English · KJV

Jeremiah 50:34

“The Redeemer of Israel”Jeremiah 50:33–34

King James Version
Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
Their Redeemer H1350 is strong H2389; the LORD H3068 of hosts H6635 is his name H8034: he shall throughly H7378 plead H7378 their cause H7379, that he may give rest H7280 to the land H776, and disquiet H7264 the inhabitants H3427 of Babylon H894.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Hosts is His name. He will fervently plead their case so that He may bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah of hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
But their strong redeemer, whose Name is the Lord of hostes, he shall maintaine their cause, that he may giue rest to the lande, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babel.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
Their Redeemer is strong, Jehovah of Hosts is His name, He doth thoroughly plead their cause, So as to cause the land to rest, And He hath given trouble to the inhabitants of Babylon.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
16 Hebrew words
  1. גֹּאֲלָםgo·'a·Lamtheir redeemerH1350V-Qal-Prtcpl-ms ¦ 3mpVerb Qal Participle Singular Masculine Construct with suffixגֹּאֲלָredeemerםtheir
  2. חָזָקcha·Zak[is] strongH2389Adj-msAdjective Singular Masculine Absolute
  3. יְהוָהYah·weh[is] YahwehH3068N-properNoun Proper Title
  4. צְבָאוֹתtze·va·'Otof hostsH6635N-fpNoun Plural (-ôt ending) Absolute
  5. שְׁמוֹshe·Mohis nameH8034N-msc ¦ 3msNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixשְׁמnameוֹhis
  6. רִיבrivcertainly [conduct]H7378V-Qal-InfVerb Qal Infinitive Construct
  7. יָרִיבya·Rivhe will conductH7378V-Qal-Imperf-3msVerb Qal Imperfect 3rd Singular Masculine
  8. אֶת'et[obj.]H853DirObjMParticle Object Indicator
  9. רִיבָםri·Vamtheir caseH7379N-msc ¦ 3mpNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixרִיבָcaseםtheir
  10. לְמַעַןle·Ma·'anso asH4616PrtParticle Conditional
  11. הִרְגִּיעַhir·Gi·a'to give rest toH7280V-Hiphil-Perf-3msVerb Hiphil Perfect 3rd Singular Masculine
  12. אֶת'et[obj.]H853DirObjMParticle Object Indicator
  13. הָאָרֶץha·'A·retzthe earthH776Art ¦ N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absoluteהָtheאָרֶץearth
  14. וְהִרְגִּיזve·hir·Gizand to cause disquietH7264Conj-w ¦ V-Hiphil-ConsecPerf-3msVerb Hiphil Consecutive Perfect 3rd Singular Masculineוְandהִרְגִּיזto cause disquiet
  15. לְיֹשְׁבֵיle·yo·she·Veito [the] inhabitants ofH3427Prep-l ¦ V-Qal-Prtcpl-mpVerb Qal Participle Plural Masculine Constructלְtoיֹשְׁבֵי[the] inhabitants of
  16. בָבֶלva·VelBabylonH894N-properNoun Proper Location
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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This verse

Israel’s Redeemer is the strong LORD of hosts, who will take up his people’s cause in full, give rest to their land and bring unrest on the people of Babylon.

“Their Redeemer is strong;”

The Redeemer is the near kinsman, and his strength answers the captors’ strength in the verse before, using a word from the same root.

“the LORD of hosts is his name:”

The Redeemer is named as the commander of every host in heaven and on earth, and his name guarantees what he promises.

“he shall throughly plead their cause,”

God stands as his people’s advocate, and the doubled Hebrew verb makes the promise emphatic.

“that he may give rest to the land,”

The land of Israel and Judah will have peace and security after war and exile, looking ahead to the return.

“and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.”

The oppressor gets the opposite of rest: turmoil, fear and finally ruin.

Passage studyJeremiah 50:33–34

The Strong Redeemer of Israel

33Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go. 34Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

Summary

The LORD of hosts speaks about his people in exile. Israel and Judah were oppressed together, and the nations that carried them away held them fast and refused to let them go. Then he names himself their Redeemer, the near kinsman who has the right and the duty to act for his family, and he says that this Redeemer is strong. He will take up their cause in full, give rest to their land and bring unrest on the people of Babylon. The captors’ grip was real, and the God who answers it is stronger.

Israel and Judah, held fast by their captors

Verse 33 opens with “Thus saith the LORD of hosts”, the words a prophet uses to mark a message as God’s own, so everything that follows carries his full authority. These verses belong to the long prophecy against Babylon that fills Jeremiah 50 and 51. Earlier chapters of Jeremiah tell of Judah’s long unfaithfulness and of the exile God sent in judgment on it. Here the message turns to Babylon itself. God used Babylon to discipline his people, and he now holds it to account for the cruelty and pride with which it went beyond that task. Isaiah speaks of Assyria in the same way, as the rod of God’s anger that would itself be punished (Isaiah 10).

“The children of Israel and the children of Judah” names the two kingdoms that formed when the united monarchy divided. The word for children, bên, means son, and “the sons of Israel” is the ordinary way of naming the whole people as the descendants of one father.

Why are both Israel and Judah named?

God names both because his concern takes in all his people, both branches of his family. The northern kingdom of Israel had been conquered and scattered by Assyria in 722 BC. Judah went to Babylon in several waves of deportation, ending with the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in 586 BC. Their exiles came at different times and at the hands of different empires, and God calls them “oppressed together”. He also has one future for them. The promises of Jeremiah 31, where the new covenant is given, look ahead to a time when he gathers his scattered people, and Ezekiel is told to join two sticks, one for Judah and one for Israel, into one in his hand (Ezekiel 37:15–28).

Oppressed, held fast and refused

“Oppressed” translates ʻâshaq, which means to oppress, defraud, extort or wrong. It names an injustice done to someone, and the verse puts Israel and Judah on the receiving end of it. “Held them fast” is châzaq, the common verb for being strong or making firm, used here of a firm hold on prisoners. “They refused to let them go” uses mâʼên, to refuse. Taken together, the three phrases describe a people who were wronged, gripped tightly and kept. “All that took them captives” takes in every power that carried them off, and the chief of these by now was Babylon.

Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar stood at the height of its power. Captives were commonly put to work for the empire, and conquered peoples were seldom released unless it suited the empire. The exiles had lost their land, their temple and their independence, and many felt that God had abandoned them. As far as any human help went, they had no way home.

That is the moment God speaks into. He has done this before. When his people were slaves in Egypt he told Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows” (Exodus 3:7), and he brought them out through the Red Sea when Pharaoh’s army pursued them (Exodus 14). A psalm recalls how he guarded his people as they wandered among the nations: “He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm” (Psalm 105:13–15). Isaiah answers the very question this verse raises: “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered” (Isaiah 49:24–26).

Their Redeemer is strong

The answer comes at once in verse 34: “Their Redeemer is strong.” The word for Redeemer comes from gâʼal, and the one who does it is the goʼel. In Israel’s law and life the goʼel was the near kinsman who stood up for a relative in trouble. He bought back family land that had been sold, he avenged a relative’s blood, and he could marry a dead kinsman’s widow so that the family name went on. When God calls himself Israel’s goʼel, he claims them as his own family and takes on himself the right and the duty to act for them, to set them free and restore what they lost. Isaiah gives the same comfort: “But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine” (Isaiah 43:1).

“Strong” is châzâq, which means strong, hard or intense, and it comes from the same root as the châzaq of verse 33. The captors held Israel strongly, and their Redeemer is strong. The grip of Babylon meets a stronger hand, and God is both willing to act and able to finish what he begins.

What does “the LORD of hosts” mean?

The title appears in both verses, and in verse 34 it is the Redeemer’s own name: “the LORD of hosts is his name.” In Hebrew it is Yᵉhôvâh Sabaoth. Yᵉhôvâh is God’s own name, which the KJV prints as “the LORD”. Sabaoth means an army or host, and also war, service and the host of heaven. So the title names God as Lord over every multitude there is: the angels of heaven, the stars, and the armies and nations of the earth. In Scripture a name stands for who someone is, and here the name of the Redeemer stands behind the promise. The people who heard this were captives of the strongest empire on earth, and the One who called himself their kinsman commands every host in heaven and on earth.

He shall throughly plead their cause

The verb is rîyb, which means to quarrel, to contend or to accuse, and in a separate sense to plead another’s cause. The second sense is the one here. God takes up his people’s case against those who wronged them and stands as their advocate. “Throughly” is the KJV’s form of “thoroughly”, and it renders a Hebrew repetition of the verb, which makes the statement emphatic: he will plead their cause fully, and every wrong done to them will be answered. A psalm praises God for this very thing: “For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right” (Psalm 9:4).

This is the kinsman’s work again. A goʼel stood up for his relative, and the LORD stands up for his people in a case they could never have won alone.

Rest for the land and unrest for Babylon

The verse names two results of God’s action, and they are opposites. He will “give rest to the land” and “disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.”

“The land” is the land of Israel and Judah. To give it rest means peace and security after war, exile and oppression, and a settled, flourishing life for God’s people once more. This looks ahead to the return from exile, which God had already promised through Jeremiah: “For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place” (Jeremiah 29:10–14).

“Disquiet” means turmoil, unrest and fear, and in the end ruin. Babylon was famed for its army, its wealth, its towering walls and the Hanging Gardens, and its people worshipped Marduk and other gods. Its pride, its cruelty to God’s people and its idolatry bring it under his judgment, as Isaiah had also prophesied (Isaiah 13). The same God who brings his people rest brings their oppressor down, and the righteous and the wicked come to different ends, as Psalm 37 teaches. Scripture carries the fall of Babylon on to its last chapter, where the angel cries, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen” (Revelation 18:2).

Christ, our Kinsman-Redeemer and Advocate

These verses speak of a real captivity and a real return, and they find their fullest meaning in Jesus Christ. Every one of us was held fast by captors stronger than we are: sin, death and the power of the devil. Paul cries out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:23–24). The letter to the Hebrews says that the Son took part in our flesh and blood so that through death he might destroy the devil, and “deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14–15).

Christ came to do what our captors refused to allow. He was anointed “to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isaiah 61:1), and by his death and resurrection he broke the power of sin and death. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36), and Paul tells the freed to “stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Galatians 5:1).

He is our kinsman as well as our deliverer, for he became one of us and bought us back at the cost of his own blood: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). He still pleads our cause: “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The rest promised to the land is offered by him to everyone who is weary: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). When he returns he will overcome every power that sets itself against God (Revelation 19:11–16), and his redeemed people will have their everlasting rest.

Trusting the Redeemer who pleads our cause

The exiles in Babylon heard that God saw what had been done to them, counted them as his own family and would answer for them. The same God sees the wrongs done to his people today, and he hears them when they cry to him. When something holds you fast and will not let you go, his strength is greater than its grip, and your case is in the hands of a Redeemer who calls you his own.

His justice also gives us work to do. Since God takes up the cause of the oppressed, his people are called to stand with them and to speak for them. And since the outcome is his, we can wait for it with patience and with confident hope. Babylon looked unbeatable, and it fell. The rest God promised his people came, and the rest Christ gives is ours now, with more still to come.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Jeremiah 50:33–46. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 14 verses
Passage under commentJeremiah 50:33–46
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

We have in these verses,

I.Israel's sufferings, and their deliverance out of those sufferings.

God takes notice of the bondage of his people in Babylon, as he did of their bondage in Egypt; he has surely seen it, and has heard their cry. Israel and Judah were oppressed together, Jeremiah 50:33. Those that remained of the captives of the ten tribes, upon the uniting of the kingdoms of Assyria and Chaldea, seem to have come and mingled with t hose of the two tribes, and to have mingled tears with them, so that they were oppressed together. They were humble suppliants for their liberty, and that was all; they could not attempt any thing towards it, for all that took them captives held them fast, and were much too hard for them. But this is their comfort in distress, that, though they are weak, their Redeemer is strong (Jeremiah 50:34), their Avenger (so the word signifies), he that has a right to them, and will claim his right and make good his claim. He is stronger than their enemies that hold them fast; he can overpower all the force that is against them, and put strength into his own people though they are very weak. The Lord of hosts is his name, and he will answer to his name, and make it to appear that he is what his people call him, and will be that to them for which they depend upon him. Note, It is the unspeakable comfort of the people of God that, though they have hosts against them, they have the Lord of hosts for them and he shall thoroughly plead their cause, pleading he shall plead it, plead it with jealousy, plead it effectually, plead it and carry it, that he may give rest to the land, and to his people's land, rest from all their enemies round about. This is applicable to all believers, who complain of the dominion of sin and corruption, and of their own weakness and manifold infirmities. Let them know that their Redeemer is strong; he is able to keep what they commit to him, and he will plead their cause. Sin shall not have dominion over them; he will make them free, and they shall be free indeed; he will give them rest, that rest which remains for the people of God.

II.Babylon's sin, and their punishment for that sin.

1.The sins they are here charged with are idolatry and persecution.

(1.)They oppressed the people of God; they held them fast, and would not let them go. They opened not the house of his prisoners, Isaiah 14:17. This was God's quarrel with them, as of old with Pharaoh; it cost him dear, and yet they would not take warning. The inhabitants of Babylon must be disquieted (Jeremiah 50:34) because they have disquieted God's people, whose honour and comfort he is jealous for, and therefore will recompense tribulation to those that trouble them, as well as rest to those that are troubled, 2 Thessalonians 1:6, 2 Thessalonians 1:7.

(2.)They wronged God himself, and robbed him, giving that glory to others which is due to him alone; for (Jeremiah 50:38) it is the land of graven images. All parts of the country abounded with idols, and they were mad upon them, were in love with them and doted on them, cared not what cost and pains they were at in the worship of them, were unwearied in paying their respects to them; and in all this they were wretchedly infatuated and acted like men out of their wits; they were carried on in their idolatry without reason or discretion, like men in a perfect fury. The word here used for idols properly signifies terrors - Enim, the name given to giants that were formidable, because they made the images of their gods to look frightful, to strike a terror upon fools and children. Their idols were scarecrows, yet they doted on them. Babylon was the mother of harlots (Revelation 17:5), the source of idolatry. Note, It is the maddest thing in the world to make a god of any creature; and those who are proud against the Lord, the true God, are justly given up to strong delusions, to be mad upon idols that cannot profit. But this madness is wickedness, for which sinners will be certainly and severely reckoned with.

2.The judgments of God upon them for these sins are such as will quite lay them waste and ruin them.

(1.)All that should be their defence and support shall be cut off by the sword. The Chaldeans had long been God's sword, wherewith he had done execution upon the sinful nations round about: but now, they being as bad as any of them, or worse, a sword is brought upon them, even upon the inhabitants of Babylon (Jeremiah 50:35), a sword of war; and, as it is in God's hand, sent and directed by him, it is a sword of justice. It shall be,

[1.]Upon their princes; they shall fall by it, and their dignity, wealth, and power, shall not secure them.

[2.]Upon their wise men, their philosophers, their statesmen, and privy-counsellors; their learning and policy shall neither secure them nor stand the public in any stead.

[3.]Upon their soothsayers and astrologers, here called the liars (Jeremiah 50:36), for they cheated with their prognostications of peace and prosperity; the sword upon them shall make them dote, so that they shall talk like fools, and be as men that have lost all their wits. Note, God has a sword that can reach the soul and affect the mind, and bring men under spiritual plagues.

[4.]Upon their mighty men. A sword shall be upon their spirits; if they are not slain, yet they shall be dismayed, and shall be no longer mighty men; for what stead will their hands stand them in when their hearts fail them?

[5.]Upon their militia (Jeremiah 50:37): The sword shall be upon their horses and chariots; the invaders shall make themselves masters of all their warlike stores, shall seize their horses and chariots for themselves, or destroy them. The troops of other nations that were in their service shall be quite disheartened: The mingled people shall become as weak and timorous as women.

[6.]Upon their exchequer: The sword shall be upon her treasures, which are the sinews of war, and they shall be robbed, and made use of by the enemy against them. See what universal destruction the sword makes when it comes with commission.

(2.)The country shall be made desolate (Jeremiah 50:38): The waters shall be dried up, the water that secures the city. Cyrus drew the river Euphrates into so many channels as made it passable for his army, so that they got with ease to the walls of Babylon, which, if was thought, that river had rendered inaccessible. "The water likewise that made the country fruitful shall be dried up, so that it shall be turned into barrenness, and shall be no more inhabited by the children of men, but by the wild beasts of the desert," Jeremiah 50:39. This was foretold concerning Babylon, Isaiah 13:19-22. It shall become like Sodom and Gomorrah, Jeremiah 50:40. The same was foretold concerning Edom, Jeremiah 49:18. As the Chaldeans had laid Edom waste, so they shall themselves be laid waste.

(3.)The king and kingdom shall be put into the utmost confusion and consternation by the enemies' invading them, Jeremiah 50:41-43. All the expressions here used to denote the formidable power of the invaders, the terrors wherewith they should array themselves, and the great fright which both court and country should be put into thereby, we met with before (Jeremiah 6:22-24) concerning the Chaldeans' invading the land of Judah. The battle which is there said to be against thee, O daughter of Zion! is here said to be against thee, O daughter of Babylon! to intimate that they should be paid in their own coin. God can find out such as shall be for terror and destruction to those that are for terror and destruction to others; and those who have dealt cruelly, and have shown no mercy, may expect to be cruelly dealt with, and to find no mercy. Only there is one difference between these passages; there it is said, We have heard the fame thereof and our hands wax feeble; here it is said, The king of Babylon has heard the report and his hands waxed feeble, which intimates that that proud and daring prince shall, in the day of his distress, be as weak and dispirited as the meanest Israelites were in the day of their distress.

(4.)That they shall be as much hurt as frightened, for the invader shall come up like a lion to tear and destroy (Jeremiah 50:44) and shall make them and their habitation desolate (Jeremiah 50:45), and the desolation shall be so astonishing that all the nations about shall be terrified by it, Jeremiah 50:46. These three verses we had before (Jeremiah 49:19-21) in the prophecy of the destruction of Edom, which was accomplished by the Chaldeans, and they are here repeated, mutatis mutandis - with a few necessary alterations, in the prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, which was to be accomplished upon the Chaldeans, to show that though the distributions of Providence may appear unequal for a time its retributions will be equal at last; when thou shalt make an end to spoil thou shalt be spoiled, Isaiah 33:1; Revelation 13:10.

Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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