), not only at the last day, but in his “latter days”—those great days of decision.
III. Such a standard of invincible truth should be erected in the mind, constraining man to become his own judge, and enabling him to decide between the accusings and excusings of his conscience.
1. Therefore, minds should be filled with a knowledge of Scripture, even though, at the time, those minds entertain no adequate impression of its saving power.
2. The mind, earnestly desirous of realising this most true latter-end view of things, may obtain them through the gentle teachings of the Divine Spirit, who has never yet denied them to any who sought them in singleness of heart.
IV. With these essential and sure guides to wise consideration, we are without excuse if we neglect the duty, and brutal if we despise the privilege.
1. Who is there, looking back, but can discern grievous stains, fearful short-comings, distressing faithlessness—dishonouring to Christ, defiling to his own soul, and burdensome to his conscience—and compelled to exclaim, “Oh, that I had considered, that I had given one thought to God and the latter end, before I took this burden on my soul!”
2. The longer this habit of “consideration” is postponed, the more burdensome it becomes. There is much in a heart-searching retrospect, over the earliest and most innocent period of life, to awaken compunction and regret; but if the wholesome check, which the habit of considering the latter end imposes, be not found in good time, the blackening horror of the later and more advanced period makes that early time seem bright in the comparison, and gives birth to feelings which have found expression in such words as these—
“Lost days of youth! Oh, holy days,
When joy was blest with prayer and praise—
When this sad heart, now deeply dyed
With many a thought unsanctified,
Trembled at every venial stain,
And shrunk from sin as now from pain.
Oh, not that even in that hour
Of early reason’s dawning power,
My soul was pure from thoughts of sin;
But now so dark the past has been,
That those first stains from young offence
Bear the bright hue of innocence.”
—Kitto.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain If there is any character more especially marked in…
Jer 30:17
If there is any character more especially marked in the Scripture accounts of Christ’s advent among men, it is that of a Restorer. He comes to purify some presupposed corruption, to repair some antecedent ruin, to satisfy some preexisting wants. It is the feeling of these wants which in the minds of men perpetuates the corresponding feeling of the necessity of remedy which supports the character and claims of Christianity in the world; while, at the same time, it is the slowness of men to embrace with sincerity and practical earnestness the proffered remedy thus felt to be required, and felt to be real, which renders the faith in the crucified Saviour inoperative and unfruitful.
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I. The faith in the Christian sacrifice and its attendant revelation of the Divine character alone answer the demands of the heart and reason of man for a higher state of moral perfection. Men do weary of the wickedness of the world as really, though not indeed so frequently, as of its disappointments. The pre-eminent character of our faith is to reveal before our eyes a kingdom wherein immortally dwelleth righteousness. Is not its great sacrifice the corner-stone of the equity of the whole moral universe, the sacrifice that enables God to be at once just and the Justifier of Him that believeth in Jesus?
II. Christianity offers to maintain a communication between this world and that eternal world of holiness and truth. Here is another want satisfied; the inspiration of weakness made not merely a privilege but a duty. We for ever seek a happiness beyond the reach of chance; Christian prayer beseeches. We seek repose from incessant troubles; Christian prayer is the stillest exercise of soul. We ask even by blind impulses of nature for pardon in the wretched consciousness of depravity. Christian prayer encourages our timidity into confidence.
III. Another particular in which this blessed faith commends itself to our wants, is in its confirmation and direction of that principle of hope which even in our daily and worldly life we are perpetually forced to substitute for happiness. It leaves the tendency, but it alters the object.
IV. But above all its recommendations to the wants and solicitudes of man, the Gospel commends itself by the adorable object which it presents to our affections. The devotion with which we are encouraged to regard the great God and Saviour of the New Testament, the affection with which He has contemplated us, create a new and holy and eternal bond of love, such as in its fulness indeed our fallen humanity could never have anticipated, yet such as becomes an answer to many of the profoundest wants of the soul.
W. Archer Butler, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, 2nd series, p. 133.
Reference: Jer 30:17.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1753.
Jer 30:21
The word Advent means "approach." And after all, what is everything this side of the grave but "approaches?" We approach to hope, we approach to love, we approach to serve, we approach to being—all life is an approach, and perhaps heaven itself will be a never-ending, but an ever-satisfying, approach to the Father.
I. But the first thought with which I have to deal, is the marvel that there should be the possibility of any approach at all between two things so alienated, so separate, so very wide asunder, as a pure holy God, who dwells in light, and that dark, vile thing, a human heart. To show how that possibility was brought about, and then how the capability was to 5e used and turned into fact, that is the aim and the substance of all revelation.
II. Christ’s first advent to the earth made other advents possible. (1) There is an advent, when some providence, importunate in its strength, knocks at the door of a man’s heart, and a still whisper in his soul tells a presence, and a cord of love draws his affections. (2) There is an advent when God fulfils His own promise, and comes and dwells in a man and takes up His abode in him. (3) There is an advent, when every object we look at in nature and every mercy we taste in providence everywhere, brings God nearer and nearer to a man’s mind. (4) There is an advent when Christ shall come in His glory, and bring with Him all His saints. But not one of these advents—of Him to us, or of us to Him—could have been if Christ had not come first to this earth to roll away the barrier. Flesh was the veil that shut the sanctuary, till His pierced body became the veil rent, and the Shechinah shone beyond the circumference of its limits, and it was free to every man to go in and out.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, p. 219.
References: Jer 30:21.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1673. Jer 31:1.—J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 211.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Jeremiah's Seventeenth Prophecy (Reign of Zedekiah During the Siege).…
Jeremiah's Seventeenth Prophecy (Reign of Zedekiah During the Siege). Israel's Hope
Hitherto the general character of Jeremiah's prophecies has been gloomy. The whole tone of this section, on the other hand, is one of hopefulness, which is the more remarkable inasmuch as it was delivered at a time when the prophet was subject to imprisonment, and famine and pestilence held possession of the city, and the prospects of the nation were at their lowest. It was under such circumstances then that it was announced through Jeremiah that the chosen people should not perish, that through them the Gentile nations should be led to a knowledge of the true God, that the Righteous Branch should yet arise from the house of David, and Zion 'shall be called, The Lord our righteousness': see on Jer_33:16.
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1-9. When the gloom is deepest, deliverance shall come.
2. In a book] Thus his words would bring abiding comfort in the approaching time of exile.
3. Bring] RV 'turn.'
4. Concerning Israel.. Judah] Both divisions of the kingdom of David are the subject of Jeremiah 31 : see above.
5. Of fear, and not of peace] RM 'There is fear and no peace,' and the present circumstances are evil. There is nothing but fear and terror in the hearts and on the faces of men.
7. That day] the day of Babylon's overthrow.
8. Serve themselves of him] see on Jer_25:14.
9. David their king] the ideal Mng who, as coming of David's line, here receives his name. So in Eze_34:23. Eze_37:24. For David, meaning the line of kings of his house, see 1Ki_12:16.
10-17. God will remember Israel in her affliction.
11. In measure, etc.] RV ' with judgment, and will in no wise leave thee.'
12-15. These vv. describe the present condition from which the nation shall be delivered.
13. Thy cause, that thou.. medicines] rather, join 'that thou,' etc., with what follows. 'For the closing up of thy wound there is no healing, no plaister.'
14. Thy lovers] the nations that sought to ally themselves with thee: see Jer_27:3
18-24. Jerusalem shall be restored to favour.
18. Bring] see on Jer_30:3. Tents] a name for dwellings generally, which was retained from nomadic times: cp. Jer_4:20. Remain] RM 'be inhabited.' After the manner thereof] occupied by a Mag, and kept up suitably as aforetime.
21. Nobles] RV 'prince,' a reference to the ideal king. Of themselves] no longer foreigners. Engaged his heart] RV 'hath had boldness.' The new Mng will have close access to Jehovah. He will do His will, and rule in righteousness. And is not this to know the Lord? (Jer_22:16).
23, 24. These vv. are nearly identical with Jer_23:19.
24. Consider] RV 'understand.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain The word
The word
The writings of Jeremiah in chapters 30 to 36, cannot with certainty be arranged in consecutive order. Certain dates are mentioned (e.g. Jer 32:1; Jer 33:1; Jer 34:1; Jer 34:8; Jer 35:1 but retrospectively. The narrative, so far as Jeremiah gives a narrative, is resumed at Jer 37:1. These chapters constitute a kind of summary of prophecy concerning Israel as a nation, looking on especially to the last days, the day of the Lord, and the kingdom-age to follow. If the marginal references are carefully followed the order will become clear. But these prophecies are interspersed with much historical matter concerning Jeremiah and his time.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain The Glorious Future of the Nation (30-31)
The Glorious Future of the Nation (30-31)
CHAPTER 30
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1. The time of Jacob’s trouble (Jer 30:1-11)
2. Zion’s desperate condition and the promise of deliverance (Jer 30:12-17)
3. Restoration and glory (Jer 30:18-24)
Jer 30:1-11. The critics have made havoc with this great prophecy. De Wette, Hitzig, and other rationalists, claim to have discovered that this chapter, and those which follow, are the work of the spurious “second Isaiah.” The critics, with their present day echoes in different colleges, reject these chapters as not being Jeremianic. They are totally wrong. This great prophecy, which begins with the thirtieth chapter, is quite in order after all these judgment messages, announcing the doom of Jerusalem and of the nation. What then about the future, that future which all their fathers had cherished, the promises which rested upon the covenant Jehovah made with David? Was now everything to be blotted out and no national hope left? The last siege of Jerusalem was in progress; soon all the threatened judgments would pass fully into history. How perfectly in order is it that now should be given a message of the glorious future of the nation.
Jeremiah is commanded to write in a book all the words Jehovah had spoken; quite sufficient evidence that Jeremiah is the author and that this book is not a patchwork of different supplementers, redactors and compilers.
The first promise in verse three (Jer 30:3) is concerning the coming days in which the people Israel and Judah will return to their God-given land to possess it. Has this promise been fulfilled? Expositors generally say that it was fulfilled in the return from the captivity. But this is not so. Here is a promised return not only of the house of Judah, but a return of the ten tribes also. This has never taken place. In spite of the “British-Israel” hallucination, every sane Bible reader realizes that the house of Israel is still scattered among the nations. This restoration promise will be accomplished in the future. Then we hear what will precede that restoration. It will be a time of great trouble, even the time of Jacob’s trouble Mat 24:1-51; Mar 13:1-37, the great tribulation revealed in other portions of the prophetic Word, notably in Daniel and Revelation. When that time comes “Jacob will be saved out of it.” The yoke of the last Gentile world-power (the revived Roman Empire, the ten-horned Beast of Dan 7:1-28 and Rev 13:1-18 will then be broken (Jer 30:8) and they will serve the true David, David’s Lord and David’s Son, our Lord (Jer 30:9). Then follows the message of comfort. How well history has confirmed this one sentence of Jer 30:11: “Though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee.”
Jer 30:12-17. Here is a reminder of Zion’s desperate condition and shameful history and how He had to chastise His people and wound them with the wound of an enemy. Such is still their lot and will be down to the end of this age, a people scattered and afflicted, devoured and spoiled by the nations. But when the time comes, the time of mercy for Zion, her enemies will be dealt with. In arrogant unbelief, these nations, so called “Christian nations,” said “Zion is an Outcast”--”whom no man seeketh after” (Jer 30:17); but the Lord says, “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds.”
Jer 30:18-24. The city then will be built again. The voices of praise and joy will be heard once more. He will glorify and increase them. He will be their God and they shall be His people. The whirlwind will strike “the head of the wicked,” the wicked false king, the false Messiah, Antichrist. The next chapter is the continuation of this great prophecy.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The Promise of Deliverance
The Promise of Deliverance
v. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, being given him by special and direct inspiration, saying,
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v. 2. Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, His very words being recorded, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book, the prophecy thus inscribed on a roll becoming a part of the sacred record of the Bible.
v. 3. For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord, the restoration of all the members of His Church being included here, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. This introduction serves as a heading and summary of this entire section of Jeremiah’s prophecy, and must be understood in the light of all that follows.
v. 4. And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah, His message transporting us with dramatic vividness into the very midst of the future, a future, moreover, which includes more than the history of the two nations as such.
v. 5. For thus saith the Lord, We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace, or, "A cry of terror have we heard: fear and no deliverance. "
v. 6. Ask ye now and see whether a man doth travail with child, which, of course, is contrary to nature. Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? It must be an extraordinary terror which could produce such a condition.
v. 7. Alas! for that day, the Messianic period with its sifting process among the nations, is great, Luk 2:34-35, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, a testing of hearts and minds. But he shall be saved out of it, all the true children of Jacob, the members of the spiritual Israel, being delivered from the wrath to come.
v. 8. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, deliver His people from the oppression of all its enemies, and will burst thy bonds, those with which the oppressors were trying to keep His children in subjection, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him, keeping Israel in bondage;
v. 9. but they shall serve the Lord, their God, and David, their King, the great Ruler Messiah, who was of the house and lineage of David, whom I will raise up unto them, for it was to Christ that the entire Messianic prophecy of the Old Testament pointed.
v. 10. Therefore fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord, neither be dismayed, be filled with terror, O Israel, the cheering admonition being addressed to all believers; for, lo, I will save thee from afar and thy seed from the land of their captivity, the redemption of the world being spoken of under the picture of the deliverance from the Babylonian bondage; and Jacob shall return and shall be in rest and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid, the security of the children of God thus being emphasized. Cf Psa 46:5.
v. 11. For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee, taking the part of those that are His own; though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, the overthrow of the world empire being a type of the overthrow of all enemies of Jehovah and His Church, yet will I not make a full end of thee, the deliverance of His people being always assured in the Gospel-message; but I will correct thee in measure, literally, "with judgment," in such moderation as will bring about a change of heart for the better in them, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished, for a chastisement of His children such as He exercises is intended to keep them in His ways, for the Lord’s thoughts toward them are thoughts of love and of peace. Thus is the culmination of the Messianic period portrayed.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
This idiom is used to introduce a special message from God. See how you translated a similar phrase in Jeremiah 1:4, and make any changes as needed. AT: "This is the message that Yahweh gave to Jeremiah. He said" or "Yahweh spoke this message to Jeremiah:" (See: Idiom)
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For look
"For listen carefully." This phrase brings attention to what Yahweh is going to say next.
days are coming ... when I will restore the fortunes
Future time is spoken of as if the "days are coming." See how you translated this metaphor in Jeremiah 7:32. AT: "in the future ... I will restore the fortunes" or "there will be a time ... when I will restore the fortunes" (See: Metaphor)
this is Yahweh's declaration
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 1:8. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah
"I will cause things to go well for my people, Israel and Judah, again" or "I will cause my people, Israel and Judah, to live well again." See how you translated similar words in Jeremiah 29:14.
translationWords
word
Jeremiah
Yahweh
God
Israel
declare
scroll
restore
people of God
kingdom of Israel
kingdom of Judah
possess
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 30:1–33:26 These four chapters are often called “The Book…
30:1–33:26 These four chapters are often called “The Book of Consolation,” a high point in Old Testament revelation. In contrast to the many messages of judgment that Jeremiah delivered to his people, these messages are filled with hope and point to a marvelous future restoration.
30:1-24 This series of messages is mainly positive, with only two verses carrying a tone of judgment (30:23-24). They speak of the beneficial effects of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Exile.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.