XXX. (2) WRITE THEE ALL THE WORDS... — The opening words emphasise the fact that what follows was not spoken at first, like Jeremiah 27, 28, in the presence of the people, but was from the first committed to writing. There is no definite point at which we may be certain that the section ends, and th... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BRING AGAIN THE CAPTIVITY OF MY PEOPLE ISRAEL AND JUDAH... — The oracle of Jeremiah 29:10 becomes, as it were, the text of a new utterance, and that with a wider range more distinctly including the ten tribes of Israel as well as the two of Judah and Benjamin. There is no narrow provincialism... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD; WE HAVE HEARD A VOICE OF TREMBLING... — There is a strange mingling of the divine and human elements in these words. The prophet speaks with the sense that the words are not his own, and yet what he utters is, at first, the expression of his own horror and astonishment at the vi... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAY... — Better, _And it shall come._ Here there comes in the ground of the hope uttered in the words “he shall be saved out of it,” which keeps the prophet from sinking under the burden of his sorrow. The second and third person are strangely mingled. Jehovah speak... [ Continue Reading ]
DAVID THEIR KING... — The name of the old hero-king appears as that of the new representative of the house who is to restore the kingdom. There is to be a second David for Israel, a true king answering to the ideal which he imperfectly represented. Zerubbabel, in whom some interpreters have seen the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE FEAR THOU NOT. — The higher strain of language into which the prophecy has here risen is indicated by the parallelism of the two clauses in each member of the sentence. The whole verse is poetic in its form. The words have in them something of the ring of Isaiah 41:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH I MAKE A FULL END OF ALL NATIONS. — On the phrase, see Notes on Jeremiah 4:27; Jeremiah 5:10; Jeremiah 5:18. It is eminently characteristic of the prophets of Jeremiah’s time (Ezekiel 11:13; Ezekiel 20:17; Nahum 1:8). Here the thought, implied elsewhere, and reproduced in Jeremiah 46:28, is e... [ Continue Reading ]
THY BRUISE IS INCURABLE... — The mind of the prophet dwells on the seeming hopelessness, in words which sound like an echo from his Lamentations (Jeremiah 2:13), in order to enhance the blessedness of the reverent utterance of hope which appears in Jeremiah 30:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS NONE TO PLEAD THY CAUSE... — The words bring before us two images of extremest misery — the criminal who, standing before the dread judgment-seat, has no advocate, the plague-stricken sufferer who has no physician. The word is that used of Josiah in Jeremiah 22:16. There, and commonly elsew... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THY LOVERS HAVE FORGOTTEN THEE... — The lovers of a nation are, of course, as in Jeremiah 22:20, its allies and tributaries. Moab, Ammon, Edom, Tyre, had at one time courted the favour of Judah (Jeremiah 27:3). They looked on her now as “smitten of God and afflicted.” He had smitten her as an en... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY CRIEST THOU...? — The personification of the previous verse is continued. The prophet looks on Judah — as in Lamentations 1:1 — as on some forlorn and desperate castaway smitten with pestilence, crying in the agony of her hopelessness; and he reminds her that she is but bearing the righteous pun... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL RESTORE HEALTH UNTO THEE... — Literally, _I will place a healing plaster on thee._ The image of the plague-stricken sufferer is resumed from Jeremiah 30:13. Men had scorned her. The contemptuous term of outcast had been flung at her. She was like Tyre, as a “harlot that had been forgotten” (I... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BRING AGAIN THE CAPTIVITY OF JACOB’S TENTS... — The promise of restoration takes naturally a material form. The prophet sees the tents of those who still kept up the old nomadic life, pitched once more in the land of Israel (comp. 1 Kings 12:16; Jeremiah 35:10), while for those who dwell in t... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR NOBLES. — Literally, _His glorious one,_ as pointing to some single ruler. The word is the same as the “excellent” of Psalms 8:1. WHO IS THIS THAT ENGAGED HIS HEART TO APPROACH UNTO ME? — The question points to the ruler of the house of David whom the prophet sees in visions — in other words,... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THE WHIRLWIND OF THE LORD... — The “wicked” who are thus threatened are the enemies and oppressors of the penitent and rescued people. In the “latter days,” the far-off future (Genesis 49:1; Numbers 24:14; Isaiah 2:2), it should be seen that He was their avenger. (See Notes on Jeremiah 23:19... [ Continue Reading ]