Verse 11
Thoughts of peace - Here God gives them to understand,
1. That his love was moved towards them.
2. That he would perform his good word, his promises often repeated, to them.
3. That for the fulfillment of these they must pray, seek, and search.
4. That he would hearken, and they should find him; provided,
5. They sought him with their whole heart, [Jer 29:10-13].
Verse 14
I will gather you from all the nations - A quotation from [Deu 30:3], and see also [Deu 4:7].
Verse 15
Because ye have said - The Septuagint very properly insert this verse between the twentieth and the twenty-first, and thus the connection here is not disturbed, and the connection below completed.
Verse 17
Behold, I will send upon them the sword - Do not envy the state of Zedekiah who sits on the throne of David, nor that of the people who are now in the land whence ye have been carried captive, ([Jer 29:16]), for "I will send the sword, the pestilence, and the famine upon them;" and afterwards shall cause them to be carried into a miserable captivity in all nations, ([Jer 29:18]); but ye see the worst of your own case, and you have God's promise of enlargement when the proper time is come. The reader will not forget that the prophet is addressing the captives in Babylon.
Verse 20
Hear ye therefore the word - Dr. Blayney thinks there were two letters written by the prophet to the captives in Babylon, and that the first ends with this verse. That having heard, on the return of the embassy (Elasah and Gemariah, whom Zedekiah had sent to Babylon, and to whom the prophet entrusted the above letter, [Jer 29:3]), that the captives had not received his advises favourably, because they were deceived by false prophets among them, who promised them a speedier deliverance, he therefore wrote a second letter, beginning with the fifteenth verse, and going on with the twenty-first, etc., in which he denounces God's judgments on three of the chief of those, Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah.
Verse 21
He shall slay them before your eyes - Nebuchadnezzar would be led by political reasons to punish these pretended prophets, as their predictions tended to make his Israelitish subjects uneasy and disaffected, and might excite them to rebellion. He therefore slew them; two of them, it appears, he burnt alive, viz., Ahab and Zedekiah, who are supposed by the rabbins to be the two elders who endeavored to seduce Susanna, see [Jer 29:23]. Burning alive was a Chaldean punishment, [Dan 3:6], and [Amo 2:1]. From them other nations borrowed it.
Verse 23
Have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives - This is supposed to refer to the case of Susanna. See above.
Verse 24
Speak to Shemaiah - Zephaniah was the second priest, sagan, or chief priest's deputy, and Seraiah, high priest, when Jerusalem was taken. See [Jer 52:24]. Shemaiah directs his letter to the former, and tells him that God had appointed him to supply the place of the high priest, who was probably then absent. His name was either Azariah or Seraiah his son, but called Jehoiada from the remarkable zeal and courage of that pontiff. See the passages in the margin. - Dodd. After the taking of Jerusalem, Zephaniah was put to death by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, see [Jer 37:3]. The history of Jehoiada may be seen [2Kgs 11:3], etc.
Verse 26
For every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet - Mad, משגע meshugga, in ecstatic rapture; such as appeared in the prophets, whether true or false, when under the influence, the one of God, the other of a demon. See [2Kgs 9:11]; [Hos 9:7].
Verse 32
I will punish Shemaiah -
1. He shall have no posterity to succeed him.
2. His family, i.e., relations, etc., shall not be found among those whom I shall bring back from captivity.
3. Nor shall he himself see the good that I shall do for my people.
And all this shall come upon him and his because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord. He excited the people to reject Jeremiah, and to receive the lying words of the false prophets; and these led them to rebel.
Introduction
This and the following chapter must relate to a still future restoration of the posterity of Jacob from their several dispersions, as no deliverance hitherto afforded them comes up to the terms of it; for, after the return from Babylon, they were again enslaved by the Greeks and Romans, contrary to the prediction in the eighth verse; in every papistical country they have labored under great civil disabilities, and in some of them have been horribly persecuted; upon the ancient people has this mystic Babylon very heavily laid her yoke; and in no place in the world are they at present their own masters; so that this prophecy remains to be fulfilled in the reign of David, i.e., the Messiah; the type, according to the general structure of the prophetical writings, being put for the antitype. The prophecy opens by an easy transition from the temporal deliverance spoken of before, and describes the mighty revolutions that shall precede the restoration of the descendants of Israel, [Jer 30:1-9], who are encouraged to trust in the promises of God, [Jer 30:10], [Jer 30:11]. They are, however, to expect corrections; which shall have a happy issue in future period, [Jer 30:12-17]. The great blessings of Messiah's reign are enumerated, [Jer 30:18-22]; and the wicked and impenitent declared to have no share in them, [Jer 30:23], [Jer 30:24].
Verse 1
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord - This prophecy was delivered about a year after the taking of Jerusalem; so Dahler. Dr. Blayney supposes it and the following chapter to refer to the future restoration of both Jews and Israelites in the times of the Gospel; though also touching at the restoration from the Babylonish captivity, at the end of seventy years. Supposing these two chapters to be penned after the taking of Jerusalem, which appears the most natural, they will refer to the same events, one captivity shadowing forth another, and one restoration being the type or pledge of the second.
Verse 2
Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book - The book here recommended I believe to be the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters; for among the Hebrews any portion of writing, in which the subject was finished, however small, was termed ספר sepher, a Book, a treatise or discourse.
Verse 3
The days come - First, After the conclusion of the seventy years. Secondly, Under the Messiah.
That I will bring again the captivity of Israel - The ten tribes, led captive by the king of Assyria, and dispersed among the nations.
And Judah - The people carried into Babylon at two different times; first, under Jeconiah, and, secondly, under Zedekiah, by Nebuchadnezzar.
Verse 5
We have heard a voice of trembling - This may refer to the state and feelings of the people during the war which Cyrus carried on against the Babylonians. Trembling and terror would no doubt affect them, and put an end to peace and all prosperity; as they could not tell what would be the issue of the struggle, and whether their state would be better or worse should their present masters fall in the conflict. This is well described in the next verse, where men are represented as being, through pain and anguish, like women in travail. See the same comparison [Isa 13:6-8].
Verse 7
Alas! for that day is great - When the Medes and Persians with all their forces shall come on the Chaldeans, it will be the day of Jacob's trouble - trial, dismay, and uncertainty; but he shall be delivered out of it - the Chaldean empire shall fall, but the Jews shall be delivered by Cyrus. Jerusalem shall be destroyed by the Romans, but the Israel of God shall be delivered from its ruin. Not one that had embraced Christianity perished in the sackage of that city.
Verse 8
I will break his yoke - That is, the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar.