Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Jeremiah 23:3,4
YHWH Will In The Future Restore The Remnant Of His Flock From Exile And They Will Be Fruitful And Multiply, And He Will Set Up True Shepherds Over Them (Jeremiah 23:3).
It is made clear here that exiles will return from all parts, and will establish a well populated country. There is no good reason for doubting that this did happen, for by the time of Jesus both Galilee and Judaea were well populated. Our knowledge is limited to those of whom records were kept, but our knowledge of the inter-testamental years is very sparse.
“And I will gather the remnant of my flock,
Out of all the countries where I have driven them,
And will bring them again to their pastures,
And they will be fruitful and multiply.”
For when the time comes YHWH will gather the remnant of His flock out of all the countries where he has driven them (note, however, that it is only the remnant. Not all will come, and many will be no more), and He will bring them again to the land of their inheritance and there they will be fruitful and multiply. Note here that while in Jeremiah 23:2 it was the faithless under-shepherds who had driven them away, here YHWH claims Himself to have driven them away. We have here the human and divine sides of history. Man brings evil on a city, but ‘can evil come on a city and YHWH has not done it?' (Amos 3:6). Human history and God's divine plan and purpose march on side by side. All the evil is on man's side, but the working out of the situation is God's.
(Thus in Isaiah 10:5; Isaiah 10:7; Isaiah 10:12; Isaiah 10:15 YHWH makes clear that He had made use of the Assyrians but was not responsible for the fact that they had gone too far).
Because of the limited records that we have we can think in terms of the restoration as only being from Babylon, but that was only the beginning. The outworking of history indicates that once they were free to do so many also came from other parts where they had been exiled. And the fact that they were fruitful and multiplied is brought out when we consider the constituents of the land in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ. By His day the land was well populated and at peace, and they had come from many places.
“And I will set up shepherds over them,
Who will feed them,
And they will fear no more, nor be dismayed,
Nor will any be lacking,
The word of YHWH.”
And YHWH would set up reliable shepherds over them who would feed them, and they would no more be fearful and dismayed, nor would they be lacking in care and attention. We have only a glimpse of such shepherds in Zerubabbel, Ezra, Nehemiah, the Maccabees, and so on. These were recognised as ‘good' shepherds who cared for the sheep and turned them from idols. And this too was guaranteed by the prophetic ‘word of YHWH'.