Jeremiah 30:19

Jeremiah 30–33 are often called the Book of Consolation, or the Book of Comfort. Much of Jeremiah before them announces judgment on Judah for its idolatry, its oppression and its unfaithfulness to the covenant, including seventy years of captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 25). In these chapters the message turns to hope. Chapter 30 opens with God telling Jeremiah to write his words in a book (Jeremiah 30:1–3), speaks of “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:4–7), and promises that God will break the oppressor’s yoke and raise up their king (Jeremiah 30:8–11). Just before our passage he promises to heal his people’s wounds (Jeremiah 30:17), and the next chapter brings the promise of a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34).

Jeremiah prophesied in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BC, as Assyria declined and Babylon rose to power. In 586 BC Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and its temple and carried the people away. They lost their land, their place of worship and their life as a nation, and to many it looked as if God’s covenant promises had failed. Into that despair God speaks of tents, dwellingplaces, a city and a palace, everything they had lost, and he speaks to the whole house of Jacob, the northern kingdom of Israel as well as Judah.

“Thus saith the LORD” rests the whole promise on God’s own word, and “Behold” calls the hearer to look at what he is about to do. Every promise in these verses is his: “I will bring again”, “I will multiply”, “I will punish”, “I will cause him to draw near”.

The word for captivity, shᵉbûwth, comes from a root meaning to take captive, and it refers to exile or to the captives themselves. “Bring again the captivity” is an idiom the prophets use for reversing exile, bringing the exiles home and turning their fortunes around. Psalm 126:1–3 describes the joy and wonder of people whose captivity the LORD had turned.

“Jacob’s tents” uses ʼôhel, the tent that was the home of a people on the move. It recalls the nation’s beginnings in the tents of the patriarchs, and it pictures the people now as scattered and without a settled home. The phrase stands for the whole people of Israel, so God’s first promise is about persons, and the buildings follow.

God’s reason is mercy. “Have mercy” translates râcham, which Strong’s glosses as to fondle, and by implication to love, especially to have compassion. It is a deep and tender compassion, often likened to a mother’s love for the child of her womb. Judah had earned judgment, so the restoration flows entirely from God’s pity and covenant love. He has mercy on the dwellingplaces themselves, the ruined and empty homes, and through them on the people who lived there.

The rebuilt city will be full of sounds that had fallen silent: “thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry”. The word tôwdâh means thanksgiving or confession, and it can also mean a thank offering or a choir that gives thanks. Strong’s traces it to the picture of an extended hand, the gesture of someone acknowledging what God has done. In Israel thanksgiving was often given together, with sacrifices at the temple, and the psalm calls the redeemed to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving (Psalm 107:22). Here the praise rises from the people themselves as the overflow of what God has done for them, and “the voice” makes their joy something heard and shared by the whole community.

Then God promises numbers and honour. “I will multiply them” uses râbâh in its causative sense, to make many. War and exile had cut the people down, and God will make them many again, as he promised Abraham a great nation (Genesis 12:2). “I will also glorify them” uses kâbad, which means to be heavy, and in a good sense to be weighty, rich or honoured. Used causatively, as here, it means to give someone weight and honour. A humbled people will receive dignity from God himself. Each promise is matched by its opposite denied, “they shall not be few” and “they shall not be small”, a way of speaking that makes the promise firm. Isaiah gives the same hope, that the smallest will become a thousand (Isaiah 60:22), and Zechariah promises prosperity and peace to the remnant (Zechariah 8:12). When God makes a small, scattered people many and honoured, the nations see his power and his faithfulness.

“Their children also shall be as aforetime.” The word bên means son, and so a child or descendant. Strong’s traces it to the root for building, so a family is built up by its children and a nation by its families. “Aforetime” translates qedem, the front, and so ancient times or the past. With “as” it means as in former days. Families broken by war and exile will be whole again, and new generations will grow up in peace as in Israel’s earlier and more blessed years.

“Their congregation shall be established before me.” The congregation, ʻêdâh, is the people gathered together. Strong’s defines it as a stated assemblage, generally a family or crowd, and the KJV also renders it multitude and swarm. Here it is Israel assembled as one community, sharing its worship. “Established” is kûwn, to stand upright, to set up or fix, and in its causative sense to establish, confirm or make sure. God himself makes the gathered people firm. “Before me” uses pânîym, the face, and from it presence: the congregation stands in God’s sight, under his care and with his approval. God established his covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3) and David’s kingdom (2 Samuel 7:12–16) by his own word, and he establishes this congregation the same way.

“I will punish all that oppress them.” God sees what his people have suffered at the hands of empires like Assyria and Babylon, and he will call every oppressor to account. Isaiah gives the same promise of judgment on those who oppress God’s people (Isaiah 49:26), and Zechariah tells of God returning to Zion and restoring his people there (Zechariah 8:3–8). Clearing away the oppressor opens the way for the people to live in peace and security under God’s rule.

“Their nobles shall be of themselves.” The word ʼaddîyr comes from a root meaning wide or large, and it describes someone mighty, excellent or glorious. Israel’s leading men will come from its own people, and rule imposed by foreign powers will end. “Their governor shall proceed from the midst of them.” The word behind governor comes from mâshal, to rule, and it names the one who holds ruling power. Judah in Jeremiah’s day had known kings set up or held down by foreign empires, and native kings who led the people into idolatry, such as Jehoiakim, whom God condemned (Jeremiah 22:13–19). God had warned the house of David to do justice (Jeremiah 22:1–5), and Israel’s hope of a righteous king rested on his promise of a lasting house and throne for David (2 Samuel 7:12–16). This ruler will be one of their own, he will understand his people, and he will rule as God’s chosen.

“I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me.” “Draw near” is qârab. “Approach” is nâgash, to be or come near, and causatively to bring near or present. Both words are used of priests and of others given access to God’s presence. God brings this ruler near, and he comes, so he will have a nearness to God that belongs to priests as well as kings. Israel was called to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), God sets his anointed King in place on Zion (Psalm 2:6–7), and Zechariah speaks of the Branch who is both priest and king (Zechariah 6:12–13).

The passage ends with the words at the heart of God’s covenant with Israel. God spoke them when he promised to bring his people out of Egypt (Exodus 6:7), they go back to his promise to be the God of Abraham, and he repeated them in the law with the promise of his presence among them (Leviticus 26:12). Spoken now, to a people who had broken the covenant and were going into exile, they show that God keeps faith. Moses called him the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy (Deuteronomy 7:9), and here that faithfulness outlasts his people’s unfaithfulness.

The word for people, ʻam, means a people, a congregated unit such as a tribe or a nation, from a root Strong’s glosses “to associate”. Israel will be his own people, set apart from all other nations by his choice. The word for God, ʼĕlôhîym, is plural in form, and when it names the true God it is a plural of majesty, usually with singular verbs. To be “your God” means that he will be their ruler, their protector and their provider, present with them and faithful to every promise.

The belonging runs both ways. God gives himself to his people and claims them as his own, and everything in the verses before, the homecoming, the city, the songs, the children and the ruler, rests on this bond. The same promise runs on into the chapter that follows (Jeremiah 31), and Ezekiel joins it to God’s gift of a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26–28).

Jesus is the Son of David (Matthew 1:1), and he brings back a deeper captivity than Babylon’s. He frees his people from the bondage of sin and death, and the whole creation waits to share the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:21). God’s mercy, the motive of verse 18, is the mercy by which he saved us (Titus 3:5). The rebuilt city has its counterpart in the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ himself as the chief corner stone (Ephesians 2:19–22), where believers are lively stones built up into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5). The palace that remains points to the everlasting dominion of the King whose kingdom will never be destroyed (Daniel 7:14).

The thanksgiving of verse 19 is heard in the worship of the church, sanctified through the offering of Christ’s body once for all (Hebrews 10:10). God multiplies his people as the gospel goes out to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). He glorifies them by adopting them through the Spirit (Romans 8:15), making them joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), and one day changing their lowly bodies to be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:21).

The children of verse 20 include all who receive Christ and are given power to become the sons of God (John 1:12–13). Christ has already triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15), and every oppressor will at last stand before the great white throne (Revelation 20:11–15).

The covenant words of verse 22 come to rest in the new covenant (Hebrews 8:10–12). It is secured by the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and given by the Father who so loved the world that he gave his only Son (John 3:16). The Spirit whom Christ promised (John 14:16) writes God’s laws on his people’s hearts. The promise finds its last and fullest form in the new creation: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

These verses show a God whose mercy is deeper than his people’s ruin. He judged Judah truly, and then he spoke of building on the very heap that judgment left, so that what was lost is reclaimed in the place where it fell. He turns silence into thanksgiving and smallness into honour, and he sees every wrong done to his people. He gives them a ruler whom he himself brings near, and in Christ that ruler has gone into God’s presence for us. Beneath it all lies his own word, “ye shall be my people, and I will be your God”, and Peter’s words belong to everyone who is Christ’s: “in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God.”