14“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.
15“In those days and at that time, I will cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David. He will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
14 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.
15 “In those days and at that time, I will cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David. He will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
KJVKing James Version
14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
Show all 3 translations
JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.
15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause a shoot of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
Jeremiah 23:5(v14)“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will…
Haggai 2:6-9(v14)For this is what Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry…
1 Chronicles 17:13-14(v14)I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will not take my loving kindness away from him, as I took it from him that was before you;…
2 Corinthians 1:20(v14)For however many are the promises of God, in him is the “Yes.” Therefore also through him is the “Amen”, to the glory of God through us.
Genesis 49:10(v14)The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the…
Show all 46 cross-references
Jeremiah 23:5-6(v15)“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will…
Isaiah 32:1-2(vv14–15)Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice. A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a…
Genesis 22:18(v14)All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.’ ”
Isaiah 4:2(v15)In that day, Yahweh’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of…
Isaiah 11:1-5(v15)A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of…
Jeremiah 29:10(v14)For Yahweh says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to…
Jeremiah 31:31-34(v14)“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according…
Ezekiel 34:23-25(v14)I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd. I,…
Amos 9:11(v14)In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it…
Zephaniah 3:15-17(v14)Yahweh has taken away your judgments. He has thrown out your enemy. The King of Israel, Yahweh, is among you. You will not be afraid of…
Jeremiah 32:38-41(v14)Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their…
Luke 1:69-70(v14)and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been…
Acts 13:32-33(v14)We bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus.…
Isaiah 7:14(v14)Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isaiah 9:6-7(v14)For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,…
Daniel 7:13-14(v14)“I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of…
Daniel 9:25(v14)“Know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince,…
Micah 5:2(v14)But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose…
Zechariah 3:8(v15)Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows who sit before you; for they are men who are a sign: for, behold, I will bring out…
Malachi 3:1(v14)“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the…
Luke 2:10-11(v14)The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born…
Luke 10:24(v14)for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them, and to hear the things which you…
Hebrews 11:40(v14)God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
1 Peter 1:10(v14)Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently. They prophesied of the grace that would come to you,
Revelation 19:10(v14)I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, “Look! Don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers…
Psalms 72:1-5(v15)God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son. He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with…
Isaiah 53:2(v15)For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no…
Jeremiah 31:27(v14)“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of…
2 Samuel 23:2-3(v15)“Yahweh’s Spirit spoke by me. His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, ‘One who rules over men…
Psalms 45:4(v15)In your majesty ride on victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds.
Psalms 45:7(v15)You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
Isaiah 9:7(v15)Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold…
Isaiah 42:21(v15)It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law and make it honorable.
Ezekiel 17:22-23(v15)“The Lord Yahweh says: ‘I will also take some of the lofty top of the cedar, and will plant it. I will crop off from the topmost of its…
Daniel 2:44(v14)“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty be left to…
Zechariah 6:12-13(v15)and speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: and he shall grow up out of his place; and he…
Zechariah 9:9-10(v14)Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation;…
John 5:22-29(v15)For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who…
Hebrews 1:8-9(v15)But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your Kingdom. You have loved…
Hebrews 7:1-2(v15)For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God Most High, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to…
Revelation 19:11(v15)I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes…
46 distinct cross-references across this passage (47 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (20 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv14–15Jeremiah now shews why God had promised that there…
Jeremiah now shews why God had promised that there would be a quiet habitation for shepherds, so that no one would by force take away their flocks. For God declares, that his promise would not be void, as its effects would shortly be evident, even when his mercy was known by the ten tribes and by the kingdom of Judah. Hence he says, The days shall come; for it behoved the faithful to look farther than to their present condition. As they were then exposed to slaughter, though the unbelieving still entertained vain hopes, yet the children of God saw thousand deaths; so that it could not be but that terror almost drove them to despair; and in their exile they saw that they were far removed from their own country, without any hope of a return. That the Prophet then might still support these, he bids them to extend their thoughts to a future time; and he had prefixed, as we have before seen, seventy years. It is the same then as though he had said, that the favor of which he predicts could not be laid hold on, except the faithful held their minds in suspense, and patiently waited until the time of the promised deliverance came.
Coming then are the days, and I will rouse, or as some render it, “and I will establish;” and both meanings may suit; for קום kum, means to rise, but here in an active or transitive sense it means to make to rise. However, its meaning sometimes is to establish, and sometimes to rouse, so as to make that to appear which was before hidden. And this mode of speaking is fitly adopted as to the promises of God; for they seem for a time to he dormant without any effect, or seem to disappear or vanish away. Hence the stability of the promises then appears, and is seen when God raises them up, they being before hidden and concealed from the faithful. The meaning of the Prophet is, that God would at length render evident the power of his word, by fulfilling it.
Read full note →
But from this manner of speaking, a useful doctrine may be deduced: for we are thus reminded that the promises of God are not always so manifest, that their effect or accomplishment is evident to us, but on the contrary they may appear to be dead and void. When it is so, let us learn to exercise faith and patience, so that our souls may not tremble, though God’s promises may not every moment manifest their power by being actually fulfilled. In short, the true application of prophetic truth is, that we never lay hold on, and really embrace the promises of God, except we look forward to the days that are coming, that is, except we patiently wait for the time prefixed by God: and further, except our faith leans on the promises, when they seem to he dormant, it is not firm, and has no roots or foundations; for as the root which nourishes the tree is not seen, but lies hid in the earth, and as the foundation of a house is not visible to our eyes, so ought our faith to be in like manner founded, and to drive deep roots into God’s promises, so that its firmness may not be in the air, nor have a visible surface, but a hidden foundation. This then is the import and the proper application of this doctrine.
But God calls it his good word, because he had promised to be the deliverer of his people. The word of God, when it denounces all kinds of death, and contains nothing but terrors, is always good, if goodness be taken for what is just and right; and hence God, by Ezekiel, reproves the Jews, because his word was bitter to them, and says,
“Are the ways of the Lord crooked and thorny? Ye are awry,” he says, “and not my word.” (Ezekiel 18:25)
But here the goodness of the word is to be taken for the deliverance of the people; for when God shakes the despisers of his Law with terror, his word is called evil on account of its effect. At the same time, as I have already said, whether God offers to us his favor and mercy, or denounces vengeance on the unbelieving, his word is ever good and right, though it may not be pleasant. This then relates to the apprehensions of men when he says, I will rouse, or establish, my good word
He afterwards adds, which I have spoken;’by which clause he confirms the doctrine of Jeremiah, for he shews that he was its author, and that Jeremiah brought nothing from himself, but faithfully testified of his mercy and of the liberation of the people according to the commission he had received. We are at the same time reminded, that we are not presumptuously to hope for anything, except God has spoken. Let us then learn to embrace his promises, so that none of us may look for this or that, but know that then only he will be propitious to us, when we lean on his word. He afterwards speaks of the kingdom of Israel, and of the kingdom of Judah, to intimate that he would be merciful to the whole people, though the ten tribes had been for a long time separated from the tribe of Judah, and from the half tribe of Benjamin, as it has been stated elsewhere. It follows —
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.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn v15That is, I will send the Messiah, which shall…
That is, I will send the Messiah, which shall come of the house of David, of whom this prophecy is meant, as testify all the Jews, and that which is written, Jer. 23:5.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv14–15Jer 33:14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,…
Jer 33:14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
Ver. 14. I will perform that good thing.] Praestabo verbum istud optimum, as Tremellius well rendereth it. I will perform that best word or promise, viz., concerning Christ, in whom all the former and future promises are Yea and Amen, to the glory of God. {2Co 1:20}
Read full note →
“ Haec dicenda bono sunt bona verba die. ”
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv14–15The Lord is not yea and nay, he cannot…
The Lord is not yea and nay, he cannot lie nor repent. I speak not of the present time, but there shall be a time when God will justify every good word of this nature which he hath spoken to his ancient people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv14–15Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... Or, "are…
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... Or, "are coming" (t); future times are respected; yet such as would quickly come; five or six hundred years more, and then would be fulfilled what is after promised. This is ushered in with a "behold", as being a matter of importance, and deserving attention, and even as calling for admiration. This is the principal of the great and mighty things the Lord promised to show to the prophet, Jer 33:3; even the coming of the Messiah, and what concerns his person and office:
that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah; or, "that good word" (u); that gracious word concerning Christ and salvation by him; that mercy promised to the fathers; that good thing that came out of Nazareth: the good Shepherd that laid down his life for the sheep, preferable to the shepherds before spoken of: or rather, "that best word" (w); the positive used for the superlative, as frequent in the Hebrew language. Many good words or promises are made before, concerning the spiritual welfare and prosperity of the church; but this is the best of all; this is the better thing provided for saints under the Gospel dispensation, and promised to them, who are meant by the houses of Judah and Israel; for these phrases, as the Jews themselves allow, show that the words belong to the times of the Messiah; and which God, that is true and cannot lie, and who is faithful, that has promised, and is able to perform, will do.
Read full note →
(t) "venientes", Montanus, Schmidt. (u) "verbum bonum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius. (w) "Verbum optimum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn v15The branch - The kings they had hitherto had…
The branch - The kings they had hitherto had of the line of David, were most of them unrighteous men, but God promises that after the captivity, they should have a branch of David who would execute judgment and righteousness in the land, for the protection and government of those that feared him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn v14Verse 14. Behold the days come] See Jer 52:5;…
Verse 14. Behold the days come] See Jer 52:5; Jer 31:31.
That good thing which I have promised] By my prophets: for those who have predicted the captivity have also foretold its conclusion, though not in such express terms as Jeremiah did. See Ho 1:10, c. Ho 2:15, c. Ho 6:11, c. Am 9:14, c., and Jer 3:12, c. The end of the captivity has been foretold by Micah, Mic 7:9, &c. Zephaniah, Zep 3:10, c. and by Jeremiah, Jer 16:15 Jer 23:3; Jer 29:10; Jer 32:37. The Targum explains verses 14, 15, and 16 of the Messiah.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v14Jer 33:14-16. Behold, the days come that I will…
Jer 33:14-16. Behold, the days come that I will perform that good thing, &c. — The Lord’s word is not yea and nay: he cannot lie, or repent. There shall come a time when he will verify every good word which he hath spoken to, or concerning, his people. In those days will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up to David — The kings they had hitherto had of the line of David were most of them unrighteous men; but God here promises that after the captivity they should have a branch of David that would execute judgment and righteousness in the land, for the protection and government of those that feared him. If this passage point at all to Zerubbabel, who was a good man, a descendant of David, and, though not a king, a ruler of the Jews, after their return from Babylon, and who governed with equity and not as Jehoiakim had done; yet it can only refer to him as a type of the Messiah, the branch out of the stem of Jesse, Isa 11:1; the branch of the Lord that was to be beautiful and glorious, Isa 4:2; and the righteous branch that was to be raised up unto David, as he is described Jer 23:5, a passage exactly similar to this, and undoubtedly meant of the same person. See the notes on these passages. In those days shall Judah be saved, &c. — If, a temporal salvation be here at all intended, it must be, not that which the Jews enjoyed for a short season under the government of Zerubbabel, a deliverance and protection from, or security against their enemies, which was very imperfect, and frequently interrupted; but that more perfect salvation, peace, and prosperity, which they shall enjoy in the latter days, after their conversion to Christianity, and restoration to their own land, according to the predictions contained in this and the three preceding chapters. But a spiritual and eternal salvation undoubtedly is chiefly intended here, as well as in the parallel passage, Jer 23:6. And this is the name wherewith ye shall be called, The Lord our righteousness — According to this reading it is here foretold, that the name which properly belongs to the Messiah shall be given to Jerusalem, that is, to the church; “to signify,” says Lowth, “that it is in a peculiar manner dedicated to him, he having chosen it for the place of his residence, (see Eze 48:35,) and that all the righteousness of the faithful, both their justification and sanctification, is derived from him. this seems,” adds he, “to be the genuine sense of the words, as may appear to any that will compare the original phrase here, יקרא לה, with Isa 62:4; Isa 62:12, where it is said of Zion, Thou shalt be called Hephzibah, or, my delight is in her, and sought out, a city not forsaken. Nor is there any greater impropriety in giving the name Jehovah to a city, than in calling an altar Jehovah-nissi, that is, Jehovah my banner, (Exo 17:15,) and Jehovah-shalom, Jehovah peace, (Jdg 6:24,) in token that the Lord was the author of those mercies of which the said altars were designed to be monuments. So the servants of God are described as having his name written upon their foreheads, Rev 3:12; Rev 14:1; but several interpreters, particularly Huetius, and our learned Bishop Pearson, (in his Exposition of the Creed, p. 165,) render the words thus: He that shall call her [to be his peculiar people] is the Lord our righteousness.” Thus also Dr. Waterland and others. But Blaney, who renders the last clause of Jer 23:6, This is the name by which Jehovah shall call him, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, translates this, And this is he whom Jehovah shall call OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, judging that the הin לה, rendered her, is not the feminine pronoun affix, but the masculine, after the Chaldee form.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv14–15That good thing - Better, the good word Jer…
That good thing - Better, the good word Jer 29:10, with reference to the promise already given Jer 23:5-6.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn v15Bud, or orient, Christ, (Calmet) of whom Zorobabel was…
Bud, or orient, Christ, (Calmet) of whom Zorobabel was a figure. (Theodoret) All cannot be verified of the latter, ver. 16. (Calmet) --- The Jews themselves explain this of the Messias. (Calov.) --- It evidently refer to him, as he was born of David, whose posterity should continue till Christ, the founder of an eternal kingdom. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1414 Behold the days are coming, saith Jehovah, that…
5. THE GLORIOUS KINGDOM AND PRIESTHOOD OF THE FUTURE
Jer_33:14-18
Read full note →
14 Behold the days are coming, saith Jehovah, that I will fulfil
The good word that I have spoken of the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
15 In those days and that time will I cause9
The sprout of righteousness to spring to David,
And he shall execute10 justice and righteousness in the land.
16 In those days will Judah be saved and Jerusalem dwell safely,
And this will be her name, Jehovah our Righteousness.11
17 For thus saith Jehovah, a man shall never be wanting to David,
Who may sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.
18 And to the priests, the Levites, a man shall not be wanting before me,
Who may offer burnt-offerings and kindle meat-offerings,
And offer sacrifices continually.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Passing from the general to the particular, the circumference to the centre, the prophet further declares with respect to the happy future, that in it the promise previously announced will be fulfilled (Jer_33:4), a sprout of righteousness shall spring from the stock of David, who will restore justice and righteousness in the land (Jer_33:15), and by whom Judah and Jerusalem will be raised to such a height of prosperity that the latter will actually bear the name “Jehovah our Righteousness” (Jer_33:16). The race of David shall never die out (Jer_33:17), nor the priestly tribe of Levi and the priestly service ever cease.
Jer_33:14-16. Behold, the days … our Righteousness. What is “the good word” in Jer_33:14? The expression occurs besides in Jeremiah only in Jer_29:10. There it refers, as is evident from the mention of the seventy years, to Jer_25:11. If the expression is to be taken there in a special sense, so also here. For here we have a still plainer reference to a former promise (Jer_23:5-6). The reference to the general salvation, i.e., to the most universal manifestation of salvation is thus not excluded. Though this view is favored by the circumstance that the prophet, as already remarked, proceeds in this chapter from the general to the special, yet the special salvation, to which Jer_33:15 sqq. refer, is the central point comprising all that has been said hitherto, being a condition of all salvation in the widest sense. Hengsenberg incorrectly accentuates the two prepositions אֵל and עַל. According to the usage of our prophet they are so like each other in signification, that one frequently stands for the other (comp. Jer_25:1 coll.; Jer_7:1; Jer_11:1 etc.; Jer_26:15), or by the side of the other with absolutely identical meaning (Jer_11:2; Jer_18:11; Jer_23:35; Jer_25:2; Jer_27:19; Jer_44:20).
Jer_33:15. In those days, etc. In these words the chronological statement in Jer_33:14 is resumed after the interruption, so that in sense this beginning coincides with that in Jer_23:5. The addition and that time here as in Jer 1:4, 20 possesses a merely rhetorical significance. It serves to render the declaration more solemn. The alteration from in his days (Jer_23:6) is unimportant. It is however important to note the change of Israel into Jerusalem, this being founded in the connection of the chapter. While the general object of the prophet, as is seen in Jer_33:14, is to show that the comforting prophecy given in former times, still holds good, notwithstanding the comfortless circumstances in which Jerusalem then was, being sorely pressed by the Chaldeans, yet he cannot avoid somewhat modifying the prophecy in accordance with the present occasion. This occasion according to Jer_33:4 is the sight of the houses thrown down in defence. In view of this mournful spectacle he had in Jer_33:6-7 to promise healing of wounds, rebuilding of the city. He has also here the city of Jerusalem especially in view, though he does not by any means forget Israel, but on the contrary diligently sets forth its share in the promise given to Judah (Jer_33:14). Hence the alteration to Jerusalem.—With this it is also connected that the last clause states the name which Jerusalem will bear as a significant symbolical inscription. Comp. rems. on Jer_23:6.
Jer_33:17-18. For thus saith Jehovah … continually. The principal statement refers neither to Jer_33:15 nor to Jer_33:16 exclusively, but to both. Improbable as it must then have appeared at the time of Zedekiah that the house of David, which was reduced so low both inwardly and outwardly, should send forth so excellent and glorious a scion, equally so must the happy condition promised to the people in Jer_33:16 have appeared. Both however are shown to be possible by the announcement in Jer_33:17 of the everlasting continuance of the house of David and of its dominion over Israel. Observe, moreover, that it is not said on the throne of David nor on his throne (Jer_33:21; Jer_13:13; Jer_22:4), but on the throne of the house of Israel. The house of Israel is evidently here the whole of Israel, and the eternal duration of David’s rule over it involves both the inner and outer rejuvenescence of the Davidic race, and the welfare of the people, which essentially depends thereon, since it may be subjected not to foreign rulers, but to their own native royal family.—A man shall never, etc. Comp. Jer_35:19. The sense of the expression is not, none shall ever be extirpated, but every one shall never be extirpated, so that none will be left. Herein is thus primarily contained only the promise of succession of rulers extending in perpetuum. Hengstenberg, however, calls attention to the circumstance (Christol., S. 516) [Eng. Tr., II., p. 461] that we are not to suppose a “perfectly uninterrupted succession,” but only one that is not broken off entirely. The prophet moreover reproduces almost verbatim the ancient promise given to the house of David, as it is repeated on the basis of 1Sa_7:16, by David in his parting words to Solomon (1Ki_2:4), and afterwards by the latter himself at his dedication of the temple (1Ki_8:25), and finally by the Lord Himself in His renewed promise to Solomon (1Ki_9:5).—And to the priests, etc. A second pillar on which rests the redemption and secure continuance of Israel (Jer_33:16) is the normal permanence of the national priesthood. This is the Levitic.—The Levites is therefore in apposition (comp. Deu_17:9; Deu_17:18; Jos_3:3; Eze_44:15 coll. Deu_21:5). The descendants of Levi, who according to the Mosaic law were alone eligible to the priesthood (Num_3:10; Num_16:40; Num_18:7), will be opposed to others who might possibly assume the priesthood to themselves. The question may here arise how this promise of the eternal continuance of the Levitic priesthood is related to other declarations, especially of the Epistle to the Hebrews, according to which this Levitical priesthood as only an inferior stage is to give way to a higher priesthood, viz., that after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7-9. coll. Jer_3:16; Psa_110:4). I believe that this question must be decided according to the standard of Mat_5:17-18. As not a tittle of the law is absolutely abrogated, and thrown aside as worthless, but is kept by being fulfilled and thus being elevated to a higher potency, so also the Levitical priesthood being absorbed by a higher, is lost in its outward, temporal and local form, but in its ideal character is now first established. Hence the expressions of this passage (as well as the related ones in Ezekiel 40-42) neither contradict former declarations of Jeremiah (as Jer_3:16; Jer_31:31-33), nor the doctrine of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Comp. rems. on Jer_33:22 and my review of “Balmer—Rinck, The Prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple” in Reuter’s Repertorium, 1860, Heft. III., S. 152.—Who may offer, etc. Comp. Exo_29:18; Lev_1:9; Lev_1:17; Lev_9:10; Num_18:17, etc.—The three species of offerings are mentioned also in Jer_17:26; Num_15:3-4.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer_32:3. “An effect of anger and a procedure almost like that of Ahab with the prophet Micah. The same spirit prevails now-a-days. For without entering on an investigation, with what right or reason men are found who often in pretty general expressions in a call to repentance, borrow from the prophet all sorts of judicial threatening and point to this or that city, we cannot avoid seeing why they are always put in arrest, viz.: for this cause, ‘Why dost thou prophesy what we do not like to hear?’ When one is sure of his cause, a noble disdain of such people would be the best means to use against them. But men cannot bear a bad conscience and threatenings of all sorts together, and the fear that it may be true has the foolish effect, that they cause the bearers of such unpleasant tidings to come to a bad end, in order to affright others from coming with similar messages.” Zinzendorf.
2. On Jer_32:7 sqq. “Fundatur in hoc textu locus classicus de contractibus emtionis et venditionis, quos improbant Anabaptistæ, probat Scriptura, sicut ostendunt hæc quæ jam sequuntur documenta: Pro_31:14; Mat_13:3.”Förster.
3. On Jer_32:15. “The prophet had often enough declared the land lost to the Chaldeans. Here, however, he must testify that it is not lost forever: his purchase was to restore confidence in the future to other troubled souls. Thus the most afflicted servant of God must again be the most hopeful.”—“When we are outwardly prosperous, we think no one can take our prosperity from us, and when trouble comes upon us, we again think that no one can help us. Both courses are, however, equally ungodly. Therefore God’s servants must contradict both those who are at ease, and those who are in despair. The reverse is always right. In good days humble thyself, and in bad days let thyself be exalted, for then it is a great thing to do.” Diedrich.
4. On Jer_32:9; Jer_32:16; Jer_32:24-25. “Jeremiah also contends, but as a servant of the Lord. First he obeys and afterwards speaks about it. This is a noble way, by which every teacher, who knows the Lord, may prove himself. As soon as he observes that the Lord wishes this or that, it is not the time to expostulate, but to act, not to call anything in question, but to set to work. If then any hesitation is left, or one and another scruple, it is time afterwards to consult with the Lord about it, when one has first shown obedience.” Zinzendorf. [“Though we are bound to follow God with an implicit obedience, yet we should endeavor that it may be more and more intelligent obedience. We must never dispute God’s statutes and judgments, but we may and must inquire, What mean these statutes and judgments? Deu_6:20.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
5. On Jer_32:25. Tertullian (c. Marc, L. IV., c. 40) sees in the words “Buy thee the field for money,” the prophetic passage to which Mat_27:9 refers, regarding the reading Ἰερεμίου as correct. Comp. Euseb. Demonstr. Ev., L. X., c. 4; Augustin, De consensu Evang., L. III., c. 7.
6. On Jer_32:27. To God there is no wonder [miracle]. There are wonders only on the lower stage of existence. Every higher stage is a wonder to the lower. Or is there only one stage of existence, and accordingly only one order of nature? When the North American savages cruelly murdered one of their number who had been on a visit to the Great Father in Washington, and told them of the wonders of civilization, as a demoniacally possessed liar, were they less in the right than our highly civilized savages, to whom it is a fundamental axiom, that there is no other world, but that which they can reach with their five senses? It is certainly not proved that there is a living, personal, omnipotent God. But this is not to be proved, it is to be felt from the heart. He who is born of God heareth His voice. To him also miracles cease to be aught irrational. He knows well how to distinguish between true and false miracles, but the former come to him like a voice from the higher world, in which he feels truly at home. For the stages of existence and orders of nature are not hermetically sealed towards each other, but the higher break through in order to lift the lower up to themselves.
7. On Jer_32:36 sqq. On the fulfilment of this prophecy comp. the Comm. on Jer_13:14, and the Doctrinal notes on Jer_3:18-25, No. 8. As the threatening that Israel should be dispersed among all nations from one end of the earth to the other (Deu_28:64-66) has been literally fulfilled, why should not this promise also be literally fulfilled, that they shall be collected from all lands whither the Lord has cast them out? Why cannot this people be destroyed? Why do they retain their peculiarities with such tenacity, that neither the most raging fanaticism, nor the most humane cosmopolitanism, which is much more dangerous than the former, can mingle them with other nations; so that we can follow the course of their national stream through the sea of nations, as it is said of the Rhine that its water flows unmingled through the lake of Constance? Assuredly this people must yet have a future. Only thus much is correct; that the real kernel of these prophecies is offered to us in a shell which the prophets prepared from contemporary events, but it is difficult to determine where the shell ceases and the kernel begins. Comp. Rinck, The Scripturalness of the doctrine of the Millennial reign defended against Hengstenberg. Eberfeld, 1866, S. 45 sqq.
8. On Jer_32:36 sqq. “Is the consummation of the redemptive work possible while Israel is rejected as a nation? According to the Old Testament this question must be unconditionally negatived. This knows only a temporary rejection of Israel, which at the same time has this result, that Israel does not perish as a nation, but is preserved for future restoration. Is this law aunulled since Israel despised the gracious visitation of the Messiah, the kingdom of God taken from them and given to a people which bring forth the fruits thereof? Are thus the predictions of the prophets, which treat of a glorification of Israel in the latter days, eternally abrogated on account of the nation’s sin? Or can their fulfilment be found only in a spiritual manner in the Christian church, the main trunk of which was formed by a chosen few from Israel? These questions are answered in the affirmative by Bertheau (Old Testament prophecy of Israel’s national glory in their own land. Jahrb. f. deutsche Theol., 1859 and 1860) in accordance with the older protestant theology (comp. especially Hollaz, Exam, theolog. ed. Teller, p. 1264 sqq.) as decidedly as according to our conviction they must, on the ground of Rom_1:25 sqq., be negatived. It seems to us to be irrefragably established that when the times of the world-nations are full (Luk_21:24), Israel will obey the gospel call, and thus be prepared to welcome the Messiah (Mat_23:39); that for this reason in its dispersion among the nations of the earth it has never been absorbed by them, but preserved in separate existence for its final destination, because God’s gifts of grace and calling are ἀμεταμέλητα.” Oehler in Herzog, R.-Enc., XVII., S. 658, 9.
9. On Jer_33:3. “This is the Lord’s declaration to His obedient servant Jeremiah. My dear child, He says, thou hast acted according to my will, without knowing why. Thou hast done well. But I will make it clear to thee, so that thou wilt wonder no more; I will tell thee that and yet more, so that thou wilt at last say., ‘Yes, let it be so.’ We find such connections a few times elsewhere in the Scriptures. The Lord says, ‘ How can I hide from Abraham the thing that I do!’ (Gen_18:17.) And the same Lord declares to His disciples, whence comes this inclination or predisposition to tell something new to His disciples, ‘ Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you’ (Joh_15:16). So also is it here with Jeremiah.” Zinzendorf.
10. On Jer_33:6. Healing, restoration, joy and permanent prosperity are promised by the prophet to Jerusalem at a time when all seemed lost, and it seemed impossible to regain them. How desolate must it have then appeared in Jerusalem when one house after another was thrown down to furnish means of defence! How wildly raged the tumult of war, and how comfortless was the condition of the city shut in by the enemy and completely cut off from the rest of the country! To the mind of him, who then thought of Jerusalem in the future, pictures of destruction alone presented themselves. Jeremiah, however, whose sight was sharpened by the divine anointing, sees beyond the present abomination of desolation in the far distant future pictures of peace and, moreover, of everlasting peace, such as no eye has ever seen, nor hath it entered into the heart of man. There was the patience and faith of the saints (Rev_13:10). ‘Impossible’ is a word, which does not occur in God’s language.
11. On Jer_33:8. “After the stubborn race has been partly annihilated and partly humbled, God will turn the captivity of the nation, as a whole. Israel cannot perish eternally. God will purify the people from their sins, by forgiveness, the only way in which men can be really freed from sin. Grace and forgiveness are the only ground on which we stand as Christians. This seems nothing to the world, and yet it is more than heaven and earth.” Diedrich.
12. On Jer_33:7-13. “An important doctrine meets us in these words, that it is not the gifts of God which we should seek to apprehend, but the love of God which is manifested in that He imputes not our sin to us. Otherwise we treat the Divine benefits like the fishes which swallow the hook with the bait.” Heim and Hofmann. The major prophets expounded for edification, 1839, S. 509.
13. On Jer_33:14-17. “All God’s promises are at the same time fulfilled by the true man, the Son of Man, the pure sprout of David. He will be a King, in whom we have perfect protection from all destructive agencies, for He will help us from sin, procuring and executing on earth justice and righteousness for all mankind. As we all together inherited sin and death from Adam, so Jesus by His righteousness has brought justification of life for all men, if we would now only take it with joy. Jerusalem will itself bear the King’s name, as he was called in Jer_23:6 : Jehovah our Righteousness, i. e., that Jehovah bestows on us the righteousness, which is the bond, which at the same time unites us to the citizens of His celestial city.” Diedrich.
14. On Jer_33:15-16. [The Lord our righteousness. “This is to be explained by the union of the Church with Christ (see Rom_12:4-5; 1Co_10:17; 1Co_12:12; Eph_1:22; Eph_4:12; Eph_4:15-16; Eph_4:25; Eph_6:23; Col_1:18; Col_1:24) so that what belongs to Him is communicated to her (Calvin, Piscator, Muenster).—Thus, by virtue of her mystical union with Christ, and by the imputation of His merits, and the infusion of His Spirit, the Name of the Church may be said to be ‘ The Lord our righteousness;’ she hides herself in Him, and is seen by God as in Him; she is clothed with Christ the Sun of righteousness (see Rev_12:1) and is accepted in the Beloved (Eph_1:6).” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
15. On Jer_33:17. [“When the First-begotten was brought into the world it was declared concerning Him, The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His Father David, Luk_1:32.” Henry.—S.R. A.]
16. On Jer_33:13-22. [“Four words, each of them full of meaning, comprise the conceptions which we attribute to the Paradisaical state. They are these: Innocence, Love, Rural Life. Piety; and it is towards these conditions of earthly happiness that the human mind reverts, as often as it turns, sickened and disappointed, from the pursuit of whatever else it may have ever labored to acquire. The innocence we here think of is not virtue recovered, that has passed through its season of trial, but it is Moral Perfectness, darkened by no thought or knowledge of the contrary. This Paradisaical love is conjugal fondness, free from sensuous taint. This Rural Life is the constant flow of summer days, spent in gardens and afield, exempt from our exacted toil. This piety of Paradise is the grateful approach of the finite being to the Infinite,—a correspondence that is neither clouded, nor is apprehensive of a cloud.” Isaac Taylor, Spirit of Hebrew Poetry.—S. R. A.]
17. On Jer_33:19-22. [“The richest promises are confirmed by the strongest assurances.” Cowles.—S. R. A.] “As God’s arrangements in nature do not fail, still less can His word fail in His kingdom of grace, and all His word refers to the divine Son of David and His eternal kingdom of grace. Yea, the whole innumerable Israel, Abraham’s spiritual posterity, shall become Davids and Levites, i. e., priests and kings, as was designed even at the beginning of Israel. (Exo_19:6; 1Pe_2:9; Rev_5:6).” Diedrich.
18. On Jer_33:18-22. [Wordsworth rejects Hengstenberg’s explanation that these words are to be applied to all Christians indiscriminately, and approves of the argument derived by the ancient Christian fathers from the passage in favor of the threefold order of ministers in the Christian church. He adds “The Gospel of Christ and the Church of Christ possess the spiritual essence of whatever was commanded in the Levitical dispensations. Whatever was local and personal in those dispensations has passed away. The Tabernacle, the Temple, their Sacrifices, their Sabbaths, their Annual Festivals, their threefold Ministry, all these have been spiritualized in the Gospel. Sinai is perpetuated in Zion. The glory of the Law has been absorbed into that of the Gospel. See Psa_68:17, the great Pentecostal Psalm.”—S. R. A.]
19. On Jer_33:23-26. “In the first place they will not be warned, and afterwards they will not be comforted. The true prophet however announces death to sinners according to the law, but afterwards grace for renovation and for life. Despair is blasphemy. God’s kingdom stands and will be perfected, but the fainthearted will not enter it. God answers: so long as heaven and earth are preserved by Me, it is for the sake of My kingdom, and as a pledge that it will not fail. Israel or, what is the same thing, David’s seed shall be a royal seed, and the captivity which the people must now endure is transient. It is however impossible for the worldly to comprehend this, who persist in carnal repose as though no God could punish them, and again in affliction are so despondent, as though there were no God to help them any more.” Diedrich. [“Deep security commonly ends in deep despair; whereas those that keep up a holy fear at all times have a good hope to support themselves in the worst of times.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_32:16. [“Before Jeremiah went to prayer he delivered the deeds that concerned his new purchase to Baruch, which may intimate to us, that when we are going to worship God we should get our minds as clear as may be from the cares and encumbrances of this world.—Note, Prayer is the salve of every sore.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
2. On Jer_32:17-25. The Divine promises our best consolation in every affliction. 1. There are promises of Divine help for every kind of distress in human life. 2. These promises often sound very wonderful (Jer_32:24-25). 3. Their fulfilment on the part of God is guaranteed by the perfection of the Divine nature (Jer_32:17-19). 4. Their fulfilment is on our part conditioned by faith.
3. On Jer_32:18-19. Harvest [Thanksgiving-day] Sermon. “To what should our admiration of the power and grace of God in the present harvest lead us? 1. To thank God. 2. To trust all to Him, that He has promised us. 3. To obey His voice.” Jentsch., Gesetz and Zeugniss, 1853.
4. On Jer_32:19. “The very serious and important truth, the eyes of the Lord are open to all the paths of the children of men. This should 1, shake us and awake us from our security, if some of our ways are sinful and such as the Lord must certainly disapprove; 2, humble us, if we are indeed under the discipline of God’s Spirit, and yet turn to our own self made courses, and have not yet allowed a fixed and sure heart to be imparted to us; 3, be for our comfort and encouragement, when we are often led in dark and difficult paths.” J. M. Mueller, Zeugnisse v. Christo. [Witnesses to Christ]. Neues Predigtbuch., Stuttgart, 1866, S. 757.
5. On Jer_32:19. [“The greatness of God’s wisdom and the abundance of His power. Proved from His nature. Rem. 1. God hath the power of making the deepest affliction of His children produce their highest happiness. 2. The contrivances of tyrants to oppress the church procure its establishment. 3. The triumphs of Satan turn to the destruction of his empire.” Saurin.—S. R. A.]
6. On Jer_32:39. Wedding-sermon, “The promise which the Lord gives to God-fearing couples. 1. One heart. 2. One way. 3. One blessing, which shall extend to their children.” Florey, 1862.
7. On Jer_32:40. Wedding-sermon. The nature and fruit of a true marriage. 1. Its nature: it is a covenant which a man and a woman conclude in the Lord, and with the Lord (put My fear in their hearts;—not depart from Me;—everlasting covenant). 2. Its fruit: good from the Lord without ceasing.
8. On Jer_32:40. [“Teachers may put good things into our heads, but it is God only that can put them into our hearts, that can work in us both to will and to do.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
9. On Jer_32:39-41. “The greatest and dearest of all the promises of God to a marriage in the highest degree happy and delightful.” G. Conr. Rieger.
10. On Jer_32:40-41. Baptismal Sermon. “The gracious promises of God, which He gives to a child of man in holy baptism.” Florey, 1862.
11. On Jer_32:42. “ In communion of suffering of pious Christians is also a blessed fellowship of consolation, since 1, when we as Christians bear with one another, we can also with each other and by each other obtain composure with respect to whatever has befallen us; 2, our heart is revived by what remains, viz., love on earth and hope in heaven; 3, we become strong for whatever duty is laid upon us, viz., labor and courage.” Florey, 1863.
12. On Jer_33:1. [“No confinement can deprive God’s people of His presence; no locks or bars can shut out His gracious visits, nay, oftentimes as their afflictions abound their consolations much more abound, and they have the most reviving communications of His favor then when the world frowns on them. Paul’s sweetest Epistles were those that bare date out of a prison.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_33:6. “ The disease of our times is no other than a rebellious spirit, and the cause of this is no other than a want of reverence for God and His law.” Discourse on the Birth-day of the king by Deacon Hauber in Tübingen. Palmer, Ev Casualreden, 2te Folge, 1, 1850.
14. On Jer_33:14-16. “Jesus Christ a King. 1. From what a noble royal stock did He proceed! (Raised by God, descending from David, both by His deity and humanity heir of the throne). 2. How well has He exercised His rule with judgment and righteousness (He Himself is the Lord, who is our righteousness). 3. How far does His dominion extend! (From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth). 4. How safely does His people dwell by His help in peace !” Naumann, in Gesetz u. Zeugn., 1860, March.
15. On Jer_33:14-16. “Who is He announced to-day? 1. The long promised—with reference to His historical appearance. 2. The Son of David and at the same time God’s Son—this is His personal significance. 3. The Lord, who is our righteousness—this relates to His holy office and work.” Anacker, in Gesetz u. Zeugn., 1860, March.
Footnotes:
[9]Jer_33:15.—אצמיח. In Jer_23:5 we find וַחֲקִימֹתִי. The former corresponds better with the following צֶמַח while the reading in Jer_23:5 is $$occioned by the preceding הֲקִימֹתִי, Jer_33:4. Instead of צ׳ צַדִיק we have here צ׳ צְרָקָה, but the meaning is the same. The change shows in this case, as in that of most other differences, merely that the prophet quotes freely from memory.
[10]Jer_33:15.—ועשׂה וגו׳. Before these words וּמָלַךְ מֶלֶךְ וְּחִשְׂכִּיל is omitted. No essential alteration of the sense is thus produced, for the royal nature of the צמּח is clear even, besides this passage, from Jer_33:17; Jer_33:21; Jer_33:26.
[11]Jer_33:16.—The divergence of this passage from Jer_23:6, which is very troublesome to many of the old expositors, they seek either to paralyze by taking זה as a nominative referring to צמח= and he who will call it (the Ecclesia. New Testament) is Jehovah, our righteousness (Förster)—or by supplying הוּא after זֶח and taking וִקְרָא as passive and לָהּ as לְ auctoris, and he is the one who the city of Jerusalem will be called: the Lord, who is our righteousness (Cramer).
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.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv14–15perform--"I will make to rise"; God's promise having for…
perform--"I will make to rise"; God's promise having for a time seemed to "lie" dead and abortive [CALVIN].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn v15CHRIST THE BRANCH — THE FULFILMENT OF BOTH THE…
CHRIST THE BRANCH — THE FULFILMENT OF BOTH THE KINGLY AND THE PRIESTLY IDEAS, Jer_33:15-18.
15, 16. These verses are substantially a repetition of Jer_23:5-6, with several changes, most of which, however, are of no real significance. But in one important feature this passage is different. It is here stated that the city shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness. This suggests the real oneness between the personal life-source, the Messiah, and the channel through which this life flows forth to the nations.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv14–1514–18. The Kingly and Priestly Offices shall be re-established.
14–18. The Kingly and Priestly Offices shall be re-established.
14–26. See introd. summary to the section. This portion of the ch. is clearly later than Jeremiah’s time. The expression “Levitical priests” (see on Jer_33:18) is not one which he uses elsewhere. Moreover, there is a considerable amount of repetition in the passage (cp. Jer_33:14-16 with Jer_29:10, Jer_23:5 f., and Jer_33:17 with Jer_35:19, and Jer_33:20-26 with Jer_31:35 f.). Above all, it is lacking in the LXX. It is very improbable that those translators would have designedly omitted such a proclamation of the Messianic hope, of the permanence of David’s line, and of the importance of the priestly office. The generally hopeful character of the passage also would have appealed to them. Gi., though deciding against the genuineness of the passage, considers that the phrase “Levitical priests” is so suitable to Jeremiah’s time, that here it must be considered as an archaism employed by a later writer. Co. summarily rejects the passage, and substitutes Jer_23:7 f., as being most appropriate here, while at least suspicious in 23. in view of its varying position in MT. and LXX.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn v14(14, 15) Behold, the days come, saith the Lord…
(14, 15) Behold, the days come, saith the Lord . . .—The words are manifestly a conscious reproduction of Jer_23:5-6. In “I have promised” we may indeed trace a distinct reference to that passage. Once more “the Branch of righteousness” (Isa_4:2; Isa_11:1)—the coming heir of the throne of David, the true King who is to execute judgment—is put forward, as seen in the vision of the prophet’s hopes.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv14–15That good thing which I have promised; viz. in…
That good thing which I have promised; viz. in the parallel passage, Jer_23:5, 6 (which see).
Vers. 14-26. These verses are omitted in the Septuagint, and some leading critics think that both the style and the contents point to a different author from our prophet. In particular it is urged that the promise of a multitude of Levites and of descendants of David is isolated among the prophecies of Jeremiah, who elsewhere speaks of a single great representative of David as the object of pious hope, and of the intercourse between Jehovah and his people as being closer and more immediate than under the old Law. A variation in the form of expressing the Messianic hope is, however, not of much importance. Isaiah, for instance, sometimes refers to a single ideal king; (Isa_9:6, etc.) sometimes to a succession of noble, God-fearing kings. (Isa_32:1 Isa_33:17)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn v15This is the name wherewith she shall be called,…
Jer_33:15-16
This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.
Read full note →
The justified Church
It is no slip of the pen--She shall be called: it is no mistranslation, or unguarded statement, as might be imagined. It is a deliberate name, based on a great and an everlasting principle; and it is just as true, she shall be called the Lord our Righteousness, as it is true that He, that is, Christ, shall be called the Lord our Righteousness. Why? Because there is a spiritual and yet real identity between Christ and this redeemed and believing throng. He and they are one in time, and will continue one in eternity. Nay, so completely is the Church knit to its Head, that it is said she is the fulness of Christ; as if Christ were not complete in heaven, complete in His mediatorial glory, complete in His happiness, until there be added to Him those He has ransomed by His blood, prepared by His Spirit, and at last brought, as the fruits of His grace, to the triumphs of His throne. You will also recollect, that in Scripture, the relationship that subsists between Christ and His Church, is represented as being the relationship which subsists between the husband and the wife. Her responsibilities He has assumed Himself, that they may be absorbed, and disappear before His Cross. It is thus, that a transfer, an exchange, takes place between Christ and His Church--by concentrating all her responsibility on Him; He being answerable for her sins, answerable for her defects, answerable to a perfect law and to a holy God; and she receiving from Him that glorious and everlasting name, which is the Open Sesame at the gates of heaven, and which shall he heard loudest in the songs and hallelujahs of the ransomed around the throne. Whatever name, I would observe next, is given in Scripture to anything, is a reality. Therefore, when it is said, This is the name by which she, the Church, shall be called, it does not imply that it is the investiture of that Church with a mere empty and evanescent honour, but the stamp, the imprimatur of an everlasting and indelible reality; so that the Church, in herself all rags, is made in Christ the Righteousness of God. In discussing the subject matter of this name, I would lay before you the following facts, in order to show you the absolute necessity of our being called, or being made, the Lord our Righteousness, before we can ever expect to see God in happiness. Let me observe, then, there has been, is now, and ever will be, what is called a law. The law of God is just to God Himself what the sunbeam is to the sun--what the rivulet is to the fountain--what the effect is to the cause--what the blossom or the leaf is to the stem or the root. Gods law is indestructible,--the everlasting stereotype, which can no more be destroyed than the Eternal Himself can be dethroned from the supremacy of the universe. Setting out, then, with the postulate, that there is, and must be, such a thing as Gods moral law,--the language of which is, Do, and live,--Do not, and die,--we proceed, in the second place, to notice, that every member of this justified Church, with every child of Adam, has broken and violated that law. The next inquiry is, How can man be saved, and this law retain its unbending and awful strictness? Shall the whole race perish? for the whole race have broken Gods law. Blessed be God, His love and mercy would not suffer this. If not, shall Gods holy law be abrogated and annulled in whole or in part! His justice, His truth, His holiness cannot suffer that. Here, then, is the question, which no earthly OEdipus can solve; the labyrinth, which no human wisdom can unthread. Ancient philosophers, who saw dim and shadowy the attributes of the Eternal, even they were perplexed with difficulty here; and Socrates himself admitted, that it was extremely difficult to see how God could possibly receive to heaven them that His holiness must see to be sinful. Having thus noticed the impossibility of finding anything that could meet our case, let me ask again, Shall God be unjust, in order that sinners may be saved; or shall God be unmerciful, and this, in order that His law may remain just? God so loved us, that He would not let us perish; and yet God is so just, that He would not let His law be violated; how then can it be, how shall it be, that God shall remain infinitely just, infinitely holy, infinitely true, and yet that His love shall rush forth, and fill mens souls with its fulness, and the wide world with the multiplication of its trophies? The answer is given, This is the name by which He (Christ) shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness; and this is the name by which she (the Church) shall be called, through an interest in Him, the Lord our Righteousness. By that atonement which Christ consummated on the Cross, and in virtue of that righteousness which Christ achieved by His life, it now comes to pass, that God may be just whilst He justifies the ungodly that believe. This righteousness of Christ, which constitutes the only title of the believer, is called in Scripture by various names. It is called the righteousness of Christ, because He perfected and consummated it. It is called the righteousness of God, because He devised it, and it is His mode of justifying the sinner. It is called the righteousness of faith, because faith receives it; and it is also called our righteousness, because it is made ours by the free and sovereign gift of God.
1. Let me now observe of this righteousness that it is a perfect righteousness. When Christ exclaimed on the Cross, in the language partly of agony, and partly of triumph, It is finished, He announced in these accents that that moment there was provided a perfect robe, of perfect and of spotless beauty, for every sinner under heaven, who would put forth the hand of faith, and appropriate it without money and without price.
2. This righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Death shall not tarnish it, the grave shall not corrupt it, the wear and tear of life shall not destroy it.
3. This righteousness is ours, to the exclusion of all other whatever. Christ says to the queen on the throne, and to the meanest beggar by the wayside, Ye must both be saved by putting on the same perfect righteousness, or ye must be lost for ever.
4. This righteousness is ours by imputation. Our sins were transferred to Him, and He endured the consequences of them; His righteousness is transferred to us, and we realise the fruits of it.
5. This righteousness is received by faith, and by faith alone. There are three things to be noticed; first, the spring; secondly, the water; and thirdly, the pipe that conveys the water. The spring, in this instance, is the love of God; the element, that justifies us, is the righteousness of Jesus; and faith is the channel, or the conduit, by which that righteousness is conveyed to us and made ours. It is the mere medium, not the merit; it is the mere hand that receives; and in no sense has it any part or share of the merit or glory.
6. I would observe of this righteousness that it insures, wherever it is, everlasting glory. Whom He justifies, He glorifies. Where He begins, He finishes; what He commences by grace, that He consummates and creams in glory. The Churchs glory, derived from her Lord, is the righteousness of Christ; her beauty is that moral and spiritual beauty, which derived from heaven, defies the assaults of earth and hell, making its heirs the meet companions of Christ at heavens high festival.
7. This Church, thus justified in the righteousness of Christ, is, in the next place, free from all condemnation. All things minister peace and blessedness to her who is at friendship with God, and identified with Jesus. For this is the name by which she shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness.
8. This way of salvation excludes all boasting. Just because man is saved wholly through grace--wholly through the righteousness of another, and his very name is the name of another, therefore, this redeemed, elect, ransomed Church will east her crown before the throne of God and of the Lamb, and say, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, &c.
9. I observe that this mode of justification does not make void the law of God. Nay, says the apostle, we rather establish the law. You have in this fact clear and decisive evidence that it is the elevation of the Cross that makes all the moralities rise and cling and coil around it, and bloom and blossom. The Gospel alone in fact can give true and high-toned morality.
10. This righteousness is that alone in which we may glory. There is nothing but the Gospel that is worth glorying in. There is a moth in the fairest robe--there is a worm in the goodliest cedar--there is disease in the healthiest frame and rust on the purest gold. None of these things can satisfy mens souls with happiness. There is no glorying but in the righteousness of Christ, that is bright, pure, enduring, the prolific source of all that is good. (J. Gumming, D. D.)
Christ, the perfection of righteousness
Matthew Arnold, one of the prominent leaders of modern Agnosticism, thus speaks of Christ in his Literature and Dogma: Christ came to reveal what righteousness really is . . . Nothing will do except righteousness; and no other conception of righteousness will do except Christs conception of it; His method and secret. And in another part of the same book he writes: For our race, as we see it now, and as ourselves we form a part of it, the true God is and must be perfect. (Great Thoughts.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v15In those days
In those days
See "Davidic Covenant" (See Scofield "2Sa 7:16"). "Kingdom (O.T.)" Gen 1:26. See Scofield "Zec 12:8". "Kingdom (N.T.)"; Luk 1:31-33; 1Co 15:28.
Read full note →
Branch
(See Scofield "Isa 4:2").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v14"Listen carefully"
Look
"Listen carefully"
Read full note →
Days are coming ... when I will do
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 do" or "There will be a time ... when I will do" (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)
the house of Israel
The word "house" is a metonym for the family that lives in the house. In this case it refers to the kingdom of Israel. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 3:18. AT: "Israel" or "the kingdom of Israel" (See: Metonymy)
the house of Judah
The word "house" is a metonym for the family that lives in the house. In this case it refers to the kingdom of Judah, which included the descendants of Judah and Benjamin. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 3:18. AT: "Judah" or "the kingdom of Judah" (See: Metonymy)
In those days and in that time
The phrase "in that time" means the same thing as, and intensifies the phrase "In those days." AT: "In those very days" or "At that very time" (See: Doublet)
I will make a righteous branch to grow for David
Yahweh speaks of a descendant of David as if he were a branch off of a tree trunk. AT: "I will cause a righteous man to come from and bring glory to the line of David" (See: Metaphor)
the land
the nation of Israel (See: Metonymy)
Judah ... Jerusalem
These towns' names are metonyms for the people who live in the towns. AT: "the people of Judah ... the people of Jerusalem" (See: Metonymy)
Judah will be saved
This can be translated in active form. AT: "I will save Judah" (See: Active or Passive)
Jerusalem will live in security
"the people of Judah will be safe from their enemies"
this is what she will be called
Yahweh speaks of Jerusalem as if the town were a woman. This can be translated in active form. AT: "this is what they will call her" or "this is what I will call the town" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On v1433:14-18 Picking up on the discussion of flaws in…
33:14-18 Picking up on the discussion of flaws in Zedekiah and the other kings of David’s dynasty (23:1-5), the Lord revealed the glories of the new ruler of the future.
33:14-15 The day will come. . . . In those days: These phrases point beyond the exiles’ return to a more distant event mentioned previously by the Lord’s prophets (Isa 32:1-2). They indicate the New Testament fulfillment of God’s plan in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) and the righteous descendant (literally a righteous branch; Isa 4:2; 11:1; Zech 3:8; 6:12, 13). • He: An individual, not a remnant, would be a fair judge and bring justice with his pronouncements.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv14–15 Jeremiah now shews why God had promised that there…
Jeremiah now shews why God had promised that there would be a quiet habitation for shepherds, so that no one would by force take away their flocks. For God declares, that his promise would not be void, as its effects would shortly be evident, even when his mercy was known by the ten tribes and by the kingdom of Judah. Hence he says, The days shall come; for it behoved the faithful to look farther than to their present condition. As they were then exposed to slaughter, though the unbelieving still entertained vain hopes, yet the children of God saw thousand deaths; so that it could not be but that terror almost drove them to despair; and in their exile they saw that they were far removed from their own country, without any hope of a return. That the Prophet then might still support these, he bids them to extend their thoughts to a future time; and he had prefixed, as we have before seen, seventy years. It is the same then as though he had said, that the favor of which he predicts could not be laid hold on, except the faithful held their minds in suspense, and patiently waited until the time of the promised deliverance came.
Coming then are the days, and I will rouse, or as some render it, “and I will establish;” and both meanings may suit; for קום kum, means to rise, but here in an active or transitive sense it means to make to rise. However, its meaning sometimes is to establish, and sometimes to rouse, so as to make that to appear which was before hidden. And this mode of speaking is fitly adopted as to the promises of God; for they seem for a time to he dormant without any effect, or seem to disappear or vanish away. Hence the stability of the promises then appears, and is seen when God raises them up, they being before hidden and concealed from the faithful. The meaning of the Prophet is, that God would at length render evident the power of his word, by fulfilling it.
Read full note →
But from this manner of speaking, a useful doctrine may be deduced: for we are thus reminded that the promises of God are not always so manifest, that their effect or accomplishment is evident to us, but on the contrary they may appear to be dead and void. When it is so, let us learn to exercise faith and patience, so that our souls may not tremble, though God’s promises may not every moment manifest their power by being actually fulfilled. In short, the true application of prophetic truth is, that we never lay hold on, and really embrace the promises of God, except we look forward to the days that are coming, that is, except we patiently wait for the time prefixed by God: and further, except our faith leans on the promises, when they seem to he dormant, it is not firm, and has no roots or foundations; for as the root which nourishes the tree is not seen, but lies hid in the earth, and as the foundation of a house is not visible to our eyes, so ought our faith to be in like manner founded, and to drive deep roots into God’s promises, so that its firmness may not be in the air, nor have a visible surface, but a hidden foundation. This then is the import and the proper application of this doctrine.
But God calls it his good word, because he had promised to be the deliverer of his people. The word of God, when it denounces all kinds of death, and contains nothing but terrors, is always good, if goodness be taken for what is just and right; and hence God, by Ezekiel, reproves the Jews, because his word was bitter to them, and says,
“Are the ways of the Lord crooked and thorny? Ye are awry,” he says, “and not my word.” (Ezekiel 18:25)
But here the goodness of the word is to be taken for the deliverance of the people; for when God shakes the despisers of his Law with terror, his word is called evil on account of its effect. At the same time, as I have already said, whether God offers to us his favor and mercy, or denounces vengeance on the unbelieving, his word is ever good and right, though it may not be pleasant. This then relates to the apprehensions of men when he says, I will rouse, or establish, my good word
He afterwards adds, which I have spoken;’by which clause he confirms the doctrine of Jeremiah, for he shews that he was its author, and that Jeremiah brought nothing from himself, but faithfully testified of his mercy and of the liberation of the people according to the commission he had received. We are at the same time reminded, that we are not presumptuously to hope for anything, except God has spoken. Let us then learn to embrace his promises, so that none of us may look for this or that, but know that then only he will be propitious to us, when we lean on his word. He afterwards speaks of the kingdom of Israel, and of the kingdom of Judah, to intimate that he would be merciful to the whole people, though the ten tribes had been for a long time separated from the tribe of Judah, and from the half tribe of Benjamin, as it has been stated elsewhere. It follows —
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.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v15 That is, I will send the Messiah, which shall…
That is, I will send the Messiah, which shall come of the house of David, of whom this prophecy is meant, as testify all the Jews, and that which is written, Jer. 23:5.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14–15 Jer 33:14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,…
Jer 33:14 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
Ver. 14. I will perform that good thing.] Praestabo verbum istud optimum, as Tremellius well rendereth it. I will perform that best word or promise, viz., concerning Christ, in whom all the former and future promises are Yea and Amen, to the glory of God. {2Co 1:20}
Read full note →
“ Haec dicenda bono sunt bona verba die. ”
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 On vv14–15 The Lord is not yea and nay, he cannot…
The Lord is not yea and nay, he cannot lie nor repent. I speak not of the present time, but there shall be a time when God will justify every good word of this nature which he hath spoken to his ancient people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–15 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... Or, "are…
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... Or, "are coming" (t); future times are respected; yet such as would quickly come; five or six hundred years more, and then would be fulfilled what is after promised. This is ushered in with a "behold", as being a matter of importance, and deserving attention, and even as calling for admiration. This is the principal of the great and mighty things the Lord promised to show to the prophet, Jer 33:3; even the coming of the Messiah, and what concerns his person and office:
that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah; or, "that good word" (u); that gracious word concerning Christ and salvation by him; that mercy promised to the fathers; that good thing that came out of Nazareth: the good Shepherd that laid down his life for the sheep, preferable to the shepherds before spoken of: or rather, "that best word" (w); the positive used for the superlative, as frequent in the Hebrew language. Many good words or promises are made before, concerning the spiritual welfare and prosperity of the church; but this is the best of all; this is the better thing provided for saints under the Gospel dispensation, and promised to them, who are meant by the houses of Judah and Israel; for these phrases, as the Jews themselves allow, show that the words belong to the times of the Messiah; and which God, that is true and cannot lie, and who is faithful, that has promised, and is able to perform, will do.
Read full note →
(t) "venientes", Montanus, Schmidt. (u) "verbum bonum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius. (w) "Verbum optimum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.
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 On v15 The branch - The kings they had hitherto had…
The branch - The kings they had hitherto had of the line of David, were most of them unrighteous men, but God promises that after the captivity, they should have a branch of David who would execute judgment and righteousness in the land, for the protection and government of those that feared him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v14 Verse 14. Behold the days come] See Jer 52:5;…
Verse 14. Behold the days come] See Jer 52:5; Jer 31:31.
That good thing which I have promised] By my prophets: for those who have predicted the captivity have also foretold its conclusion, though not in such express terms as Jeremiah did. See Ho 1:10, c. Ho 2:15, c. Ho 6:11, c. Am 9:14, c., and Jer 3:12, c. The end of the captivity has been foretold by Micah, Mic 7:9, &c. Zephaniah, Zep 3:10, c. and by Jeremiah, Jer 16:15 Jer 23:3; Jer 29:10; Jer 32:37. The Targum explains verses 14, 15, and 16 of the Messiah.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v14 Jer 33:14-16. Behold, the days come that I will…
Jer 33:14-16. Behold, the days come that I will perform that good thing, &c. — The Lord’s word is not yea and nay: he cannot lie, or repent. There shall come a time when he will verify every good word which he hath spoken to, or concerning, his people. In those days will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up to David — The kings they had hitherto had of the line of David were most of them unrighteous men; but God here promises that after the captivity they should have a branch of David that would execute judgment and righteousness in the land, for the protection and government of those that feared him. If this passage point at all to Zerubbabel, who was a good man, a descendant of David, and, though not a king, a ruler of the Jews, after their return from Babylon, and who governed with equity and not as Jehoiakim had done; yet it can only refer to him as a type of the Messiah, the branch out of the stem of Jesse, Isa 11:1; the branch of the Lord that was to be beautiful and glorious, Isa 4:2; and the righteous branch that was to be raised up unto David, as he is described Jer 23:5, a passage exactly similar to this, and undoubtedly meant of the same person. See the notes on these passages. In those days shall Judah be saved, &c. — If, a temporal salvation be here at all intended, it must be, not that which the Jews enjoyed for a short season under the government of Zerubbabel, a deliverance and protection from, or security against their enemies, which was very imperfect, and frequently interrupted; but that more perfect salvation, peace, and prosperity, which they shall enjoy in the latter days, after their conversion to Christianity, and restoration to their own land, according to the predictions contained in this and the three preceding chapters. But a spiritual and eternal salvation undoubtedly is chiefly intended here, as well as in the parallel passage, Jer 23:6. And this is the name wherewith ye shall be called, The Lord our righteousness — According to this reading it is here foretold, that the name which properly belongs to the Messiah shall be given to Jerusalem, that is, to the church; “to signify,” says Lowth, “that it is in a peculiar manner dedicated to him, he having chosen it for the place of his residence, (see Eze 48:35,) and that all the righteousness of the faithful, both their justification and sanctification, is derived from him. this seems,” adds he, “to be the genuine sense of the words, as may appear to any that will compare the original phrase here, יקרא לה, with Isa 62:4; Isa 62:12, where it is said of Zion, Thou shalt be called Hephzibah, or, my delight is in her, and sought out, a city not forsaken. Nor is there any greater impropriety in giving the name Jehovah to a city, than in calling an altar Jehovah-nissi, that is, Jehovah my banner, (Exo 17:15,) and Jehovah-shalom, Jehovah peace, (Jdg 6:24,) in token that the Lord was the author of those mercies of which the said altars were designed to be monuments. So the servants of God are described as having his name written upon their foreheads, Rev 3:12; Rev 14:1; but several interpreters, particularly Huetius, and our learned Bishop Pearson, (in his Exposition of the Creed, p. 165,) render the words thus: He that shall call her [to be his peculiar people] is the Lord our righteousness.” Thus also Dr. Waterland and others. But Blaney, who renders the last clause of Jer 23:6, This is the name by which Jehovah shall call him, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, translates this, And this is he whom Jehovah shall call OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, judging that the הin לה, rendered her, is not the feminine pronoun affix, but the masculine, after the Chaldee form.
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 On vv14–15 That good thing - Better, the good word Jer…
That good thing - Better, the good word Jer 29:10, with reference to the promise already given Jer 23:5-6.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v15 Bud, or orient, Christ, (Calmet) of whom Zorobabel was…
Bud, or orient, Christ, (Calmet) of whom Zorobabel was a figure. (Theodoret) All cannot be verified of the latter, ver. 16. (Calmet) --- The Jews themselves explain this of the Messias. (Calov.) --- It evidently refer to him, as he was born of David, whose posterity should continue till Christ, the founder of an eternal kingdom. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v14 14 Behold the days are coming, saith Jehovah, that…
5. THE GLORIOUS KINGDOM AND PRIESTHOOD OF THE FUTURE
Jer_33:14-18
Read full note →
14 Behold the days are coming, saith Jehovah, that I will fulfil
The good word that I have spoken of the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
15 In those days and that time will I cause9
The sprout of righteousness to spring to David,
And he shall execute10 justice and righteousness in the land.
16 In those days will Judah be saved and Jerusalem dwell safely,
And this will be her name, Jehovah our Righteousness.11
17 For thus saith Jehovah, a man shall never be wanting to David,
Who may sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.
18 And to the priests, the Levites, a man shall not be wanting before me,
Who may offer burnt-offerings and kindle meat-offerings,
And offer sacrifices continually.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Passing from the general to the particular, the circumference to the centre, the prophet further declares with respect to the happy future, that in it the promise previously announced will be fulfilled (Jer_33:4), a sprout of righteousness shall spring from the stock of David, who will restore justice and righteousness in the land (Jer_33:15), and by whom Judah and Jerusalem will be raised to such a height of prosperity that the latter will actually bear the name “Jehovah our Righteousness” (Jer_33:16). The race of David shall never die out (Jer_33:17), nor the priestly tribe of Levi and the priestly service ever cease.
Jer_33:14-16. Behold, the days … our Righteousness. What is “the good word” in Jer_33:14? The expression occurs besides in Jeremiah only in Jer_29:10. There it refers, as is evident from the mention of the seventy years, to Jer_25:11. If the expression is to be taken there in a special sense, so also here. For here we have a still plainer reference to a former promise (Jer_23:5-6). The reference to the general salvation, i.e., to the most universal manifestation of salvation is thus not excluded. Though this view is favored by the circumstance that the prophet, as already remarked, proceeds in this chapter from the general to the special, yet the special salvation, to which Jer_33:15 sqq. refer, is the central point comprising all that has been said hitherto, being a condition of all salvation in the widest sense. Hengsenberg incorrectly accentuates the two prepositions אֵל and עַל. According to the usage of our prophet they are so like each other in signification, that one frequently stands for the other (comp. Jer_25:1 coll.; Jer_7:1; Jer_11:1 etc.; Jer_26:15), or by the side of the other with absolutely identical meaning (Jer_11:2; Jer_18:11; Jer_23:35; Jer_25:2; Jer_27:19; Jer_44:20).
Jer_33:15. In those days, etc. In these words the chronological statement in Jer_33:14 is resumed after the interruption, so that in sense this beginning coincides with that in Jer_23:5. The addition and that time here as in Jer 1:4, 20 possesses a merely rhetorical significance. It serves to render the declaration more solemn. The alteration from in his days (Jer_23:6) is unimportant. It is however important to note the change of Israel into Jerusalem, this being founded in the connection of the chapter. While the general object of the prophet, as is seen in Jer_33:14, is to show that the comforting prophecy given in former times, still holds good, notwithstanding the comfortless circumstances in which Jerusalem then was, being sorely pressed by the Chaldeans, yet he cannot avoid somewhat modifying the prophecy in accordance with the present occasion. This occasion according to Jer_33:4 is the sight of the houses thrown down in defence. In view of this mournful spectacle he had in Jer_33:6-7 to promise healing of wounds, rebuilding of the city. He has also here the city of Jerusalem especially in view, though he does not by any means forget Israel, but on the contrary diligently sets forth its share in the promise given to Judah (Jer_33:14). Hence the alteration to Jerusalem.—With this it is also connected that the last clause states the name which Jerusalem will bear as a significant symbolical inscription. Comp. rems. on Jer_23:6.
Jer_33:17-18. For thus saith Jehovah … continually. The principal statement refers neither to Jer_33:15 nor to Jer_33:16 exclusively, but to both. Improbable as it must then have appeared at the time of Zedekiah that the house of David, which was reduced so low both inwardly and outwardly, should send forth so excellent and glorious a scion, equally so must the happy condition promised to the people in Jer_33:16 have appeared. Both however are shown to be possible by the announcement in Jer_33:17 of the everlasting continuance of the house of David and of its dominion over Israel. Observe, moreover, that it is not said on the throne of David nor on his throne (Jer_33:21; Jer_13:13; Jer_22:4), but on the throne of the house of Israel. The house of Israel is evidently here the whole of Israel, and the eternal duration of David’s rule over it involves both the inner and outer rejuvenescence of the Davidic race, and the welfare of the people, which essentially depends thereon, since it may be subjected not to foreign rulers, but to their own native royal family.—A man shall never, etc. Comp. Jer_35:19. The sense of the expression is not, none shall ever be extirpated, but every one shall never be extirpated, so that none will be left. Herein is thus primarily contained only the promise of succession of rulers extending in perpetuum. Hengstenberg, however, calls attention to the circumstance (Christol., S. 516) [Eng. Tr., II., p. 461] that we are not to suppose a “perfectly uninterrupted succession,” but only one that is not broken off entirely. The prophet moreover reproduces almost verbatim the ancient promise given to the house of David, as it is repeated on the basis of 1Sa_7:16, by David in his parting words to Solomon (1Ki_2:4), and afterwards by the latter himself at his dedication of the temple (1Ki_8:25), and finally by the Lord Himself in His renewed promise to Solomon (1Ki_9:5).—And to the priests, etc. A second pillar on which rests the redemption and secure continuance of Israel (Jer_33:16) is the normal permanence of the national priesthood. This is the Levitic.—The Levites is therefore in apposition (comp. Deu_17:9; Deu_17:18; Jos_3:3; Eze_44:15 coll. Deu_21:5). The descendants of Levi, who according to the Mosaic law were alone eligible to the priesthood (Num_3:10; Num_16:40; Num_18:7), will be opposed to others who might possibly assume the priesthood to themselves. The question may here arise how this promise of the eternal continuance of the Levitic priesthood is related to other declarations, especially of the Epistle to the Hebrews, according to which this Levitical priesthood as only an inferior stage is to give way to a higher priesthood, viz., that after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7-9. coll. Jer_3:16; Psa_110:4). I believe that this question must be decided according to the standard of Mat_5:17-18. As not a tittle of the law is absolutely abrogated, and thrown aside as worthless, but is kept by being fulfilled and thus being elevated to a higher potency, so also the Levitical priesthood being absorbed by a higher, is lost in its outward, temporal and local form, but in its ideal character is now first established. Hence the expressions of this passage (as well as the related ones in Ezekiel 40-42) neither contradict former declarations of Jeremiah (as Jer_3:16; Jer_31:31-33), nor the doctrine of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Comp. rems. on Jer_33:22 and my review of “Balmer—Rinck, The Prophet Ezekiel’s vision of the Temple” in Reuter’s Repertorium, 1860, Heft. III., S. 152.—Who may offer, etc. Comp. Exo_29:18; Lev_1:9; Lev_1:17; Lev_9:10; Num_18:17, etc.—The three species of offerings are mentioned also in Jer_17:26; Num_15:3-4.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer_32:3. “An effect of anger and a procedure almost like that of Ahab with the prophet Micah. The same spirit prevails now-a-days. For without entering on an investigation, with what right or reason men are found who often in pretty general expressions in a call to repentance, borrow from the prophet all sorts of judicial threatening and point to this or that city, we cannot avoid seeing why they are always put in arrest, viz.: for this cause, ‘Why dost thou prophesy what we do not like to hear?’ When one is sure of his cause, a noble disdain of such people would be the best means to use against them. But men cannot bear a bad conscience and threatenings of all sorts together, and the fear that it may be true has the foolish effect, that they cause the bearers of such unpleasant tidings to come to a bad end, in order to affright others from coming with similar messages.” Zinzendorf.
2. On Jer_32:7 sqq. “Fundatur in hoc textu locus classicus de contractibus emtionis et venditionis, quos improbant Anabaptistæ, probat Scriptura, sicut ostendunt hæc quæ jam sequuntur documenta: Pro_31:14; Mat_13:3.”Förster.
3. On Jer_32:15. “The prophet had often enough declared the land lost to the Chaldeans. Here, however, he must testify that it is not lost forever: his purchase was to restore confidence in the future to other troubled souls. Thus the most afflicted servant of God must again be the most hopeful.”—“When we are outwardly prosperous, we think no one can take our prosperity from us, and when trouble comes upon us, we again think that no one can help us. Both courses are, however, equally ungodly. Therefore God’s servants must contradict both those who are at ease, and those who are in despair. The reverse is always right. In good days humble thyself, and in bad days let thyself be exalted, for then it is a great thing to do.” Diedrich.
4. On Jer_32:9; Jer_32:16; Jer_32:24-25. “Jeremiah also contends, but as a servant of the Lord. First he obeys and afterwards speaks about it. This is a noble way, by which every teacher, who knows the Lord, may prove himself. As soon as he observes that the Lord wishes this or that, it is not the time to expostulate, but to act, not to call anything in question, but to set to work. If then any hesitation is left, or one and another scruple, it is time afterwards to consult with the Lord about it, when one has first shown obedience.” Zinzendorf. [“Though we are bound to follow God with an implicit obedience, yet we should endeavor that it may be more and more intelligent obedience. We must never dispute God’s statutes and judgments, but we may and must inquire, What mean these statutes and judgments? Deu_6:20.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
5. On Jer_32:25. Tertullian (c. Marc, L. IV., c. 40) sees in the words “Buy thee the field for money,” the prophetic passage to which Mat_27:9 refers, regarding the reading Ἰερεμίου as correct. Comp. Euseb. Demonstr. Ev., L. X., c. 4; Augustin, De consensu Evang., L. III., c. 7.
6. On Jer_32:27. To God there is no wonder [miracle]. There are wonders only on the lower stage of existence. Every higher stage is a wonder to the lower. Or is there only one stage of existence, and accordingly only one order of nature? When the North American savages cruelly murdered one of their number who had been on a visit to the Great Father in Washington, and told them of the wonders of civilization, as a demoniacally possessed liar, were they less in the right than our highly civilized savages, to whom it is a fundamental axiom, that there is no other world, but that which they can reach with their five senses? It is certainly not proved that there is a living, personal, omnipotent God. But this is not to be proved, it is to be felt from the heart. He who is born of God heareth His voice. To him also miracles cease to be aught irrational. He knows well how to distinguish between true and false miracles, but the former come to him like a voice from the higher world, in which he feels truly at home. For the stages of existence and orders of nature are not hermetically sealed towards each other, but the higher break through in order to lift the lower up to themselves.
7. On Jer_32:36 sqq. On the fulfilment of this prophecy comp. the Comm. on Jer_13:14, and the Doctrinal notes on Jer_3:18-25, No. 8. As the threatening that Israel should be dispersed among all nations from one end of the earth to the other (Deu_28:64-66) has been literally fulfilled, why should not this promise also be literally fulfilled, that they shall be collected from all lands whither the Lord has cast them out? Why cannot this people be destroyed? Why do they retain their peculiarities with such tenacity, that neither the most raging fanaticism, nor the most humane cosmopolitanism, which is much more dangerous than the former, can mingle them with other nations; so that we can follow the course of their national stream through the sea of nations, as it is said of the Rhine that its water flows unmingled through the lake of Constance? Assuredly this people must yet have a future. Only thus much is correct; that the real kernel of these prophecies is offered to us in a shell which the prophets prepared from contemporary events, but it is difficult to determine where the shell ceases and the kernel begins. Comp. Rinck, The Scripturalness of the doctrine of the Millennial reign defended against Hengstenberg. Eberfeld, 1866, S. 45 sqq.
8. On Jer_32:36 sqq. “Is the consummation of the redemptive work possible while Israel is rejected as a nation? According to the Old Testament this question must be unconditionally negatived. This knows only a temporary rejection of Israel, which at the same time has this result, that Israel does not perish as a nation, but is preserved for future restoration. Is this law aunulled since Israel despised the gracious visitation of the Messiah, the kingdom of God taken from them and given to a people which bring forth the fruits thereof? Are thus the predictions of the prophets, which treat of a glorification of Israel in the latter days, eternally abrogated on account of the nation’s sin? Or can their fulfilment be found only in a spiritual manner in the Christian church, the main trunk of which was formed by a chosen few from Israel? These questions are answered in the affirmative by Bertheau (Old Testament prophecy of Israel’s national glory in their own land. Jahrb. f. deutsche Theol., 1859 and 1860) in accordance with the older protestant theology (comp. especially Hollaz, Exam, theolog. ed. Teller, p. 1264 sqq.) as decidedly as according to our conviction they must, on the ground of Rom_1:25 sqq., be negatived. It seems to us to be irrefragably established that when the times of the world-nations are full (Luk_21:24), Israel will obey the gospel call, and thus be prepared to welcome the Messiah (Mat_23:39); that for this reason in its dispersion among the nations of the earth it has never been absorbed by them, but preserved in separate existence for its final destination, because God’s gifts of grace and calling are ἀμεταμέλητα.” Oehler in Herzog, R.-Enc., XVII., S. 658, 9.
9. On Jer_33:3. “This is the Lord’s declaration to His obedient servant Jeremiah. My dear child, He says, thou hast acted according to my will, without knowing why. Thou hast done well. But I will make it clear to thee, so that thou wilt wonder no more; I will tell thee that and yet more, so that thou wilt at last say., ‘Yes, let it be so.’ We find such connections a few times elsewhere in the Scriptures. The Lord says, ‘ How can I hide from Abraham the thing that I do!’ (Gen_18:17.) And the same Lord declares to His disciples, whence comes this inclination or predisposition to tell something new to His disciples, ‘ Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you’ (Joh_15:16). So also is it here with Jeremiah.” Zinzendorf.
10. On Jer_33:6. Healing, restoration, joy and permanent prosperity are promised by the prophet to Jerusalem at a time when all seemed lost, and it seemed impossible to regain them. How desolate must it have then appeared in Jerusalem when one house after another was thrown down to furnish means of defence! How wildly raged the tumult of war, and how comfortless was the condition of the city shut in by the enemy and completely cut off from the rest of the country! To the mind of him, who then thought of Jerusalem in the future, pictures of destruction alone presented themselves. Jeremiah, however, whose sight was sharpened by the divine anointing, sees beyond the present abomination of desolation in the far distant future pictures of peace and, moreover, of everlasting peace, such as no eye has ever seen, nor hath it entered into the heart of man. There was the patience and faith of the saints (Rev_13:10). ‘Impossible’ is a word, which does not occur in God’s language.
11. On Jer_33:8. “After the stubborn race has been partly annihilated and partly humbled, God will turn the captivity of the nation, as a whole. Israel cannot perish eternally. God will purify the people from their sins, by forgiveness, the only way in which men can be really freed from sin. Grace and forgiveness are the only ground on which we stand as Christians. This seems nothing to the world, and yet it is more than heaven and earth.” Diedrich.
12. On Jer_33:7-13. “An important doctrine meets us in these words, that it is not the gifts of God which we should seek to apprehend, but the love of God which is manifested in that He imputes not our sin to us. Otherwise we treat the Divine benefits like the fishes which swallow the hook with the bait.” Heim and Hofmann. The major prophets expounded for edification, 1839, S. 509.
13. On Jer_33:14-17. “All God’s promises are at the same time fulfilled by the true man, the Son of Man, the pure sprout of David. He will be a King, in whom we have perfect protection from all destructive agencies, for He will help us from sin, procuring and executing on earth justice and righteousness for all mankind. As we all together inherited sin and death from Adam, so Jesus by His righteousness has brought justification of life for all men, if we would now only take it with joy. Jerusalem will itself bear the King’s name, as he was called in Jer_23:6 : Jehovah our Righteousness, i. e., that Jehovah bestows on us the righteousness, which is the bond, which at the same time unites us to the citizens of His celestial city.” Diedrich.
14. On Jer_33:15-16. [The Lord our righteousness. “This is to be explained by the union of the Church with Christ (see Rom_12:4-5; 1Co_10:17; 1Co_12:12; Eph_1:22; Eph_4:12; Eph_4:15-16; Eph_4:25; Eph_6:23; Col_1:18; Col_1:24) so that what belongs to Him is communicated to her (Calvin, Piscator, Muenster).—Thus, by virtue of her mystical union with Christ, and by the imputation of His merits, and the infusion of His Spirit, the Name of the Church may be said to be ‘ The Lord our righteousness;’ she hides herself in Him, and is seen by God as in Him; she is clothed with Christ the Sun of righteousness (see Rev_12:1) and is accepted in the Beloved (Eph_1:6).” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
15. On Jer_33:17. [“When the First-begotten was brought into the world it was declared concerning Him, The Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His Father David, Luk_1:32.” Henry.—S.R. A.]
16. On Jer_33:13-22. [“Four words, each of them full of meaning, comprise the conceptions which we attribute to the Paradisaical state. They are these: Innocence, Love, Rural Life. Piety; and it is towards these conditions of earthly happiness that the human mind reverts, as often as it turns, sickened and disappointed, from the pursuit of whatever else it may have ever labored to acquire. The innocence we here think of is not virtue recovered, that has passed through its season of trial, but it is Moral Perfectness, darkened by no thought or knowledge of the contrary. This Paradisaical love is conjugal fondness, free from sensuous taint. This Rural Life is the constant flow of summer days, spent in gardens and afield, exempt from our exacted toil. This piety of Paradise is the grateful approach of the finite being to the Infinite,—a correspondence that is neither clouded, nor is apprehensive of a cloud.” Isaac Taylor, Spirit of Hebrew Poetry.—S. R. A.]
17. On Jer_33:19-22. [“The richest promises are confirmed by the strongest assurances.” Cowles.—S. R. A.] “As God’s arrangements in nature do not fail, still less can His word fail in His kingdom of grace, and all His word refers to the divine Son of David and His eternal kingdom of grace. Yea, the whole innumerable Israel, Abraham’s spiritual posterity, shall become Davids and Levites, i. e., priests and kings, as was designed even at the beginning of Israel. (Exo_19:6; 1Pe_2:9; Rev_5:6).” Diedrich.
18. On Jer_33:18-22. [Wordsworth rejects Hengstenberg’s explanation that these words are to be applied to all Christians indiscriminately, and approves of the argument derived by the ancient Christian fathers from the passage in favor of the threefold order of ministers in the Christian church. He adds “The Gospel of Christ and the Church of Christ possess the spiritual essence of whatever was commanded in the Levitical dispensations. Whatever was local and personal in those dispensations has passed away. The Tabernacle, the Temple, their Sacrifices, their Sabbaths, their Annual Festivals, their threefold Ministry, all these have been spiritualized in the Gospel. Sinai is perpetuated in Zion. The glory of the Law has been absorbed into that of the Gospel. See Psa_68:17, the great Pentecostal Psalm.”—S. R. A.]
19. On Jer_33:23-26. “In the first place they will not be warned, and afterwards they will not be comforted. The true prophet however announces death to sinners according to the law, but afterwards grace for renovation and for life. Despair is blasphemy. God’s kingdom stands and will be perfected, but the fainthearted will not enter it. God answers: so long as heaven and earth are preserved by Me, it is for the sake of My kingdom, and as a pledge that it will not fail. Israel or, what is the same thing, David’s seed shall be a royal seed, and the captivity which the people must now endure is transient. It is however impossible for the worldly to comprehend this, who persist in carnal repose as though no God could punish them, and again in affliction are so despondent, as though there were no God to help them any more.” Diedrich. [“Deep security commonly ends in deep despair; whereas those that keep up a holy fear at all times have a good hope to support themselves in the worst of times.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_32:16. [“Before Jeremiah went to prayer he delivered the deeds that concerned his new purchase to Baruch, which may intimate to us, that when we are going to worship God we should get our minds as clear as may be from the cares and encumbrances of this world.—Note, Prayer is the salve of every sore.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
2. On Jer_32:17-25. The Divine promises our best consolation in every affliction. 1. There are promises of Divine help for every kind of distress in human life. 2. These promises often sound very wonderful (Jer_32:24-25). 3. Their fulfilment on the part of God is guaranteed by the perfection of the Divine nature (Jer_32:17-19). 4. Their fulfilment is on our part conditioned by faith.
3. On Jer_32:18-19. Harvest [Thanksgiving-day] Sermon. “To what should our admiration of the power and grace of God in the present harvest lead us? 1. To thank God. 2. To trust all to Him, that He has promised us. 3. To obey His voice.” Jentsch., Gesetz and Zeugniss, 1853.
4. On Jer_32:19. “The very serious and important truth, the eyes of the Lord are open to all the paths of the children of men. This should 1, shake us and awake us from our security, if some of our ways are sinful and such as the Lord must certainly disapprove; 2, humble us, if we are indeed under the discipline of God’s Spirit, and yet turn to our own self made courses, and have not yet allowed a fixed and sure heart to be imparted to us; 3, be for our comfort and encouragement, when we are often led in dark and difficult paths.” J. M. Mueller, Zeugnisse v. Christo. [Witnesses to Christ]. Neues Predigtbuch., Stuttgart, 1866, S. 757.
5. On Jer_32:19. [“The greatness of God’s wisdom and the abundance of His power. Proved from His nature. Rem. 1. God hath the power of making the deepest affliction of His children produce their highest happiness. 2. The contrivances of tyrants to oppress the church procure its establishment. 3. The triumphs of Satan turn to the destruction of his empire.” Saurin.—S. R. A.]
6. On Jer_32:39. Wedding-sermon, “The promise which the Lord gives to God-fearing couples. 1. One heart. 2. One way. 3. One blessing, which shall extend to their children.” Florey, 1862.
7. On Jer_32:40. Wedding-sermon. The nature and fruit of a true marriage. 1. Its nature: it is a covenant which a man and a woman conclude in the Lord, and with the Lord (put My fear in their hearts;—not depart from Me;—everlasting covenant). 2. Its fruit: good from the Lord without ceasing.
8. On Jer_32:40. [“Teachers may put good things into our heads, but it is God only that can put them into our hearts, that can work in us both to will and to do.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
9. On Jer_32:39-41. “The greatest and dearest of all the promises of God to a marriage in the highest degree happy and delightful.” G. Conr. Rieger.
10. On Jer_32:40-41. Baptismal Sermon. “The gracious promises of God, which He gives to a child of man in holy baptism.” Florey, 1862.
11. On Jer_32:42. “ In communion of suffering of pious Christians is also a blessed fellowship of consolation, since 1, when we as Christians bear with one another, we can also with each other and by each other obtain composure with respect to whatever has befallen us; 2, our heart is revived by what remains, viz., love on earth and hope in heaven; 3, we become strong for whatever duty is laid upon us, viz., labor and courage.” Florey, 1863.
12. On Jer_33:1. [“No confinement can deprive God’s people of His presence; no locks or bars can shut out His gracious visits, nay, oftentimes as their afflictions abound their consolations much more abound, and they have the most reviving communications of His favor then when the world frowns on them. Paul’s sweetest Epistles were those that bare date out of a prison.” Henry.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_33:6. “ The disease of our times is no other than a rebellious spirit, and the cause of this is no other than a want of reverence for God and His law.” Discourse on the Birth-day of the king by Deacon Hauber in Tübingen. Palmer, Ev Casualreden, 2te Folge, 1, 1850.
14. On Jer_33:14-16. “Jesus Christ a King. 1. From what a noble royal stock did He proceed! (Raised by God, descending from David, both by His deity and humanity heir of the throne). 2. How well has He exercised His rule with judgment and righteousness (He Himself is the Lord, who is our righteousness). 3. How far does His dominion extend! (From Jerusalem to the ends of the earth). 4. How safely does His people dwell by His help in peace !” Naumann, in Gesetz u. Zeugn., 1860, March.
15. On Jer_33:14-16. “Who is He announced to-day? 1. The long promised—with reference to His historical appearance. 2. The Son of David and at the same time God’s Son—this is His personal significance. 3. The Lord, who is our righteousness—this relates to His holy office and work.” Anacker, in Gesetz u. Zeugn., 1860, March.
Footnotes:
[9]Jer_33:15.—אצמיח. In Jer_23:5 we find וַחֲקִימֹתִי. The former corresponds better with the following צֶמַח while the reading in Jer_23:5 is $$occioned by the preceding הֲקִימֹתִי, Jer_33:4. Instead of צ׳ צַדִיק we have here צ׳ צְרָקָה, but the meaning is the same. The change shows in this case, as in that of most other differences, merely that the prophet quotes freely from memory.
[10]Jer_33:15.—ועשׂה וגו׳. Before these words וּמָלַךְ מֶלֶךְ וְּחִשְׂכִּיל is omitted. No essential alteration of the sense is thus produced, for the royal nature of the צמּח is clear even, besides this passage, from Jer_33:17; Jer_33:21; Jer_33:26.
[11]Jer_33:16.—The divergence of this passage from Jer_23:6, which is very troublesome to many of the old expositors, they seek either to paralyze by taking זה as a nominative referring to צמח= and he who will call it (the Ecclesia. New Testament) is Jehovah, our righteousness (Förster)—or by supplying הוּא after זֶח and taking וִקְרָא as passive and לָהּ as לְ auctoris, and he is the one who the city of Jerusalem will be called: the Lord, who is our righteousness (Cramer).
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.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv14–15 perform--"I will make to rise"; God's promise having for…
perform--"I will make to rise"; God's promise having for a time seemed to "lie" dead and abortive [CALVIN].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v15 CHRIST THE BRANCH — THE FULFILMENT OF BOTH THE…
CHRIST THE BRANCH — THE FULFILMENT OF BOTH THE KINGLY AND THE PRIESTLY IDEAS, Jer_33:15-18.
15, 16. These verses are substantially a repetition of Jer_23:5-6, with several changes, most of which, however, are of no real significance. But in one important feature this passage is different. It is here stated that the city shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness. This suggests the real oneness between the personal life-source, the Messiah, and the channel through which this life flows forth to the nations.
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 On vv14–15 14–18. The Kingly and Priestly Offices shall be re-established.
14–18. The Kingly and Priestly Offices shall be re-established.
14–26. See introd. summary to the section. This portion of the ch. is clearly later than Jeremiah’s time. The expression “Levitical priests” (see on Jer_33:18) is not one which he uses elsewhere. Moreover, there is a considerable amount of repetition in the passage (cp. Jer_33:14-16 with Jer_29:10, Jer_23:5 f., and Jer_33:17 with Jer_35:19, and Jer_33:20-26 with Jer_31:35 f.). Above all, it is lacking in the LXX. It is very improbable that those translators would have designedly omitted such a proclamation of the Messianic hope, of the permanence of David’s line, and of the importance of the priestly office. The generally hopeful character of the passage also would have appealed to them. Gi., though deciding against the genuineness of the passage, considers that the phrase “Levitical priests” is so suitable to Jeremiah’s time, that here it must be considered as an archaism employed by a later writer. Co. summarily rejects the passage, and substitutes Jer_23:7 f., as being most appropriate here, while at least suspicious in 23. in view of its varying position in MT. and LXX.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v14 (14, 15) Behold, the days come, saith the Lord…
(14, 15) Behold, the days come, saith the Lord . . .—The words are manifestly a conscious reproduction of Jer_23:5-6. In “I have promised” we may indeed trace a distinct reference to that passage. Once more “the Branch of righteousness” (Isa_4:2; Isa_11:1)—the coming heir of the throne of David, the true King who is to execute judgment—is put forward, as seen in the vision of the prophet’s hopes.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv14–15 That good thing which I have promised; viz. in…
That good thing which I have promised; viz. in the parallel passage, Jer_23:5, 6 (which see).
Vers. 14-26. These verses are omitted in the Septuagint, and some leading critics think that both the style and the contents point to a different author from our prophet. In particular it is urged that the promise of a multitude of Levites and of descendants of David is isolated among the prophecies of Jeremiah, who elsewhere speaks of a single great representative of David as the object of pious hope, and of the intercourse between Jehovah and his people as being closer and more immediate than under the old Law. A variation in the form of expressing the Messianic hope is, however, not of much importance. Isaiah, for instance, sometimes refers to a single ideal king; (Isa_9:6, etc.) sometimes to a succession of noble, God-fearing kings. (Isa_32:1 Isa_33:17)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v15 This is the name wherewith she shall be called,…
Jer_33:15-16
This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.
Read full note →
The justified Church
It is no slip of the pen--She shall be called: it is no mistranslation, or unguarded statement, as might be imagined. It is a deliberate name, based on a great and an everlasting principle; and it is just as true, she shall be called the Lord our Righteousness, as it is true that He, that is, Christ, shall be called the Lord our Righteousness. Why? Because there is a spiritual and yet real identity between Christ and this redeemed and believing throng. He and they are one in time, and will continue one in eternity. Nay, so completely is the Church knit to its Head, that it is said she is the fulness of Christ; as if Christ were not complete in heaven, complete in His mediatorial glory, complete in His happiness, until there be added to Him those He has ransomed by His blood, prepared by His Spirit, and at last brought, as the fruits of His grace, to the triumphs of His throne. You will also recollect, that in Scripture, the relationship that subsists between Christ and His Church, is represented as being the relationship which subsists between the husband and the wife. Her responsibilities He has assumed Himself, that they may be absorbed, and disappear before His Cross. It is thus, that a transfer, an exchange, takes place between Christ and His Church--by concentrating all her responsibility on Him; He being answerable for her sins, answerable for her defects, answerable to a perfect law and to a holy God; and she receiving from Him that glorious and everlasting name, which is the Open Sesame at the gates of heaven, and which shall he heard loudest in the songs and hallelujahs of the ransomed around the throne. Whatever name, I would observe next, is given in Scripture to anything, is a reality. Therefore, when it is said, This is the name by which she, the Church, shall be called, it does not imply that it is the investiture of that Church with a mere empty and evanescent honour, but the stamp, the imprimatur of an everlasting and indelible reality; so that the Church, in herself all rags, is made in Christ the Righteousness of God. In discussing the subject matter of this name, I would lay before you the following facts, in order to show you the absolute necessity of our being called, or being made, the Lord our Righteousness, before we can ever expect to see God in happiness. Let me observe, then, there has been, is now, and ever will be, what is called a law. The law of God is just to God Himself what the sunbeam is to the sun--what the rivulet is to the fountain--what the effect is to the cause--what the blossom or the leaf is to the stem or the root. Gods law is indestructible,--the everlasting stereotype, which can no more be destroyed than the Eternal Himself can be dethroned from the supremacy of the universe. Setting out, then, with the postulate, that there is, and must be, such a thing as Gods moral law,--the language of which is, Do, and live,--Do not, and die,--we proceed, in the second place, to notice, that every member of this justified Church, with every child of Adam, has broken and violated that law. The next inquiry is, How can man be saved, and this law retain its unbending and awful strictness? Shall the whole race perish? for the whole race have broken Gods law. Blessed be God, His love and mercy would not suffer this. If not, shall Gods holy law be abrogated and annulled in whole or in part! His justice, His truth, His holiness cannot suffer that. Here, then, is the question, which no earthly OEdipus can solve; the labyrinth, which no human wisdom can unthread. Ancient philosophers, who saw dim and shadowy the attributes of the Eternal, even they were perplexed with difficulty here; and Socrates himself admitted, that it was extremely difficult to see how God could possibly receive to heaven them that His holiness must see to be sinful. Having thus noticed the impossibility of finding anything that could meet our case, let me ask again, Shall God be unjust, in order that sinners may be saved; or shall God be unmerciful, and this, in order that His law may remain just? God so loved us, that He would not let us perish; and yet God is so just, that He would not let His law be violated; how then can it be, how shall it be, that God shall remain infinitely just, infinitely holy, infinitely true, and yet that His love shall rush forth, and fill mens souls with its fulness, and the wide world with the multiplication of its trophies? The answer is given, This is the name by which He (Christ) shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness; and this is the name by which she (the Church) shall be called, through an interest in Him, the Lord our Righteousness. By that atonement which Christ consummated on the Cross, and in virtue of that righteousness which Christ achieved by His life, it now comes to pass, that God may be just whilst He justifies the ungodly that believe. This righteousness of Christ, which constitutes the only title of the believer, is called in Scripture by various names. It is called the righteousness of Christ, because He perfected and consummated it. It is called the righteousness of God, because He devised it, and it is His mode of justifying the sinner. It is called the righteousness of faith, because faith receives it; and it is also called our righteousness, because it is made ours by the free and sovereign gift of God.
1. Let me now observe of this righteousness that it is a perfect righteousness. When Christ exclaimed on the Cross, in the language partly of agony, and partly of triumph, It is finished, He announced in these accents that that moment there was provided a perfect robe, of perfect and of spotless beauty, for every sinner under heaven, who would put forth the hand of faith, and appropriate it without money and without price.
2. This righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Death shall not tarnish it, the grave shall not corrupt it, the wear and tear of life shall not destroy it.
3. This righteousness is ours, to the exclusion of all other whatever. Christ says to the queen on the throne, and to the meanest beggar by the wayside, Ye must both be saved by putting on the same perfect righteousness, or ye must be lost for ever.
4. This righteousness is ours by imputation. Our sins were transferred to Him, and He endured the consequences of them; His righteousness is transferred to us, and we realise the fruits of it.
5. This righteousness is received by faith, and by faith alone. There are three things to be noticed; first, the spring; secondly, the water; and thirdly, the pipe that conveys the water. The spring, in this instance, is the love of God; the element, that justifies us, is the righteousness of Jesus; and faith is the channel, or the conduit, by which that righteousness is conveyed to us and made ours. It is the mere medium, not the merit; it is the mere hand that receives; and in no sense has it any part or share of the merit or glory.
6. I would observe of this righteousness that it insures, wherever it is, everlasting glory. Whom He justifies, He glorifies. Where He begins, He finishes; what He commences by grace, that He consummates and creams in glory. The Churchs glory, derived from her Lord, is the righteousness of Christ; her beauty is that moral and spiritual beauty, which derived from heaven, defies the assaults of earth and hell, making its heirs the meet companions of Christ at heavens high festival.
7. This Church, thus justified in the righteousness of Christ, is, in the next place, free from all condemnation. All things minister peace and blessedness to her who is at friendship with God, and identified with Jesus. For this is the name by which she shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness.
8. This way of salvation excludes all boasting. Just because man is saved wholly through grace--wholly through the righteousness of another, and his very name is the name of another, therefore, this redeemed, elect, ransomed Church will east her crown before the throne of God and of the Lamb, and say, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, &c.
9. I observe that this mode of justification does not make void the law of God. Nay, says the apostle, we rather establish the law. You have in this fact clear and decisive evidence that it is the elevation of the Cross that makes all the moralities rise and cling and coil around it, and bloom and blossom. The Gospel alone in fact can give true and high-toned morality.
10. This righteousness is that alone in which we may glory. There is nothing but the Gospel that is worth glorying in. There is a moth in the fairest robe--there is a worm in the goodliest cedar--there is disease in the healthiest frame and rust on the purest gold. None of these things can satisfy mens souls with happiness. There is no glorying but in the righteousness of Christ, that is bright, pure, enduring, the prolific source of all that is good. (J. Gumming, D. D.)
Christ, the perfection of righteousness
Matthew Arnold, one of the prominent leaders of modern Agnosticism, thus speaks of Christ in his Literature and Dogma: Christ came to reveal what righteousness really is . . . Nothing will do except righteousness; and no other conception of righteousness will do except Christs conception of it; His method and secret. And in another part of the same book he writes: For our race, as we see it now, and as ourselves we form a part of it, the true God is and must be perfect. (Great Thoughts.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v15 In those days
In those days
See "Davidic Covenant" (See Scofield "2Sa 7:16"). "Kingdom (O.T.)" Gen 1:26. See Scofield "Zec 12:8". "Kingdom (N.T.)"; Luk 1:31-33; 1Co 15:28.
Read full note →
Branch
(See Scofield "Isa 4:2").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v14 "Listen carefully"
Look
"Listen carefully"
Read full note →
Days are coming ... when I will do
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 do" or "There will be a time ... when I will do" (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)
the house of Israel
The word "house" is a metonym for the family that lives in the house. In this case it refers to the kingdom of Israel. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 3:18. AT: "Israel" or "the kingdom of Israel" (See: Metonymy)
the house of Judah
The word "house" is a metonym for the family that lives in the house. In this case it refers to the kingdom of Judah, which included the descendants of Judah and Benjamin. See how you translated this in Jeremiah 3:18. AT: "Judah" or "the kingdom of Judah" (See: Metonymy)
In those days and in that time
The phrase "in that time" means the same thing as, and intensifies the phrase "In those days." AT: "In those very days" or "At that very time" (See: Doublet)
I will make a righteous branch to grow for David
Yahweh speaks of a descendant of David as if he were a branch off of a tree trunk. AT: "I will cause a righteous man to come from and bring glory to the line of David" (See: Metaphor)
the land
the nation of Israel (See: Metonymy)
Judah ... Jerusalem
These towns' names are metonyms for the people who live in the towns. AT: "the people of Judah ... the people of Jerusalem" (See: Metonymy)
Judah will be saved
This can be translated in active form. AT: "I will save Judah" (See: Active or Passive)
Jerusalem will live in security
"the people of Judah will be safe from their enemies"
this is what she will be called
Yahweh speaks of Jerusalem as if the town were a woman. This can be translated in active form. AT: "this is what they will call her" or "this is what I will call the town" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
translationWords
Yahweh
declare
promise
house
kingdom of Israel
kingdom of Judah
righteous
David
just
save
Jerusalem
life
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 On v14 33:14-18 Picking up on the discussion of flaws in…
33:14-18 Picking up on the discussion of flaws in Zedekiah and the other kings of David’s dynasty (23:1-5), the Lord revealed the glories of the new ruler of the future.
33:14-15 The day will come. . . . In those days: These phrases point beyond the exiles’ return to a more distant event mentioned previously by the Lord’s prophets (Isa 32:1-2). They indicate the New Testament fulfillment of God’s plan in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd (John 10:11) and the righteous descendant (literally a righteous branch; Isa 4:2; 11:1; Zech 3:8; 6:12, 13). • He: An individual, not a remnant, would be a fair judge and bring justice with his pronouncements.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.