Jeremiah 30:12-15

The Reason Why Israel/Judah Needed To Be Delivered Was Because Of Their Sufferings, Which Were Grievous Because They Were The Consequence Of Their Sins (Jeremiah 30:12).

Having made His glorious promises YHWH now turns back to why all this was necessary. As we have seen above this passage contains a deliberate pattern of contrasts, with the fact of the miserable present being contrasted with the glorious future. Their present condition is what prevents God from restoring His people and must first be dealt with before there can be restoration. Their situation has arisen because they were spiritually badly wounded with none to tend them. It was because there was no balm in Gilead, and no physician there (Jeremiah 8:22). It was because all to whom they looked had deserted them. It was because YHWH Himself was dealing with the problem of their sins.

Jeremiah 30:12

‘For thus says YHWH,

“Your hurt is incurable,

And your wound grievous.

There is none to plead your cause, that you may be bound up,

You have no healing medicines.”

The condition of ‘Jacob' (Jeremiah 30:10) is seen as being like that of a badly wounded man. Their hurt is incurable by any earthly means. Their wound is bleeding and grievous. And because they have deserted Him there is no one to speak up for them in order that their wounds might be bound up. That is why they have no healing medicines. It is because they have been abandoned by those on whom they had depended. There is a clear similarity between this picture, and the badly diseased Israel of Isaiah 1:5.

Jeremiah 30:14

“All your lovers have forgotten you,

They do not seek you,

For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy,

With the chastisement of a cruel one,

For the greatness of your iniquity,

Because your sins were increased.

They are like a wounded man who has been deserted on the battlefield, with their erstwhile ‘lovers' having forgotten and abandoned them. No one looks for him or is concerned about him. And so it is with them. The reference to ‘lovers' may be to their idols, or more likely it may have in mind their erstwhile idolatrous allies among the nations. But the point is that they will not receive any help from anywhere or from anyone. And the reason is because it is YHWH Who has wounded them, acting through their enemy. It is YHWH who has chastised them, acting by means of all the fierceness of a cruel invader (both Assyrian and Babylonian soldiers could be called ‘cruel ones' because of their total lack of humanity). And the reason they are in this condition is because of the greatness of their iniquity, their inbred evil, and because their sins have continually increased.

Jeremiah 30:15

“Why do you cry out for your hurt?

Your pain is incurable,

For the greatness of your iniquity,

Because your sins were increased,

I have done these things to you.”

Whenever we get a repetition in Scripture it is because of the necessity of the lesson coming home, and here it is the lesson of Judah and Israel's extreme sinfulness which is to be repeated almost word for word from Jeremiah 30:14. In Jeremiah 30:14 their wounded state at the hand of YHWH had been described, and we learned that it was because of the greatness of their iniquity, and because their sins were increased, and now they are asked why it is that they are crying out because of the hurt of their wound, and it is again stressed that they are as they are because they are suffering at the hand of YHWH because of the greatness of their iniquity and because their sins had increased. Thus it is saying, ‘Let it be repeated. That was why He had done these things to them.' And because it is YHWH Who is responsible for their wound, their wound is incurable except by Him.