Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 50:5
They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, [saying], Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant [that] shall not be forgotten.
5. thitherward ] Heb. hitherward, shewing that the writer was himself in Palestine.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thitherward – Hereward; the writer evidently was at Jerusalem.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant] All our former covenants have been broken; let us now make one that shall last for ever. He shall be the LORD OUR GOD, and WE will no more worship idols. This covenant they have kept to the present day; whatever their present moral and spiritual state may be, they are no idolaters, in the gross sense of the term.
The description that is here given of the state of this people, their feelings and their conduct, finely exhibit the state of real penitents, who are fervently seeking the salvation of their souls.
1. In those days, when Jesus Christ is manifested in the flesh; and in that time, when through him is preached the remission of sins, and the people who hear are pricked in their conscience.
2. The children of Israel and the children of Judah together. – No distinctions being then felt or attended to; for all feel themselves sinners, who have come short of the glory of God. Even national distinctions and religious differences, which bind men fastest, and hold them longest, are absorbed in the deep and overpowering concern they feel for their eternal interests.
3. Going and weeping shall they go. – Religious sorrow does not preclude activity and diligence. While they are weeping for their sins, they are going on in the path of duty, seeking the Lord while he may be found, and calling upon him while he is near.
4. They shall ask the way to Zion. – Real penitents are the most inquisitive of all mortals; but their inquiries are limited to one object, they ask the way to Zion. What shall we do to be saved? How shall we shun the perdition of ungodly men, c.
5. With their faces thitherward. – They have turned FROM sin, and turned TO God. They have left the paths of the destroyer, and their hearts are towards God, and the remembrance of his name. Thus they are profiting by that light which has convinced them of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
6. Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord. – Religion is a social principle, and begets a social feeling in the soul. No man who feels his own sore, and the plague of his heart, wishes to venture alone in the way to heaven. He feels he wants counsel, support, comfort, and the company of those who will watch over him in love. Like David, the true penitent is a companion of all those who fear the Lord. These heavenly feelings come from one and the same Spirit, and lead to the same end hence they say, –
7. Let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant. It is said, that to be undecided, is to be decided. They who are not determined to go to heaven, will never reach it. If the heart be not laid under obligation, it will do nothing. “I hope I am in earnest; I trust I shall be in earnest about the salvation of my soul, it is very proper I should be so;” and such like, show an irresolute soul. Such persons are ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Let us therefore bind ourselves. We have trifled too long; been indecisive too long; have halted too long between two opinions. We know now that Jehovah is God; let us, therefore, enter into a covenant with him. Let this covenant be a perpetual one: let us not make it for a day, for any particular time, but for ever; and let it never be broken. Let our part be kept inviolable: we ARE and WILL BE thy people; and God’s part will never fail, I AM and WILL BE your God.
The covenant requires a sacrifice. – Hence berith signifies both. Christ crucified is the great covenant sacrifice. By him God becomes united to us, and through him we become united to God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, those of Judah and Israel that fear the Lord shall seriously and steadily seek the true God, and the true way of his worship; and, being sensible that they had broken the covenant which their fathers had formerly made with God, with a desire to renew their covenant, and that not for a time, but for ever. See Jer 31:31. The only question is, whether this promise be yet accomplished or no, or when it was or shall be fulfilled?,
Answ. It was without doubt in a great measure fulfilled upon the Jews coming out of the captivity of Babylon, when those of the kingdom of Judah returned to Jerusalem, and were very zealous for restoring the true worship of God, and renewed their covenant with God (as we read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah); but Mr. Calvin thinks it was more eminently fulfilled under the kingdom of the Messiah, when, though many believed not, yet many others did believe, and were added to the church, and whether a further fulfilling of it be not yet to come time must show.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. thitherwardrather,”hitherward,” Jeremiah’s prophetical standpoint being atZion. “Faces hitherward” implies their steadfastness ofpurpose not to be turned aside by any difficulties on the way.
perpetual covenantincontrast to the old covenant “which they brake” (Jer 31:31;Jer 32:40). They shall return totheir God first, then to their own land.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward,…. Either to Jerusalem, near to which Mount Zion was; or to the land of Israel, so called, from a principal part of it: and this also is not to be understood of their return thither, upon the taking of Babylon by Cyrus, and the liberty he gave them; for they had no need to inquire their way thither, nor do we find any where that they did; for though there might be many among them born in the captivity, who knew not the way; yet there were others that did, and could direct and go before them, even such who had seen the former temple, Ezr 3:12; but this suits better with the Jews in the latter day, upon the fall of mystical Babylon, when they shall be converted and return to their own land, and shall ask their way thither; being under a strong impulse of mind, and being bent upon it, and having full resolution to go thither: or else by Zion may be meant the church of God in Gospel times, as it often is; the way into which the converted Jews will ask, being deter mined to give up themselves to it, and become members of it; which way is not a religious education, mere morality, or a bare attendance on worship; but faith in Christ, and a profession of it, and submission to the ordinance of baptism;
[saying], come, and let us join ourselves unto the Lord in a perpetual covenant [that] shall not be forgotten; and then may they be said to “join [themselves] to the Lord”, when, under a divine influence, they shall give up themselves to Christ, to be saved by him; when they shall lay hold on him, embrace him, and believe in him; when they shall follow him in his own ways, and cleave unto him with full purpose of heart; and also when they shall join themselves to his people, to the churches of Christ, and abide by his truths and ordinances; to all which they shall stir up and encourage one another; either laying hold on the covenant of grace, which is an everlasting one, and will never be forgotten by the Lord; he is ever mindful of it, and keeps it; which is done when men join themselves to the Lord, Isa 56:6; or making an agreement or covenant with one another, and the churches to which they join themselves, to walk together in all the ways, ordinances, and commandments of the Lord; which agreement or covenant ought to be perpetually observed, and never forgotten. Kimchi owns that this part of the verse belongs to the days of the Messiah. The Targum is,
“they shall come and be added unto the people of the Lord, and he shall make with them an everlasting covenant, which shall not cease.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He explains himself more at large, that they would ask those they met the way, that their faces would be towards Sion, that they would also exhort one another to seek God and join themselves to him by a perpetual covenant. The Prophet includes here all the tribes, and says that the Jews and the Israelites would not only return into their own country, to partake of the produce of that rich and fruitful land, but that they would also render to God the worship due to him, and then that nothing would be so vexatious to them but that they would be able to overcome all difficulties and all obstacles.
He says first, that they would ask the way — a proof of perseverance; that they would ask the way to Sion, that is, ask how they were to proceed that they might come to Sion. By these words, the Prophet, as I have just said, denotes their constancy and indefatigable resolution, as though he had said, that though they journeyed through unknown lands, yea, through many devious places, they would yet be in no way disheartened so as not to inquire of those they met with until they came to Sion. This is one thing. Then he adds to the same purpose, Thither their faces We indeed know, that plans are often changed when adverse events impede us; for he who undertakes an expedition, when he sees his course very difficult, turns back again. But the Prophet declares here that there would be no change of mind that would cause the Jews to relinquish their purpose of returning, because their faces would be towards Sion, that is, they would turn their eyes thither, so that nothing would be able to turn them elsewhere. There is added, in the third place, an exhortation, Come ye; and they shall join themselves to Jehovah their God, by a perpetual covenant Here the Prophet first shews, that the Jews would be so encouraged as to add stimulants to one another; and hence it is said, Come ye; and, secondly, he adds, they shall cleave (there is here a change of person) to Jehovah by a perpetual covenant which shall not by oblivion be obliterated (51)
He again repeats what he had said, that the exiles would not return to their own country, that they might there only indulge themselves, but he mentions another end, even that they might join themselves to God. He means, in short, that God would do for them something better and more excellent than to allure them by earthly pleasures.
But we must notice the words, they shall cleave (so it is literally) to Jehovah by a perpetual covenant; for there is an implied contrast between the covenant they had made void and the new covenant which God would make with them, of which Jeremiah spoke in Jer 31:0. God’s covenant was, indeed, ever inviolable; for God did not promise to be the God of Abraham for a certain term of years; but the adoption, as Paul testifies, remains fixed, and can never be changed. (Rom 11:29.) Then on God’s part it is eternal. But as the Jews had become covenant-breakers, that covenant is called, on this account, weak and evanescent: and for this reason the Prophet said,
“
In the last days I will make a covenant with you, not such as I made with your fathers, for they have broken, he said, that covenant.” (Jer 31:31)
Jeremiah now repeats the same thing, though more briefly, that the Jews would return to favor with God, not only for a moment, but that his covenant might continue and remain valid; and the way by which this would be done is expressed in Jer 21:0, even because God would inscribe his law on their inward parts, and engrave it on their hearts. For it is not in man’s power to continue so constant as that God’s covenant should never fail; but what the Prophet omits here must be supplied from the former passage, that when the Jews returned, God’s covenant would again become so valid and fixed, that it would never fail, even because their hearts would be renewed, so that they would be faithful to God, and never become apostates any more like their fathers.
He then adds, This covenant shall not be forgotten. We hence conclude, that the perpetuity of which he speaks, was founded rather on the mere benevolence of God than on the virtue of the people. He calls then the covenant which God would never forget, perpetual, because he would remember his mercy towards the chosen people; and though they were unworthy to receive such a favor, yet he would continue perpetually his mercy towards them to the coming of Christ; for the passage clearly shows that this prophecy cannot be otherwise explained than of Christ’s spiritual kingdom. The Jews indeed returned to their own country, but it was only a small number; and besides, they were harassed by many troubles; God also visited their land with sterility, and they were lessened by various slaughters in wars: how then came the prophets thus to extol in such high terms the favor of God, which yet did not appear among the people? even because they included the kingdom of Christ; for whenever they spoke of the return of the people, they ascended, as we have said, to the chief deliverance. I do not yet follow our interpreters, who explain these prophecies concerning the spiritual kingdom of Christ allegorically; for simply, or as they say, literally, ought these words to be taken, — that God would never forget his covenant, so as to retain the Jews in the possession of the land. But this would have been a very small thing, had not Christ come forth, in whom is founded the real perpetuity of the covenant, because God’s covenant cannot be separated from a state of happiness; for blessed are the people, as the Psalmist says, to whom God shows himself to be their God. (Psa 144:15.) Now, then, as the Jews were so miserable, it follows that God’s covenant did not openly appear or was not conspicuous; we must therefore come necessarily to Christ, as we have elsewhere seen, that this was commonly done by the Prophets. The Prophet now enters on a new argument, —
(51) The two verbs are rendered by the versions, except the Syr. , and by the Targ., in the future tense, “They shall come and be joined,” etc.; and one MS., says Blayney, has יבאו. This would read better. Then the verse would. run thus —
To Zion will they ask the way, Hither their faces; They shall come and be joined to Jehovah, By an everlasting covenant, which shall not be forgotten.
“
Hither” and not “thither,” for the Prophet was at Jerusalem; and so the particle means, and it is so given in the Sept. and Vulg. The last clause requires “which” in our translation, though not in Welsh, for, like the Hebrew, it can do without it — (lang. cy) nad anghofir literally the Hebrew. What is here predicted was literally accomplished, as recorded by Nehemiah, (Neh 9:38; Neh 10:29.) — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward.Literally, hitherward. The correction is not without significance, as showing that the prophecy was written in Judah, and therefore as far as that fact goes, as being in favour of Jeremiahs authorship.
A perpetual covenant.The prophet may have had the promise of the new covenant of Jer. 31:31 in his thoughts, as being about to receive at least a partial fulfilment. In Ezr. 8:21-23; Ezr. 10:3 we find what we may look on as an effort of the people to enter into such a covenant.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Thitherward Rather, hither-ward, showing the standpoint.
Perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten A repetition which suggests the contrast between this new covenant and the old one which they had broken.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 50:5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, [saying], Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant [that] shall not be forgotten.
Ver. 5. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, ] a As intent upon it, and minding nothing else in comparison. It is good for a man to have his face set towards heaven, and to make religion his business, looking at other things by the by, and out at the eye’s end, as it were.
Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord.
a Accurate sciscitabuntur.
b Indivulse adhaerebunt Domino.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
thitherward. Hebrew = hitherward. Jeremiah was therefore not in Babylon, but in Egypt.
perpetual. Another evidence that this prophecy refers to the future covenant. Compare Jer 3:18 Jer 4:2; Jer 11:1-6; Jer 31:31.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
ask: Jer 6:16, Psa 25:8, Psa 25:9, Psa 84:7, Isa 35:8, Joh 7:17
Come: Jer 31:31-36, Isa 2:3-5, Mic 4:1, Mic 4:2, Act 11:23, 2Co 8:5
in a: Jer 32:40, Gen 17:7, 2Sa 23:5, Isa 55:3, Isa 56:6, Isa 56:7
that shall: Jer 32:40, 1Ki 19:10, 1Ki 19:14, Heb 8:6-10
Reciprocal: Gen 31:21 – set his Exo 31:16 – a perpetual covenant Num 10:29 – come Deu 29:9 – General Deu 29:15 – also with him Deu 33:19 – call the people 2Ki 23:3 – made a covenant 2Ch 15:12 – they entered 2Ch 29:10 – to make a covenant 2Ch 34:31 – made a covenant Ezr 8:21 – afflict ourselves Ezr 8:23 – besought Psa 84:5 – in whose Psa 122:1 – Let us go Psa 126:6 – that goeth Ecc 7:3 – is better Ecc 10:15 – because Isa 9:13 – neither Isa 24:5 – broken Isa 30:19 – dwell Isa 44:5 – I am Isa 55:13 – an everlasting Isa 56:3 – joined Isa 56:4 – take hold Jer 3:21 – A voice Jer 5:24 – Let us now Jer 22:23 – how Jer 29:14 – and I will turn Jer 31:6 – Arise Jer 31:18 – Ephraim Jer 31:21 – set thine Jer 50:19 – bring Jer 51:5 – Israel Eze 7:16 – mourning Eze 14:6 – Repent Eze 16:60 – I will establish Eze 16:61 – remember Eze 36:37 – I will yet Hos 1:11 – the children of Judah Hos 2:7 – I will Hos 3:5 – seek Zec 9:12 – Turn Luk 15:18 – will arise Rev 22:17 – let him that heareth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 50:5. They shall ask the way was fulfilled in Ezr 8:21-23. The perpetual covenant was the agreement which the Jews made to bring about all necessary reforms in their social lives, and to worship the true God only.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The Israelites would seek direction to return to Zion. They would go back there to make an everlasting covenant with Yahweh, one that they would not forget, as they had their former (Mosaic) covenant. This is a reference to the New Covenant (Jer 31:31-33; Jer 32:40). Israel has not yet experienced the changes that the New Covenant promised (e.g., Jer 32:40). She did not enter into this covenant with God after Babylon fell to the Persians.