Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 23:3
And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
3. folds ] rather, “homestead,” as Dr. Cp. Jer 10:25, Jer 25:30.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
While there is no promise of restoration for the kings, there is for the people (see Jer 4:27), because they had been led astray by their rulers.
Have driven them – The evil shepherds drove the people into exile by leading them into sin: and God by inflicting punishment.
Their folds – Or, their pastures.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 23:3
I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries.
Home missions
As when some beautiful picture which has been put aside and forgotten, hid, it may be, from the enemy in time of invasive war, is found and cleansed and restored, and the eye is delighted with the gradual revelation of colour and of form, the life-like features of the portrait, the characters and incidents of the historical scene, the sunny landscape, or the moon-lit sea: so in that great revival of spiritual life which came by God s grace little more than fifty years ago into this Church of England, the glorious truths of the Gospel, the joy Which we have in the presence of our Lord, in His Sacraments and Scriptures, in our praises and our prayers, in our daily duty done in His name, and in our works of mercy done for His sake, have been again abundantly given to the faith which worketh by love. Oh! blessed be He who of His tender mercy hath visited and redeemed His people. This merciful, marvellous restoration maybe divided into three developments. First, there was the restoration of Faith: Credenda, what we should believe. Then there was the restoration of Hope: Precanda, what we should pray for, and when and how we should pray,–a restoration of worship. Thirdly, there came the grandest development o fall–the restoration of charity, love: Agenda, the things we have got to do for God, our duty to Him and our duty to each other; to love Him with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our strength, and then to love our neighbour as ourself. It is impossible for a Church or an individual to be quickened with spiritual life, and not yearn that others should be saved. It is impossible for your heart and mine to be unfed with the sacred heart of Jesus and not to long that others should share our joy and peace in believing. Jubilant and thankful–thankful for the past, strong and of a good courage in the present, and hopeful of the future–we stand no more by broken cisterns, for God has struck the rock, and the streams are flowing, and our cry is, the Masters cry is, O every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and drink Our obedience is that of His mandate, Go ye out rote the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the lame, the halt, and the blind; go into the byways and hedges and bring in all–compel them to come in. Surely we may ask, almost in shame, are we true sons of those forefathers who built such churches as this, are we true sons of the men who built those grand cathedrals, and churches, and hospitals, and colleges throughout England? Was there ever a time when it was so needful that the Spirit of the Gospel should be brought to bear upon the divisions and dissensions which are among us? I mean, for example, the jealousies that exist between the classes, the commercial rivalries, the disaffection which there is. Without going beyond the measure of our knowledge, without presuming to interfere between employers and employed as to wages and those matters which we cannot possibly understand, we have an influence in pleading the great principles of justice, and honesty, and love, which, though it may be resented at first by those who are in the wrong, must in the end prevail and be established. Was there ever a time when it was more needful for men who know that God is no respecter of persons to preach the equality of all souls for whom the Lord Jesus died? It has been well said that the Gospel code, if it could only be enforced by human laws and a human legislature, would produce a condition of security and success of which the most sanguine, the cleverest politician has never even dreamed. But the Gospel is something infinitely higher and better to you and me. To you and me Christianity means all that is brave and pure in our life, all that is bright and happy in our death. It means re-union with those whom we have loved and whom we loved the best. It means–I hardly dare speak the thought–it means that you and I shall be sinless, and shall see God. It is impossible to have such a faith and hope as this, and not to desire that all should share it, and that none should perish. It is impossible for us to love God and not to love our brother also. (Dean Hole.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
God puts a difference betwixt those that were misled by the examples of others, and the rulers who set them such an ill example; he threatened Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, that they should return no more; but for the people, he here promiseth them a return, at least a remnant of them, when he should have punished the goats, as he speaketh, Zec 10:3. By their folds, he meaneth Jerusalem, and other cities, the towns of Judah which they had formerly inhabited. And they shall be fruitful and increase; where they should once more be in prosperity. He speaks here concerning the return of this people out of the captivity of Babylon, though there be some that think this text is primarily to be understood of the gathering together in one the people of God scattered abroad in and by Christ, according to the prophecy of Caiaphas, Joh 11:52.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3, 4. Restoration of Judah fromBabylon foretold in language which in its fulness can only apply tothe final restoration of both “Judah” and “Israel“(compare Jer 23:6); also “outof all countries,” in this verse and Jer23:8; also, “neither shall they be lacking,” that is,none shall be missing or detached from the rest: a prophecy never yetfully accomplished. It holds good also of the spiritual Israel, theelect of both Jews and Gentiles (Mal 3:16;Mal 3:17; Joh 10:28;Joh 17:12). As to the literalIsrael also, see Jer 32:37;Isa 54:13; Isa 60:21;Eze 34:11-16.
shepherds . . . shall feedthem (Jer 3:15; Eze 34:23-31).Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Maccabees were but typical of theconsummating fulfilment of these prophecies under Messiah.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I will gather the remnant of my flock, out of all countries,…. Such of them as did not perish by the sword, famine, and pestilence, or died not in captivity, and chose not to remain in the kingdom where they were; for all did not return upon the edict of Cyrus: though some think this is to be understood of the gathering of God’s elect, the remnant according to the election of grace, the children of God that were scattered abroad, by the sufferings and death of Christ, the Shiloh, to whom the gathering of the people should be, hereafter prophesied of:
whither I have driven them; this, which is before charged upon the pastors, is taken by the Lord to himself; because this was not only permitted by him, namely, the dispersion and captivity of the Jews, but was inflicted by him as a punishment upon them for their sins, and the sins of their governors; but yet such was the mercy and goodness of God, as to return a remnant of them:
and will bring them again to their folds; to the city of Jerusalem, and their dwelling houses there, and in other places; an emblem of the Lord’s bringing his chosen remnant, whether Jews or Gentiles, into a good fold and good pastures, to a Gospel church state, and the ordinances of it, Joh 10:16;
and they shall be fruitful and increase; the remnant of the flock returned to their own land and dwellings, and there grow numerous, and increase in wealth and riches; as Christ’s spiritual sheep, gathered into his fold, become fruitful in grace and good works, and increase with the increase of God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
It then follows, And I will gather my flock. As they had driven the people away, so God promises that it would be his care to gather them. And yet he ascribes to himself what he had imputed to them — that he had driven away his flock, but in a different sense; the pastors had scattered the flock, not only by their sloth, but also by their cruelty, for they became rapacious wolves; but God had punished the people, for they all had fully deserved such a scattering. We hence see that the ungodly execute God’s judgment; but they are not on this account excusable as though they were God’s ministers, for they have nothing less in view. Nor can God be involved in their sin, while he thus employs them to execute his purpose. In short, the scattering of the people was a just punishment from God, for they had all departed from the faith, they had broken the sacred bond of the covenant, by which God had bound them to himself. It was also the fault of the pastors, because they avariciously and cruelly tyrannized over them. The pastors, as I have said, were not only the priests, but also the king and his counsellors.
I will gather, he says, not the flock, but the remnant of the sheep God intimates here that he would be so merciful as to receive unto favor, not all indiscriminately, but a small number, constituting the elect. And hence Paul carefully distinguished between the people and the remnant of grace, or the gratuitous remnant; for Christ appeared by his coming to have abolished the covenant by which God had adopted the children of Abraham, but Paul does not admit this. Now, if any one objects and says that the greater part of the people had been cut off, this he allows; but he says that the covenant remains valid in the remnant, and produces also examples, such as that of which we now speak. God then has ever been the preserver of his Church; and thus his gratuitous adoption, by which he had chosen the seed of Abraham, never fails. But this adoption is effectual only as to the remnant.
As to the word remnant, the fewness of those whom God had resolved to gather is not only intimated, but also the vengeance, which as to time had gone before; for God seemed to have destroyed the Jews when they were driven away into various lands, as they had no name remaining, the kingdom and the priesthood were abolished. It was therefore a certain kind of death, as I have before said; but God here declares that there would be some remnant, according to what is said in Isa 10:22, that God saved a few as it were from the consumption; for he refers there to the very few that remained alive, when they thought that all was over with the whole people, that there was no hope of restoration.
I will gather, he says, the residue of my sheep from all the lands to which I shall have driven them He again confirms what I have stated, that there would be no place for mercy until he had cleansed his Church from its many filthy pollutions. The scattering then of the people into various lands was the purgation of the Church, according to what God says, that he would separate the refuse and the chaff from the wheat in chastising his people; for as the chaff and the refuse are blown here and there when the wheat is winnowed, and the wheat only remains and is afterwards laid up in the granary; so when God drove his people away into various lands, he then purged his Church. If any one objects and says, “Then the remnant were dealt with like the refuse;” it is true as to the individuals, but God refers here to himself, when he calls them his own, sheep, who were yet unworthy of such an honor.
He then adds, that he would bring them back to their folds, (76) that they might be fruitful, that is, bring forth and increase, and be multiplied By folds he no doubt means the land of Canaan; for there was then no wealth in the world which the Jews would have preferred to the inheritance promised to them; the whole world was to them an exile. For God had chosen that land in which they dwelt, and had consecrated it to himself, and he gave it to them as an earnest or a pledge of the eternal inheritance. Rightly then does he now call that land folds, for they lived there under his guardianship and protection. The temple was as it were the pastoral staff; they knew that God dwelt there, that being protected by his power they might continue in safety. Since then there was safety for them under God’s protection in the land of Canaan, he calls it their fold. Then he says, that they may be fruitful, and be multiplied; for among other blessings their increase was not the least. He afterwards adds, —
(76) “To their own pasture,” is the Sept. and Arab.; “to their own country,” the Vulg.; “to their own fold,” the Syr.; “to their own places,” the Targ. The Hebrew is, “to their own folds;” the word is plural, and means generally “habitations,” either for men, or cattle, or beasts. As sheep are mentioned, “folds” no doubt is the proper word. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) To their folds.Better, habitations, or pastures. There was hope, as in Isa. 1:9; Isa. 6:13, for the remnant of the people, though the sentence on their rulers, as such, was final and irreversible.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. I have driven Here God appropriates to himself the very term he had just applied to the evil shepherds to their blame. So we have brought into view two aspects of the same event. So Joseph said to his brethren, “Not you sent me hither, but God,” Gen 45:8: a statement that seems the exact opposite of the truth, and yet was most profoundly and exactly true. The real meaning is, Not so much you as God. The event turns one of its faces toward those wicked men, Joseph’s brethren; but another, and a totally different one, toward God. So here. These shepherds, by their neglect, had scattered and destroyed the flock; on the other hand God, for the sins of this very flock, drove them into exile.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
YHWH Will In The Future Restore The Remnant Of His Flock From Exile And They Will Be Fruitful And Multiply, And He Will Set Up True Shepherds Over Them ( Jer 23:3-4 ).
It is made clear here that exiles will return from all parts, and will establish a well populated country. There is no good reason for doubting that this did happen, for by the time of Jesus both Galilee and Judaea were well populated. Our knowledge is limited to those of whom records were kept, but our knowledge of the inter-testamental years is very sparse.
Jer 23:3
“And I will gather the remnant of my flock,
Out of all the countries where I have driven them,
And will bring them again to their pastures,
And they will be fruitful and multiply.”
For when the time comes YHWH will gather the remnant of His flock out of all the countries where he has driven them (note, however, that it is only the remnant. Not all will come, and many will be no more), and He will bring them again to the land of their inheritance and there they will be fruitful and multiply. Note here that while in Jer 23:2 it was the faithless under-shepherds who had driven them away, here YHWH claims Himself to have driven them away. We have here the human and divine sides of history. Man brings evil on a city, but ‘can evil come on a city and YHWH has not done it?’ (Amo 3:6). Human history and God’s divine plan and purpose march on side by side. All the evil is on man’s side, but the working out of the situation is God’s.
(Thus in Isa 10:5; Isa 10:7; Isa 10:12; Isa 10:15 YHWH makes clear that He had made use of the Assyrians but was not responsible for the fact that they had gone too far).
Because of the limited records that we have we can think in terms of the restoration as only being from Babylon, but that was only the beginning. The outworking of history indicates that once they were free to do so many also came from other parts where they had been exiled. And the fact that they were fruitful and multiplied is brought out when we consider the constituents of the land in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ. By His day the land was well populated and at peace, and they had come from many places.
Jer 23:4
“And I will set up shepherds over them,
Who will feed them,
And they will fear no more, nor be dismayed,
Nor will any be lacking,
The word of YHWH.”
And YHWH would set up reliable shepherds over them who would feed them, and they would no more be fearful and dismayed, nor would they be lacking in care and attention. We have only a glimpse of such shepherds in Zerubabbel, Ezra, Nehemiah, the Maccabees, and so on. These were recognised as ‘good’ shepherds who cared for the sheep and turned them from idols. And this too was guaranteed by the prophetic ‘word of YHWH’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
Ver. 3. And I will gather the remnant of my flock. ] I will bring them back from Babylon, but especially from out of this present evil world, into the bosom of my Church, by Christ the Arch-shepherd, and by such under-shepherds as he shall make use of to that purpose. Eph 4:11
And they shall be fruitful and increase.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I will gather, &c. Compare Jer 31:10; Jer 32:7. Eze 34:13, &c.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
remnant
(See Scofield “Jer 15:21”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Jer 29:14, Jer 30:3, Jer 31:8, Jer 32:37, Deu 30:3-5, Psa 106:47, Isa 11:11-16, Isa 27:12, Isa 27:13, Isa 43:5, Isa 43:6, Eze 11:17, Eze 34:13-31, Eze 36:24, Eze 36:37, Eze 37:21-27, Eze 39:27, Eze 39:28, Amo 9:14, Amo 9:15, Mic 7:12, Zep 3:19, Zep 3:20, Zec 10:8-12
Reciprocal: Ezr 2:64 – forty Psa 23:1 – my Isa 54:14 – for thou Jer 3:14 – one of a city Jer 8:3 – in all Jer 23:7 – General Jer 23:8 – General Jer 24:6 – and I will bring Jer 30:10 – I Jer 30:18 – Behold Jer 31:7 – remnant Jer 31:16 – they Jer 33:7 – will cause Jer 46:27 – I will save Jer 50:19 – bring Eze 20:41 – I bring Eze 34:11 – search Eze 34:22 – will I Eze 39:25 – Now will Joe 3:1 – when Mic 2:12 – I will put Zep 2:7 – turn Zep 3:18 – gather Zec 9:16 – shall save 1Co 9:7 – or
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 23:3. This verse is a prediction of the return from Babylonian captivity. The original word for countries also means lands.” The Babylonian Empire was considered one institution but embraced practically all the lands in the civilized world, and the Lord’s people were scattered over many of these lands. Folds is another term that is appropriate in the list connected with a flock. It literally means that God’s people who survive the effects of the captivity (the “remnant”) will be returned to their native land in Palestine. The Biblical account of the fulfillment is in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The historical account of it was cited with the comments on Isa 14:1 in Voi. 3 of this COMMENTARY.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
23:3 And I will gather the {d} remnant of my flock from all countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
(d) Thus the prophets always used to mix the promises with the threatenings lest the godly should be too much beaten down and therefore he shows how God will gather his Church after this dispersion.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
After this judgment the Lord Himself would, as a good shepherd, re-gather the remnant of His people that were left from all the countries where He had driven them into exile (cf. Jer 3:16; Jeremiah 24; Jer 31:10; Jeremiah 40-44; Isa 1:9; Isa 37:4; Mic 2:12; Mic 4:7; Mic 5:4; Mic 7:14; Mic 7:18). The Lord was the final cause of the exile, but the shepherds of Judah were the instrumental cause (Jer 23:2). He would bring them back into the Promised Land and cause them to be fruitful and multiply (cf. Gen 1:22; Gen 1:28; Gen 9:1; Gen 12:1-3; Exo 1:7). There is a double contrast in this verse between the Lord and the false shepherds and between their respective works.
The reference to the many countries to which the Lord had driven them suggests an eschatological return to the land that exceeded the return from Babylonian exile. [Note: See Feinberg, pp. 517-18.]
"History has shown that restoration [from Babylon] to be a temporary flicker of light, for by the time of Malachi (the last of the prophets, ca. 400 B.C.), Israel had degenerated again to a people with stony hearts." [Note: Jensen, p. 70.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XXXI
RESTORATION II
THE NEW ISRAEL
Jer 23:3-8; Jer 24:6-7; Jer 30:1-24; Jer 31:1-40; Jer 33:1-26
“In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name whereby she shall be called.”- Jer 33:16
THE Divine utterances in chapter 33, were given to Jeremiah when he was shut up in the “court of the guard” during the last days of the siege. They may, however, have been committed to writing at a later date, possibly in connection with Chapters 30 and 31, when the destruction of Jerusalem was already past. It is in accordance with all analogy that the final record of a “word of Jehovah” should include any further light which had come to the prophet through his inspired meditations on the original message. Chapters 30, 31, and 33 mostly expound and enforce leading ideas contained in Jer 32:37-44 and in earlier utterances of Jeremiah. They have much in common with 2 Isaiah. The ruin of Judah and the captivity of the people were accomplished facts to both writers, and they were both looking forward to the return of the exiles and the restoration of the kingdom of Jehovah. We shall have occasion to notice individual points of resemblance later on.
In Jer 30:2 Jeremiah is commanded to write in a book all that Jehovah has spoken to him; and according to the present context the “all,” in this case, refers merely to the following four chapters. These prophecies of restoration would be specially precious to the exiles; and now that the Jews were scattered through many distant lands, they could only be transmitted and preserved in writing. After the command “to write in a book” there follows, by way of title, a repetition of the statement that Jehovah would bring back His people to their fatherland. Here, in the very forefront of the Book of Promise, Israel and Judah are named as being recalled together from exile. As we read twice {Jer 16:14-15; Jer 23:7-8} elsewhere in Jeremiah, the promised deliverance from Assyria and Babylon was to surpass all other manifestations of the Divine power and mercy. The Exodus would not be named in the same breath with it: “Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the Israelites out of the land of Egypt: but, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the Israelites from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither He had driven them.” This prediction has waited for fulfilment to our own times: hitherto the Exodus has occupied mens minds much more than the Return; we are now coming to estimate the supreme religious importance of the latter event.
Elsewhere again Jeremiah connects his promise with the clause in his original commission “to build and to plant”: {Jer 1:10} “I will set My eyes upon them” (the captives) “for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.” {Jer 24:7} As in Jer 32:28-35, the picture of restoration is rendered more vivid by contrast with Judahs present state of wretchedness; the marvellousness of Jehovahs mercy is made apparent by reminding Israel of the multitude of its iniquities. The agony of Jacob is like that of a woman in travail. But travail shall be followed by deliverance and triumph. In the second Psalm the subject nations took counsel against Jehovah and against His Anointed:-
“Let us break their bands asunder,
And cast away their cords from us”;
but now this is the counsel of Jehovah concerning His people and their Babylonian conqueror:-
“I will break his yoke from off thy neck,
And break thy bands asunder.”
Judahs lovers, her foreign allies, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and all the other states with whom she had intrigued, had betrayed her; they had cruelly chastised her, so that her wounds were grievous and her bruises incurable. She was left without a champion to plead her cause, without a friend to bind up her wounds, without balm to allay the pain of her bruises. “Because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee, saith Jehovah.” Jerusalem was an outcast, of whom men said contemptuously: “This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.” But mans extremity is Gods opportunity; because Judah was helpless and despised, therefore Jehovah said, “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds.”
While Jeremiah was still watching from his prison the progress of the siege, he had seen the houses and palaces beyond the walls destroyed by the Chaldeans to be used for their mounds; and had known that every sally of the besieged was but another opportunity for the enemy to satiate themselves with slaughter, as they executed Jehovahs judgments upon the guilty city. Even at this extremity He announced solemnly and emphatically the restoration and pardon of His people.
“Thus saith Jehovah, who established the earth, when He made and fashioned it-Jehovah is His name:
Call upon Me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great mysteries, which thou knowest not.”
“I will bring to this city healing and cure, and will cause them to know all the fulness of steadfast peace . . .
I will cleanse them from all their iniquities, and will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned and transgressed against Me.”
The healing of Zion naturally involved the punishment of her cruel and treacherous lovers. The Return, like other revolutions, was not wrought by rose water; the yokes were broken and the bands rent asunder by main force. Jehovah would make a full end of all the nations whither He had scattered them. Their devourers should be devoured, all their adversaries should go into captivity, those who had spoiled and preyed upon them should become a spoil and a prey. Jeremiah had been commissioned from the beginning to pull down foreign nations and kingdoms as well as his native Judah. {Jer 1:10} Judah was only one of Israels evil neighbours who were to be plucked up out of their land. And at the Return, as at the Exodus, the waves at one and the same time opened a path of safety for Israel and overwhelmed her oppressors.
Israel, pardoned and restored, would again be governed by legitimate kings of the House of David. In the dying days of the monarchy Israel and Judah had received their rulers from the hands of foreigners. Menahem and Hoshea bought the confirmation of their usurped authority from Assyria. Jehoiakim was appointed by Pharaoh Necho, and Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar. We cannot doubt that the kings of Egypt and Babylon were also careful to surround their nominees with ministers who were devoted to the interests of their suzerains. But now “their nobles were to be of themselves, and their ruler was to proceed out of their midst,” {Jer 30:21} i.e., nobles and rulers were to hold their offices according to national custom and tradition.
Jeremiah was fond of speaking of the leaders of Judah as shepherds. We have had occasion already (Cf. chapter 8) to consider his controversy with the “shepherds” of his own time. In his picture of the New Israel he uses the same figure. In denouncing the evil shepherds he predicts that, when the remnant of Jehovahs flock is brought again to their folds, He will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them, {Jer 23:3-4} shepherds. according to Jehovahs own heart, who should feed them with knowledge and understanding. {Jer 3:15}
Over them Jehovah would establish as Chief Shepherd a Prince of the House of David. Isaiah had already included in his picture of Messianic times the fertility of Palestine; its vegetation, by the blessing of Jehovah, should be beautiful and glorious: he had also described the Messianic King as a fruitful Branch out of the root of Jesse. Jeremiah takes the idea of the latter passage, but uses the language of the former. For him the King of the New Israel is, as it were, a Growth (cemah) out of the sacred soil, or perhaps more definitely from the roots of the House of David, that ancient tree whose trunk had been hewn down and burnt. Both the Growth (cemah) and the Branch (necer) had the same vital connection with the soil of Palestine and the root of David. Our English versions exercised a wise discretion when they sacrificed literal accuracy and indicated the identity of idea by translating both “cemah” and “necer” by “Branch.”
“Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise up unto David a righteous Branch; and He shall be a wise and prudent King, and He shall execute justice and maintain the right. In His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell securely, and his name shall be Jehovah Cidqenu, Jehovah is our righteousness.” Jehovah Cidqenu might very well be the personal name of a Jewish king, though the form would be unusual; but what is chiefly intended is that His character shall be such as the “name” describes. The “name” is a brief and pointed censure upon a king whose character was the opposite of that described in these verses, yet who bore a name of almost identical meaning-Zedekiah, Jehovah is my righteousness. The name of the last reigning Prince of the House of David had been a standing condemnation of his unworthy life, but the King of the New Israel, Jehovahs true Messiah, would realise in His administration all that such a name promised. Sovereigns delight to accumulate sonorous epithets in their official designations-Highness, High and Mighty, Majesty, Serene, Gracious. The glaring contrast between character and titles often only serves to advertise the worthlessness of those who are labelled with such epithets: the Majesty of James I, the Graciousness of Richard III. Yet these titles point to a standard of true royalty, whether the sovereign be an individual or a class or the people; they describe that Divine Sovereignty which will be realised in the Kingdom of God.
The material prosperity of the restored community is set forth with wealth of glowing imagery. Cities and palaces are to be rebuilt on their former sites with more than their ancient splendour. “Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. And the children of Jacob shall be as of old, and their assembly shall be established before Me.” {Jer 30:18-20} The figure often used of the utter desolation of the deserted country is now used to illustrate its complete restoration: “Yet again shall there be heard in this place the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.” Throughout all the land “which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof,” shepherds shall dwell and pasture and fold their flocks; and in the cities of all the districts of the Southern Kingdom enumerated as exhaustively as in Jer 32:44 shall the flocks again pass under the shepherds hands to be told. {Jer 33:10-13}
Jehovahs own peculiar flock, His Chosen People, shall be fruitful and multiply according to the primeval blessing; under their new shepherds they shall no more fear nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking. {Jer 23:3-4} Jeremiah recurs again and again to the quiet, the restfulness, the freedom from fear and dismay of the restored Israel. In this, as in all else, the New Dispensation was to be an entire contrast to those long weary years of alternate suspense and panic, when mens hearts were shaken by the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war. {Jer 4:19} Israel is to dwell securely at rest from fear of harm. {Jer 23:6} When Jacob returns he “shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.” {Jer 30:10} Egyptian, Assyrian, and Chaldean shall all cease from troubling; the memory of past misery shall become dim and shadowy.
The finest expansion of this idea is a passage which always fills the soul with a sense of utter rest.
“He shall dwell on high: his refuge shall be the inaccessible rocks: his bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold a far-stretching land. Thine heart shall muse on the terror: where is he that counted, where is he that weighed the tribute? where is he that counted the towers? Thou shalt not see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that thou canst not perceive; of a strange tongue that thou canst not understand. Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that shall not be removed, the stakes whereof shall never be plucked up, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. There Jehovah will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.” (Isa 33:16-21; Isa 32:15-18.)
For Jeremiah too the presence of Jehovah in majesty was the only possible guarantee of the peace and prosperity of Israel. The voices of joy and gladness in the New Jerusalem were not only those of bride and bridegroom, but also of those that said, “Give thanks to Jehovah Sabaoth, for Jehovah is good, for His mercy endureth forever,” and of those that “came to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving in the house of Jehovah.” {Jer 33:11} This new David, as the Messianic King is called, {Jer 30:9} is to have the priestly right of immediate access to God: “I will cause Him to draw near, and He shall approach unto Me: for else who would risk his life by daring to approach Me?” {Jer 30:21, as Kautzsch.} Israel is liberated from foreign conquerors to serve Jehovah their God and David their King; and the Lord Himself rejoices in His restored and ransomed people.
The city that was once a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse among all nations shall now be to Jehovah “a name of joy, a praise and a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them, and shall tremble with fear for all the good and all the peace that I procure unto it.” {Jer 33:9}