Ver. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.] This chapter and the next are Jeremiah’s thirteenth sermon, as some reckon them, and it is wholly consolatory. The author of it he showeth to be the “God of all consolation”; and this the prophet inculcateth six different times in the five first verses, pro maiori efficacia, that it may take the better.
Ver. 2. Write thee all the words that I have spoken to thee in a book.] For the use of posterity, [as Habakkuk 2:2] and that the consolations may not be forgotten. [as Hebrews 12:5] “ Vox audita perit: littera scripta manet. ”
Ver. 3. I will bring again the captivity of Israel and Judah.] This promise, Oecolampadius thinketh, was written in the book in greater letters than the rest; it was fulfilled according to the letter in carnal Israel sent back by Cyrus (upon Daniel’s prayer, who understood by that book here mentioned that the time of deliverance, yea, the set time was come, Daniel 9:2), but more fully in those “Jews inwardly,” (Romans 2:29) those “Israelites indeed” who are set at liberty by Christ, (John 8:36) and shall be much more at the last day. Convertam conversionem. -Vulg.
Ver. 4. And these are the words.] These are the contents of this precious book; every leaf, nay, line, nay, letter whereof, droppeth myrrh and mercy. That the Lord spake.] See on Jeremiah 30:1.
Ver. 5. We have heard a voice of trembling.] We were at first in a pitiful plight, scil., when the city was taken and the temple burnt (and this is elegantly here set forth, and in the two next verses); but better times are at hand: “ Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur. ”
Ver. 6. Ask ye now, and see, &c.] Was it ever heard of in this world that a male did bear? The poets indeed fable that Minerva was born of Jupiter’s brain: “ Pictoribus atque poetis, Quidlibet audendi fas est.” Wherefore do I see every man.] Heb., Every strong or mighty man. With their hands on their loins.] And not on their weapons. And all faces turned into paleness.] Through extreme fear, the blood running to the heart, and the heart fallen into the heels. The Septuagint, for “paleness,” have the yellow jaundice; the Vulgate, gold yellowness; Piscator, morbus regius; the royal sickness, the Hebrew properly implieth the colour of blasted corn. (Deuteronomy 28:22) It importeth that the most stout-hearted warriors should be enervati et exangues, more parturientium, bloodless and spiritless, as travailing women.
Ver. 7. Alas! for that day is great,] i.e., Troublesome and terrible, somewhat like the last day, the day of judgment, which is therefore also called the “great day,” because therein the great God will do great things, &c. It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble.] Such as never befell him before. Those very days shall be “affliction,” so Mark expresseth the last desolation; (Jeremiah 13:19) not “afflicted” only, but “affliction” itself. But though it be the time of Jacob’s troubles, let it be also the time of his trust, for there will be shortly a day of his triumph. But he shall be saved out of it.] Not from it, but yet out of it; the Lord knoweth how to deliver his: (2 Peter 2:9) and though Sense say it will not be; Reason it cannot be; yet Faith gets above and says it shall be; I see the land.
Ver. 8. I will break his yoke from off thy neck.] The forementioned misery did but make way for this mercy, that it might be the more magnified. Let the saints but see from what, to what, and by what Jesus Christ hath delivered them, and they cannot but be thankful.
Ver. 9. But they shall serve the Lord their God.] “Without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of their lives.” (Luke 1:74,75 John 8:12,31-36, Romans 8:1-4) And David their king,] i.e., Zerubbabel of David’s line, (Haggai 2:23) but especially Christ, the King of saints, as the Jewish doctors also expound it. Whom I will raise up to them.] To be Messiah the Prince. (Daniel 9:25) Christ the Lord. (Acts 5:31)
Ver. 10. Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob.] This is Isaiah like; and indeed the prophet here setteth himself verbis consolantissimis, by words of comfort, as one saith, with most cordial comforts, to cheer the hearts of God’s poor afflicted.
Ver. 11. For I am with thee.] To preserve thee, and to provide for thee; to support thee, and to supply thee. Though I make a full end of all nations.] See Isaiah 27:7,8. [See Trapp on “Isa 27:7”] [See Trapp on “Isa 27:8”] Jeremiah 5:10,18. But I will correct thee in measure.] Heb., According to judgment, not summo iure et rigida iustitia; not as I might, but in mercy and with moderation. And will not leave thee altogether unpunished.] Heb., Et innocentando non innocentabo te; in very faithfulness I will afflict thee, that I may be true to thy soul, and not cruel to thy body. Aliqui reddunt mundando non mundabo te, id est, non excoquam te exacte ad purum putum.
Ver. 12. Thy bruise is incurable,] i.e., Inevitable, by God’s irrevocable decree. Or, It is incurable in itself; but not to me, who am an almighty Physician or surgeon. See Ezekiel 37:11. They seemed “free among the dead,” free of that company.
Ver. 13. There is none to plead thy cause.] Thou art friendless. That thou mayest be bound up.] Thou art helpless.
Ver. 14. All thy lovers have forgotten thee.] Thy sweethearts, thine idols, thy carnal friends, thy priests, prophets, riches, pleasures, all these have given thee the bag, as we say; they stand aloof from thy help. They seek thee not.] Sink thou mayest, or swim, for them; thou art no part of their care. For I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy.] As if I cared not where I hit thee, or how much I hurt thee. With the chastisement of a cruel one.] So it may seem, and so Job thought; (Job 30:21) but that was his error. See here what a pass a saint may be at, and how deeply he may suffer, when his sins are increased. God, out of love displeased, may lay upon him and not spare, leave bloody wales on his back, &c. Crudelem medicum intemperans aeger facit. For the multitude of thine iniquities.] Because thy sins are many and mighty, or bony. See Amos 5:12. [See Trapp on “Am 5:12”]
Ver. 15. Why criest thou for thine affliction?] And not rather for thy sins? cry not perii, I have died, but peccavi; I have sinned, not, I am undone; but, I have done very foolishly. See Lamentations 3:39,40.
Ver. 16. Therefore all they that devoured thee shall be devoured.] Or, Nevertheless, or yet all they that devoured thee, &c., q.d., That thou mayest experience that in love I corrected thee and for thy good, though to thy so great grief. I will have my pennyworths on thine enemies, measuring to them as they have done to thee.
Ver. 17. For I will restore health.] It goes best with the Church when worst with her enemies. It shall do so much more when all Christ’s foes shall be made his footstool. Because they called thee an Outcast.] Concluding so from thine afflictions. The Jewish nation, saith Cicero, show how well God regards them, that have been so oft subdued, by the Chaldees, Greeks, Romans, &c. This was but a slender argument, only God is moved by the enemy’s insolence and insults to look in mercy the rather upon his poor despised and despited people. Saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.] Illusio ex allusione, this was a jeer by playing upon her name, as if Zion signified a dry or waste place, and therefore not much to be desired. Strabo indeed saith as much of Judea; and Mount Zion at this day, nihil habet eximium, nihil expetendum, hath no great desire in it. But certainly Judea was once a land flowing with milk and honey, and Mount Zion was in no small request. Howsoever, none ought by their bitter taunts to add affliction to the afflicted, but rather to weep with those that weep; “be pitiful, be courteous.” (1 Peter 3:8) Quam cara diis esset, docuit, quod est victa, quod elocata, quod servata. -Cic, pro Flacco. Per ludibrium et blasphemam contumeliam.
Ver. 18. The captivity of Jacob’s tents,] i.e., The poor captives that now live at Babylon as strangers in tents or huts. And the city shall be builded upon her own heap.] Or, Hill, sc., in Mount Moriah. Jerusalem shall be inhabited in Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:6) All this was prolusio perfectae liberationis in Christo, saith Junius, a type and pledge of perfect deliverance by Christ.
Ver. 19. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving.] Mox ubi fides, inde prodit et laus et confessio. Faith is a fruitful grace, the very womb wherein all the rest are conceived.
Ver. 20. Their children also shall be as aforetime.] How easily can the Lord “turn again the captivity of his people,” set them statu quo prius? “They shall be as if I had not cast them off.” (Zechariah 10:6) [See Trapp on “Zec 10:6”]
Ver. 21. And their nobles shall be of themselves.] Foreigners shall no more domineer over them, but they shall have governors of their own nation, who shall be more tender of them, and careful of their good. Some apply all this, and well they may, to Jesus Christ, who is here called Magnificus et Domigrator, his magnificent or honourable one and his ruler, who also is one of them, and proceedeth from among them. See Deuteronomy 18:18. And I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me.] Either as God, co-equal and coessential with me, or as Mediator; and so he shall approach unto me by the hypostatical union (in respect of which he came the nearest unto God of any that ever was or could), and by the execution of his priestly office, wherein he intercedeth for my people, and reconcileth them unto me. For who is this that engaged his heart?] Who but my Son Christ durst do it, or was fit to do it? He is a super-excellent person, as is imported by this Mi-hu-ze, Who this he? Christus Fortis ille et Gigas est. -Oecol.
Ver. 22. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God,] sc., Through Christ, and by his mediation. As for those that are not in covenant with God by Christ, as the devil will one day sweep them, so meanwhile,
Ver. 23. Behold the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury.] Sensim sese conglomerans ac demittens in eorum capite; the vengeance of God followeth them close at heels, till at length they be wherried away by that terrible tempest at death. (Job 27:20)
Ver. 24. The fierce anger of the Lord.] See Jeremiah 23:20. In the latter days ye shall consider it.] In the days of the Messiah, but especially at the end of the world, when all these things shall have their full accomplishment.