Jeremiah 30:12-17

B. The Plight of Apostate Israel Jeremiah 30:12-17

TRANSLATION

(12) For thus says the LORD: Your wound is incurable, your hurt is fatal. (13) There is no one to plead your case that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines. (14) All of your lovers have forgotten you, and they do not inquire about you; for I have smitten you with the blow of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, because your iniquity is so great and your sins so numerous. (15) Why are you crying out concerning your wound? Your pain is incurable! Because your iniquity is great and your sins are numerous, I have done these things unto you. (16) Therefore all of those who devour You shall be devoured! And all of your foes shall all go captive! Those who spoil you shall become spoil, and all who plunder you I will make plunder. (17) For I will restore health to you and with regard to your wounds I will heal you (oracle of the LORD), for they have called you an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.

COMMENTS

After soaring ahead in the time to the grand day of Israel's deliverance the prophet now returns to the present plight of the nation. He first indicates in some detail the present sad situation of Israel, then points out reasons for that condition, and finally moves forward positively to predict deliverance for the nation.

In a few bold strokes of the pen Jeremiah paints a picture of the present wretched condition of Israel. The nation has an incurable wound (Jeremiah 30:12) for which there are no healing medicines (Jeremiah 30:13 b). No one pleads for the nation at the judgment bar of God where their own iniquities condemn them (Jeremiah 30:13 a).[248] The nation has been forgotten by her lovers i.e., her allies who had encouraged her to revolt against Babylon (Jeremiah 30:14 a). The Lord Himself has treated Israel like an enemy. He has smitten them so severely that it would appear He was their implacable foe (Jeremiah 30:14 b).

[248] Jeremiah has woven together two different figures of speech in Jeremiah 30:12-13. This is a characteristic of his writing. See Streane, op. cit., p. xxix.

Attacked! Devoured! Carried away! How did Israel come to be in such desperate straits? Twice the prophet indicates the reason for the present plight. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins are great. The chastisement of Israel was well deserved because of the enormous guilt piled up by their innumerable sins (Jeremiah 30:14-15).

The thought in the paragraph takes a sharp turn at Jeremiah 30:16. The word therefore at the beginning of the verse is most significant. Because of the extremity of your need, therefore I will intervene on your behalf. Because you are unable to aid yourself, therefore I will act on your behalf. Because I have afflicted you so severely for your sins, therefore I will now mete out to your tormentors their rightly-deserved punishment. The end of the present plight will come when God brings punishment upon all the adversaries of Israel (Jeremiah 30:16). Humanly speaking the case of Israel was hopeless. But God, the great and gracious Physician, then turns his attention to the wounds of Israel. Zion's health is restored despite all the ridicule of her enemies. The sneering enemies had called Zion an outcast for whom no one was concerned. Yet the day will surely come when God in an act of pure grace will restore the nation (Jeremiah 30:17).