The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah
Jeremiah 30
Chapter XXX · Vol. III, pp. 1268–1269
1 God sheweth Jeremiah the return of the Jews. 4 After their trouble they shall have deliverance. 10 He comforteth Jacob. 18 Their return shall be gracious. 23 Wrath shall fall on the wicked.
2 Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, bWrite thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.1
b 2 Pe.1.21. ch.36.2. Hab.2.2. Is.30.8. Ro.15.4. Re.1.19; 10.4.
1 This is one of the strongest evidences of the plenary inspiration of Scripture. 'Write all the words that I have spoken to thee:' they were the words of God, not of man; they were not to be left to the uncertainty of human memory, they were to be written. They were designed also to serve a certain specific purpose. Almost every little section in this book begins with some phrase which embodies the same truth, that the words recorded are the words of God.—P.
3 For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, thatc I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD; dand I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
c ver.18; ch.32.37. Eze.39.25,26. See ch.23.3; 29.14; 27.22. Eze.38.8. Ho.1.10,11; 2.1-23. Joel 2.21-32; 3.1,16-21. Am.9.11-15. Ob.17-21. Mi.2.12,13; iv. v.; 7.8-20. Zec.3.8-20; i.-xiv. Ro.xi.
4 And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.
5 For thus saith the LORD, We have heard ae voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.2
e See ch.4.5-8,15,16,19-29. Is.59.9-11.
2 Or, there is fear and not peace.
6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man3 doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, 4as a woman in travail,5 and all faces are turned into paleness?
3 Heb. male.
4 ch.4.31; 6.24; 46.5. Na.2.10, i.e. in great misery and anguish.
5 As if he had said, 'I see the appearance of a man, but hear the voice as of a woman in travail.'—C.
7 Alas!g for that day is great,6 so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble;7 but hhe shall be saved out of it.
g Joel 2.11,31. Am.5.18. Zep.1.14-18. Mal.4.1. Re.6.17. Da.9.12,14. La.i.-v. Eze.vii. De.12.1.
6 A day great in trouble and distress.—C.
7 Jacob's trouble. The time of trouble to all the tribes.—C.
h ver.3,8,10. Ps.46.1-5.
8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, ithat I will break his yoke from off thy neck,8 and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:9
10 Therefore kfear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, lI will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and nshall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.
11 For oI am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, pyet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
o ch.15.20. Is.41.10; 43.2. Eze.11.16,17.
p Is.26.14,19; 27.7,8. Am.9.8. Ps.6.1,2. ch.10.24; 46.28.
12 For thus saith the LORD, qThy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.2
* 'So desperate were the circumstances of the Jews in Babylon, while enduring the punishment God had inflicted upon them for their crimes, that no human interposition which they could rationally expect, could avail for their deliverance. They are accordingly represented under the metaphor of a body full of wounds, left entirely destitute of medical aid' (Henderson).—P.
q 2 Ch.36.16. ver.15; ch.15.18. Eze.37.11. Ps.142.4. Is.1.5,6. ch.14.17; 31.15; ver.15.
2 See note * in first column.
13 Therer is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up:3 thous hast no healing medicines.
r 1 Ti.2.5,6. 1 Jn.2.1. Eze.22.30. Is.59.16. ch.6.28; 22.6.
3 Heb. for binding up or pressing.
s ver.17; ch.8.22. Is.1.5,6.
14 Allt thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not: for uI have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.
15 Why vcriest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable xfor the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.
16 Therefore4 all they that devour thee yshall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.
17 For zI will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the 5LORD; abecause they called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
z ch.33.6. Ps.23.3; 103.3; 107.20. Ex.15.26. ch.3.22. Is.30.18,26.
5 When all those in whom the Jews had trusted for help were overthrown, when human help seemed gone for ever, then the Lord raised up a helper in a quarter strange and unexpected. Cyrus was commissioned to release the Jews, and to aid them in their return to their own country.—P.
a Ps.12.5; lxxiv.; 79.4-12; 44.9-26. La.2.15-17.
18 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, bI will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling-places; cand the city shall be builded upon her own 6heap,7 and the palace8 shall remain after the manner thereof.
b See on ch.23.3; 29.14; ver.3.
c ch.31.38,39. Zec.2.4. Ps.102.13.
6 Or, little hill, Ps.68.15,16.
7 On the place where her stones and rubbish formed a shapeless heap, her palaces shall be erected.—C.
8 Temple, Ps.102.13,16. Is.44.28. ch.31.6,12.
19 Andd out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make merry: and eI will multiply them, and they shall not be few; gI will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
20 Theirh children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and iI will punish all that oppress them.9
21 And their nobles1 shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them;2 and jI will cause him to draw 3near, and he shall approach4 unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD.
1 Heb. his glorious ones, Jn.1.14. He.1.3. Ge.49.10. Is.9.6.
2 Their nobles and kings shall no more be foreigners, but their brethren the seed of Jacob.—C.
3 To draw near to God implies, according to the Hebrew idiom, to offer sacrifice—the only mode in which a sinner could acceptably approach his judge; consequently this promised 'governor' must be a priest 'after the order of Melchisedec.'—C.
4 Who is this that has said, 'Lo! I come to do thy will, O God?' Not any 'mere man'—for 'all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God:' but Messiah foretold by David, Ps.40.8, in whose heart will be the law of the LORD; the 'governor' foretold by Micah, to arise out of Bethlehem to 'rule his people Israel,' Mi.5.2. Mat.2.6.—C.
j Nu.16.5. He.7.22; 9.15. Ps.40.6-8; 110.4. Mat.3.15. Lu.24.26. He.1.3; 4.14; 7.25; 9.24. 1 Jn.2.1,2. Ro.8.33.
Notes
Ver. 3. Israel and Judah. The promise is distinctly made both to Israel, or the ten tribes that separated from Rehoboam, and Judah, or the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, including most of the tribe of Levi. Now, though Judah was restored under Zerubbabel and his friends, Israel, or the ten tribes, never were. Indeed, their present residence is either totally unknown, or matter of continued question. Some believe them to be the modern Affghans; others, the American Indians; others, the Nestorian Christians in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea, &c. But, wherever they may be, they are yet to 'return and possess the land' that God gave to their fathers. C.
Ver. 11. Full end. Not necessarily an extermination of persons, but a 'full end' of their power and glory. This event has been exemplified in the Assyrian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires. And, strange as it may appear, the descendants of Jacob possess at this moment a name and visible being, and exercise a power in the financial, and by consequence in the political, affairs of the world, possessed by no representative of those mighty and extinct monarchies. So literally verified is this prophecy, that, while the mightiest empires have been dissolved and come to 'a full end,' a people comparatively few and feeble retain their name, their laws, their identity, nay, their power; and shadow out, even in their dispersion, the glory that awaits them when ' Jacob shall return and be in rest.' C.
Ver. 12. Incurable. The word has been translated 'desperate;' and it has also been explained as signifying 'incurable' by human means. And this exposition is countenanced by ver. 17, in which health and healing are promised by God himself. Still there is a sense in which the bruise (of sin) may justly be called 'incurable;' for, in truth, the 'old man' is not healed, but 'mortified;' the 'body of sin' is not renovated, but 'destroyed.' 'Old things pass away, and all things become new,' Ro. 6. 6; 8. 13: 2 Co. 5. 17. C.
Ver. 16. Shall be devoured. The Babylonians were 'devoured' by the Medes and Persians, they again by the Grecians; and they by the Romans. And it abides an historical and incontrovertible fact, that each of these empires has fallen, or been 'devoured,' just in proportion to their cruelty or kindness to the Jewish church. The cruel Babylonian empire has been utterly exterminated. The Persians restored Israel, and Persia still survives. C.
Ver. 19. Merry. Not the 'mirth of fools,' which is as the 'crackling of thorns,' but the voice of thanksgiving for mercies, and of spiritual joy in the victories of grace.—Note, Religion is much injured by any undue gloominess of religious men. No doubt there are times when it is impossible to look upon sinners without sorrow. Yet, as 'there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,' the children of God may always find cause to 'make (truly) merry,' Ps. 100. 1, 2; Lu. 15. 7, 10. C.
Ver. 24. The latter days. Marked not by any chronology but by historical description of facts. Thus they are noted, Da. 2. 28, as the days during, and subsequent to, the subversion of the fourth monarchy; and in Ac. 2. 17 the 'last days, which seem to be identical with the 'latter days,' are dated from the miraculous outpouring of the Spirit of God in tongues and other miraculous gifts at Pentecost. C.
Reflections.—God's promises ought to be carefully preserved, propagated, considered, and improved. Sin often makes for men a hell upon earth. Very sore trials and miseries often precede the most remarkable deliverances. And diligence in God's service is the proper fruit of his salvations. But there is no true serving of him but in receiving and serving his Son Jesus Christ, our mystical David. No profession, however plausible, can secure impunity in sin. Nay, though our heaviest afflictions are far lighter than our sins deserved, yet the sins of professors, and even of saints, are often most sharply corrected. But it is only incurable lusts that make incurable troubles. Let God's church be ever so fearfully deserted and despised, he will in due time deliver her. Let therefore her true children give no way to disquieting fears or hopeless sorrows. Never is her deliverance nearer than when all refuges but God have entirely failed her, and all her allies and friends appear disposed to hurt her. If Jesus rise up to the prey, he will work great things for her deliverance. And to his person, incarnation, covenant engagements, and fulfilment of them, ought we to look through all temporal or spiritual blessings. And while he destroys his and our enemies, his kindness and relations to, or work for us, ought to engage our hearts in his worship and service.