Jeremiah 30:2

remains to be fulfilled in the reign of David, i.e., the Messiah; the type, according to the general structure of the prophetical writings, being put for the antitype. The prophecy opens by an easy transition from the temporal deliverance spoken of before, and describes the mighty revolutions that shall precede the restoration of the descendants of Israel, Jer 30:1-9 , who are encouraged to trust in the promises of God, Jer 30:10 , Jer 30:11 . They are, however, to expect corrections; which shall have a happy issue in future period, Jer 30:12-17 . The great blessings of Messiah's reign are enumerated, Jer 30:18-22 ; and the wicked and impenitent declared to have no share in them, Jer 30:23 , Jer 30:24 . Verse 1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord - This prophecy was delivered about a year after the taking of Jerusalem; so Dahler. Dr. Blayney supposes it and the following chapter to refer to the future restoration of both Jews and Israelites in the times of the Gospel; though also touching at the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, at the end of seventy years. Supposing these two chapters to be penned after the taking of Jerusalem, which appears the most natural, they will refer to the same events, one captivity shadowing forth another, and one restoration being the type or pledge of the second. Verse 2 Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book - The book here recommended I believe to be the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters; for among the Hebrews any portion of writing, in which the subject was finished, however small, was termed ספר sepher, a Book, a treatise or discourse. Verse 3 The days come - First, After the conclusion of the seventy years. Secondly, Under the Messiah. That I will bring again the captivity of Israel - The ten tribes, led captive by the king of Assyria, and dispersed among the nations. And Judah - The people carried into Babylon at two different times; first, under Jeconiah, and, secondly, under Zedekiah, by Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 5 We have heard a voice of trembling - This may refer to the state and feelings of the people during the war which Cyrus carried on against the Babylonians. Trembling and terror would no doubt affect them, and put an end to peace and all prosperity; as they could not tell what would be the issue of the struggle, and whether their state would be better or worse should their present masters fall in the conflict. This is well described in the next verse, where men are represented as being, through pain and anguish, like women in travail. See the same comparison Isa 13:6-8 . Verse 7 Alas! for that day is great - When the Medes and Persians with all their forces shall come on the Chaldeans, it will be the day of Jacob's trouble - trial, dismay, and uncertainty; but he shall be delivered out of it - the Chaldean empire shall fall, but the Jews shall be delivered by Cyrus. Jerusalem shall be destroyed by the Romans, but the Israel of God shall be delivered from its ruin. Not one that had embraced Christianity perished in the sackage of that city. Verse 8 I will break his yoke - That is, the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. Of him - Of Jacob, ( Jer 30:7 ), viz., the then captive Jews. Verse 9 But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their King - This must refer to the times of the Messiah and hence the Chaldee has, "They shall obey the Lord their God, וישת מאון למשיחה בר דוד veyishta meun limschicha bar David, and they shall obey the Messiah, the Son of David." This is a very remarkable version; and shows that it was a version, not according to the letter, but according to their doctrine and their expectation. David was long since dead; and none of his descendants ever reigned over them after the Babylonish captivity, nor have they since been a regal nation. Zerubbabel, under the Persians, and the Asmoneans, can be no exception to this. They have been no nation since; they are no nation now; and it is only in the latter days that they can expect to be a nation, and that must be a Christian nation. Christ is promised under the name of his progenitor, David, Isa 55:3 , Isa 55:4 ; Eze 34:23 , Eze 34:24 ; Eze 37:24 , Eze 37:25 ; Hos 3:5 . Verse 11 Though I make a full end of all nations - Though the Persians destroy the nations whom they vanquish, yet they shall not destroy thee. Verse 12 Thy bruise is incurable - אנוש anush, desperate, not incurable; for the cure is promised in Jer 30:17 , I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds. Verse 13 There is none to plead thy cause - All thy friends and allies have forsaken thee. Verse 15 Thy sorrow is incurable - אנוש anush, desperate. See Jer 30:12 . Verse 16 They that devour thee - The Chaldeans. Shall be devoured - By the Medes and Persians. All that prey upon thee will I give for a prey - The Assyrians were destroyed by the Babylonians; the Babylonians, by the Medes and Persians; the Egyptians and Persians were destroyed by the Greeks, under Alexander. All these nations are now extinct, but the Jews, as a distinct people, still exist. Verse 18 The city shall be builded upon her own heap - Be re-edified from its own ruins. See the book of Nehemiah, passim. And the palace shall remain - Meaning, the king's house shall be restored; or, more probably, the temple shall be rebuilt; which was true, for after the Babylonish captivity it was rebuilt by Nehemiah, etc. By the tents, distinguished from the dwelling-places of Jacob, we may understand all the minor dispersions of the Jews, as well as those numerous synagogues found in large cities. Verse 19 I will multiply them - They shall be very numerous; even where at present they have but tents. I will also glorify them - I will put honor upon them every where, so that they shall be no longer contemptible. This will be a very great change, for they are now despised all over the earth. Verse 20 Their children also - They shall have the education of their own children as formerly. And their congregation - Their religious assemblies. Shall be established - Being, in the latter days, incorporated with those "who serve the Lord their God, and worship the Messiah, the son of David." Verse 21 Their nobles shall be of themselves - Strangers shall not rule over them; and - Their governor shall proceed from the midst of them - Both Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, their nobles and governors after the return from Babylon, were Jews. Verse 22 Ye shall be my people - The old covenant shall be renewed. Verse 23 The whirlwind of the Lord - A grievous tempest of desolation, - Shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked - On Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans. Verse 24 In the latter days ye shall consider it - By the latter days the Gospel dispensation is generally meant; and that restoration which is the principal topic in this and the succeeding chapter refers to this time. Had the Jews properly considered this subject, they would long ere this have been brought into the liberty of the Gospel, and saved from the maledictions under which they now groan. Why do not the Jews read their own prophets more conscientiously? Introduction This chapter continues the subject of the preceding in a beautiful vision represented at a distant period. God is introduced expressing his continual regard for Israel, and promising to restore them to their land and liberty, Jer 31:1-5 . Immediately heralds appear, proclaiming on Mount Ephraim the arrival of the great year of jubilee, and summoning the people to gather unto Zion, Jer 31:6 . Upon which God resumes the speech; and makes such gracious promises both of leading them tender

of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. 3 For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord , that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord : and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. 4 And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. 5 For thus saith the Lord ; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. 8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him: 9 But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. Here, I. Jeremiah is directed to write what God had spoken to him, which perhaps refers to all the foregoing prophecies. He must write them and publish them, in hopes that those who had not profited by what he said upon once hearing it might take more notice of it when in reading it they had leisure for a more considerate review. Or, rather, it refers to the promises of their enlargement, which had been often mixed with his other discourses. He must collect them and put them together, and God will now add unto them many like words. He must write them for the generations to come, who should see them accomplished, and thereby have their faith in the prophecy confirmed. He must write them not in a letter, as that in the chapter before to the captives, but in a book, to be carefully preserved in the archives, or among the public rolls or registers of the state. Daniel understood by these books when the captivity was about coming to an end, Dan. ix. 2 . He must write them in a book, not in loose papers: " For the days come, and are yet at a great distance, when I will bring again the captivity of Israel and Judah, great numbers of the ten tribes, with those of the two," v. 3 . And this prophecy must be written, that it may be read then also, that so it may appear how exactly the accomplishment answers the prediction, which is one end of the writing of prophecies. It is intimated that they shall be beloved for their fathers' sake ( Rom. xi. 28 ); for therefore God will bring them again to Canaan, because it was the land that he gave to their fathers, which therefore they shall possess. II. He is directed what to write. The very words are such as the Holy Ghost teaches, v. 4 . These are the words which God ordered to be written; and those promises which are written by his order are as truly his word as the ten commandments which were written with his finger. 1. He must write a description of the fright and consternation which the people were now in, and were likely to be still in upon every attack that the Chaldeans made upon them, which will much magnify both the wonder and the welcomeness of their deliverance ( v. 5 ): We have heard a voice of trembling —the shrieks of terror echoing to the alarms of danger. The false prophets told them that they should have peace, but there is fear and not peace, so the margin reads it. No marvel that when without are fightings within are fears. The men, even the men of war, shall be quite overwhelmed with the calamities of their nation, shall sink under them, and yield to them, and shall look like women in labour, whose pains come upon them in great extremity and they know that they cannot escape them, v. 6 . You never heard of a man travailing with child, and yet here you find not here and there a timorous man, but every man with his hands on his loins, in the utmost anguish and agony, as women in travail, when they see their cities burnt and their countries laid waste. But this pain is compared to that of a woman in travail, not to that of a death-bed, because it shall end in joy at last, and the pain, like that of a travailing woman, shall be forgotten. All faces shall be turned into paleness. The word signifies not only such paleness as arises from a sudden fright, but that which is the effect of a bad habit of body, the jaundice, or the green sickness. The prophet laments the calamity upon the foresight of it ( v. 7 ): Alas! for that day is great, a day of judgment, which is called the great day, the great and terrible day of the Lord ( Joel ii. 31 , Jude 6 ), great, so that there has been none like it. The last destruction of Jerusalem is thus spoken of by our Saviour as unparalleled, Matt. xxiv. 21 . It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, a sad time, when God's professing people shall be in distress above other people. The whole time of the captivity was a time of Jacob's trouble; and such times ought to be greatly lamented by all that are concerned for the welfare of Jacob and the honour of the God of Jacob. 2. He must write the assurances which God had given that a happy end should at length be put to these calamities. (1.) Jacob's troubles shall cease: He shall be saved out of them. Though the afflictions of the church may last long, they shall not last always. Salvation belongs to the Lord, and shall be wrought for his church. (2.) Jacob's troublers shall be disabled from doing him any further mischief, and shall be reckoned with for the mischief they have done him, v. 8 . The Lord of hosts, who has all power in his hand, undertakes to do it: " I will break his yoke from off thy neck, which has long lain so heavy, and has so sorely galled thee. I will burst thy bonds and restore thee to liberty and ease, and thou shalt no more be at the beck and command of strangers, shalt no more serve them, nor shall they any more serve themselves of thee; they shall no more enrich themselves either by thy possessions or by thy labours." And, (3.) That which crowns and completes the mercy is that they shall be restored to the free exercise of their religion again, v. 9 . They shall be delivered from serving their enemies, not that they may live at large and do what they please, but that they may serve the Lord their God and David their king, that they may come again into order, under the established government both in church and state. Therefore they were brought into trouble and made to serve their enemies because they had not served the Lord their God as they ought to have done, with joyfulness and gladness of heart, Deut. xxviii. 47 . But, when the time shall come that they should be saved out of their trouble, God will prepare and qualify them for it by giving them a heart to serve him, and will make it doubly comfortable by giving them opportunity to serve him. Therefore we are delivered out of the hands of our enemies, that we may serve God, Luke i. 74, 75 . And then deliverances out of temporal calamities are mercies indeed to us when by them we find ourselves engaged to and enlarged in the service of God. They shall serve their own God, and neither be inclined, as they had been of old in the day of their apostasy, nor compelled, as they had been of late in the day of their captivity, to serve other gods. They shall serve David their king, such governors as God should from time to time set over them, of the line of David (as Zerubbabel), or at least sitting on the thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David, as Nehemiah. But certainly this has a further meaning. The Chaldee paraphrase reads it, They shall obey (or hearken to ) the Messiah (or Christ ), the Son of David, their king. To him the Jewish interpreters apply it. That dispensation which commenced at their return out of captivity brought them to the Messiah. He is called David their King because he was the Son of David ( Matt. xxii. 42 ) and he answered to the name, Matt. xx. 31, 32 . David was an illustrious type of him both in his humiliation and in his exaltation. The covenant of royalty made with David had principal reference to him, and in him the promises of that covenant had their full accomplishment. God gave him the throne of his father David; he raised him up unto them, set him upon the holy hill of Zion. God is often in the New Testament said to have raised up Jesus, raised him up as a King, Acts iii. 26 ; xiii. 23, 33 . Observe, [1.] Those that serve the Lord as their God must also serve David their King, must give up themselves to Jesus Christ, to be ruled by him. For all men must honour the Son as they honour the Father, and come into the service and worship of God by him as Mediator. [2.] Those that are delivered out of spiritual bondage must make it appear that they are so by giving up themselves to the service of Christ. Those to whom he gives rest must take his yoke upon them. Promises of Mercy. ( b. c. 594.) 10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord ; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity