Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 31:28
And it shall come to pass, [that] like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.
28. I have watched over them ] The Heb. verb is the same as that of ch. Jer 1:12, where see note.
to pluck up, etc.] Cp. ch. Jer 1:10, Jer 18:7; Jer 18:9. Thus the later and more cheering part of the message for which Jeremiah was ordained is now being delivered by him.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Nothing can produce in God a change of counsels, purposes, and decrees, for he is not as man that he should lie or repent, he is the God that changeth not, but mens reformation may produce in him a change of providential dispensations. God is here set out as a man that is vindictive, and his vindictive nature prompts him to watch all opportunities of doing hurt to the person against whom he is set. There is no fury nor revenge in God, but what he doth is justice; but here an angry God is set out as taking all opportunities to punish sinners, as if he had watched for them, whereas he never slumbereth nor sleepeth: but the time of their reformation and his favour being come, God promiseth to be as diligent to do them good, which is here expressed by the metaphorical notions of planting and building them, as he was before to execute his justice upon them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. (Jer44:27). The same God who, as it were (in human language), was onthe watch for all means to destroy, shall be as much on the watchfor the means of their restoration.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it shall come to pass, [that] like as I have watched over them,…. In providence; looked upon them with an eye of vindictive justice; observed all their actions and motions; diligently attended to everything that passed, and took the first and most fitting opportunity:
to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; which words, as they have an elegance and an agreeableness in their sound, in the original; so they are expressive of the utter overthrow of the city, temple, and nation of the Jews, and of the several troubles and calamities they should be afflicted with:
so will I watch over them; be as careful and diligent, as intent, earnest, and early:
to build, and to plant, saith the Lord; to build their city and temple, and to plant them in their own land. So the church of God is his building, whose foundation he lays, the superstructure of which he rears up, and will complete it in his own time; and it is his plantation, into which he puts his pleasant plants, his plants of renown; which he waters with his Spirit and grace, by the ministry of the word, that they may grow, and become fruitful.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
By these words the Prophet confirms what he had said; for the Israelites and the Jews might have ever made this objection, “Why should God promise to be the liberator of his people, whom he had suffered to be oppressed with so great evils, for it would have been easier to prevent them?” The Jews then might have raised this clamor, “Thou givest us here the hope of a return, but why does God suffer us to be driven into exile? why then does he not apply the remedy in time; for now too late he declares that he will be a help to us after our ruin.” As then the Jews thought that a restoration was promised to them unseasonably, the Prophet says that it was God who chastised them and punished them for their sins, and that he could also relieve them whenever it pleased him. For had the Chaldeans, according to their own pleasure, ruled over the Jews, and had obtained the victory over them, who could have ever hoped that the miserable men, thus reduced, could have been delivered by God’s hand? But now the Prophet shews that there was no reason for the Jews to despair, as though it were difficult for God to free them from the tyranny of their enemies; for nothing had happened to them by chance, or through the power of their enemies, but through the righteous judgment of God.
We now then perceive the design of the Holy Spirit in what the Prophet says, As I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to break in pieces and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch, etc. (50) God then sets himself forth as the judge who had punished them for their sins, in order that he might convince them that he would also become their Physician, as though he had said, “I who have inflicted the wound can therefore heal it,” according to what is said elsewhere,
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God is he who kills and brings to life, who leads down to the grave and brings up.” (1Sa 2:6)
But he employs many words, for the great mass of so many evils might have plunged the Jews into the abyss of despair. Hence the Prophet anticipates them, and shews, that though they had been reduced to extremities, yet so many and so severe calamities could not prevent God from restoring them, when it seemed good to him. He yet reminds them, that it was not without cause that they suffered such grievous things; for God takes no delight in the miseries of his people. The people then ought to have learnt that they had been guilty of great sins from the fact, that they had been chastised with so much rigor and severity. He now adds, So will I watch over you to build and to plant
As for the verb destroy, if we read הרם erem, it ought to be rendered, and to take away The verb רם rem, as it is well known, means to elevate; but metaphorically, to take away. But the received reading, as I have said, is הרס eres. He says, that he would watch to build and to plant them, as he had watched to destroy them; as though he had said, that they had already been taught by experience, how great was the power of God’s hand to save as well as to destroy. They had disregarded threatenings as long as God had spared them, and they thought that they could sin with impunity; and we see how insolently they rejected all the Prophets. But God had at length shewed by severe proofs how his judgments oughf; to have been dreaded. He now then inspires them with hope, for his watching would no less avail for their preservation. It follows, —
(50) The words here used are the very same with those in Jer 1:10, except the addition, “to afflict;” and yet neither the Targ., nor the Versions, except the Syriac, render them alike, giving in some instances the meaning of one verb to another, — a proof that they are very loose versions. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(28) Like as I have watched over them . . .Some twenty-three years had passed since the prophets call to his office, but the words that called him to it are living still. The very symbolism of the almond, with the play upon its meaning, as the wakeful or watching tree (see Notes on Jer. 1:10-11), the very terms in which his two-fold work was painted, are present to his thoughts, yet are seen under a new and brighter aspect. Up to this time his task had been mainly that of a prophet of evil, rooting out and pulling down. Now he sees before him the happier work of building up and planting.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
28. Watched See Jer 1:12, and the note there.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 31:28 And it shall come to pass, [that] like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.
Ver. 28. Like as I have watched over them. ] I have been sedulous and assiduous.
To pluck up and break down, &c.
So I will watch.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
watched. Compare Jer 1:12 (same word).
and. Note the Figure of speech Polysyndeton (App-6).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
that like: Jer 44:27, Dan 9:14
to pluck: Jer 1:10, Jer 18:7-9, Jer 45:4
so: Jer 24:6, Jer 32:41, Psa 69:35, Psa 102:16, Psa 147:2, Ecc 3:2, Ecc 3:3, Dan 9:25, Amo 9:11, Act 15:16
Reciprocal: Gen 8:17 – breed Deu 28:63 – plucked from 2Ch 7:20 – I pluck 2Ch 30:9 – so that they shall Jer 12:17 – pluck Jer 18:9 – to build Jer 32:42 – Like Jer 33:7 – and will Jer 42:10 – then Eze 19:12 – she was Eze 36:10 – I will Eze 36:38 – the waste Amo 3:5 – General Zec 8:14 – As
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 31:28. When God saw fit to overthrow his nation he did so according to bis wisdom. Likewise when the time comes to reverse its sad state He will accomplish that.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
As Yahweh directed the breaking down of His nation, so He would oversee its building up.