16. this year ... die--The prediction was uttered in the fifth month ([Jr 28:1]); Hananiah's death took place in the seventh month, that is, within two months after the prediction, answering with awful significance to the two years in which Hananiah had foretold that the yoke imposed by Babylon would end.
rebellion--opposition to God's plain direction, that all should submit to Babylon ([Jr 29:32]).
Chapter 29
Jr 29:1-32. Letter of Jeremiah to the Captives in Babylon, to Counteract the Assurances Given by the False Prophets of a Speedy Restoration
1. residue of the elders--those still surviving from the time when they were carried to Babylon with Jeconiah; the other elders of the captives had died by either a natural or a violent death.
2. queen--Nehushta, the queen mother, daughter of Elnathan ([2Ki 24:8], ). (Elnathan, her father, is perhaps the same as the one mentioned in [Jr 26:22]). She reigned jointly with her son.
princes--All the men of authority were taken away lest they should organize a rebellion. Jeremiah wrote his letter while the calamity was still recent, to console the captives under it.
3. Zedekiah ... sent unto Babylon--In [Jr 51:59], Zedekiah himself goes to Babylon; here he sends ambassadors. Whatever was the object of the embassy, it shows that Zedekiah only reigned at the pleasure of the king of Babylon, who might have restored Jeconiah, had he pleased. Hence, Zedekiah permitted Jeremiah's letter to be sent, not only as being led by Hananiah's death to attach greater credit to the prophet's words, but also as the letter accorded with his own wish that the Jews should remain in Chaldea till Jeconiah's death.
Hilkiah--the high priest who found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, and showed it to "Shaphan" the scribe (the same Shaphan probably as here), who showed it to King Josiah ([2Ki 22:8], &c.). The sons of Hilkiah and Shaphan inherited from their fathers some respect for sacred things. So in [Jr 36:25], "Gemariah" interceded with King Jehoiakim that the prophet's roll should not be burned.
5. Build ... houses--In opposition to the false prophets' suggestions, who told the captives that their captivity would soon cease, Jeremiah tells them that it will be of long duration, and that therefore they should build houses, as Babylon is to be for long their home.
6. that ye ... be ... not diminished--It was God's will that the seed of Abraham should not fail; thus consolation is given them, and the hope, though not of an immediate, yet of an ultimate, return.
7. ([Ezr 6:10]; [Ro 13:1]; [1Ti 2:2]). Not only bear the Babylonian yoke patiently, but pray for your masters, that is, while the captivity lasts. God's good time was to come when they were to pray for Babylon's downfall ([Jr 51:35]; [Psa 137:8]). They were not to forestall that time. True religion teaches patient submission, not sedition, even though the prince be an unbeliever. In all states of life let us not throw away the comfort we may have, because we have not all we would have. There is here a foretaste of gospel love towards enemies ([Mt 5:44]).
8. your dreams which ye caused to be dreamed--The Latin adage says, "The people wish to be deceived, so let them be deceived." Not mere credulity misleads men, but their own perverse "love of darkness rather than light." It was not priests who originated priestcraft, but the people's own morbid appetite to be deceived; for example, Aaron and the golden calf ([Ex 32:1-4]). So the Jews caused or made the prophets to tell them encouraging dreams ([Jr 23:25], ; [Ec 5:7]; [Zec 10:2]; [Joh 3:19-21]).
10. (See on [Jr 25:11]; [Jr 25:12]; [Da 9:2]). This proves that the seventy years date from Jeconiah's captivity, not from the last captivity. The specification of time was to curb the impatience of the Jews lest they should hasten before God's time.
good word--promise of a return.
11. I know--I alone; not the false prophets who know nothing of My purposes, though they pretend to know.
thoughts ... I think--([Is 55:9]). Glancing at the Jews who had no "thoughts of peace," but only of "evil" (misfortune), because they could not conceive how deliverance could come to them. The moral malady of man is twofold--at one time vain confidence; then, when that is disappointed, despair. So the Jews first laughed at God's threats, confident that they should speedily return; then, when cast down from that confidence, they sank in inconsolable despondency.
expected end--literally, "end and expectation," that is, an end, and that such an end as you wish for. Two nouns joined by "and," standing for a noun and adjective. So in [Jr 36:27], "the roll and the words," that is, the roll of words; [Ge 3:16], "sorrow and conception," that is, sorrow in conception. Compare [Pr 23:18], where, as here "end" means "a happy issue."
12. Fulfilled ([Da 9:3], &c.). When God designs mercy, He puts it into the hearts of His people to pray for the mercy designed. When such a spirit of prayer is poured out, it is a sure sign of coming mercy.
go--to the temple and other places of prayer: contrasted with their previous sloth as to going to seek God.
13. (Le 26:40-42, 44, 45).
14. to be found--([Psa 32:6]; [Is 55:6]).
turn ... captivity--play upon sounds, shabti ... shebith.
15. Because--referring not to the preceding words, but to [Jr 29:10], , "Jehovah saith this to you" (that is, the prophecy of the continuance of the captivity seventy years), "because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon," namely, foretelling our speedy deliverance (this their prophecy is supposed, not expressed; accordingly, [Jr 29:16-19] contradict this false hope again, [Jr 29:8], [9, 21]). He, in this fifteenth verse, turns his address from the godly ([Jr 29:12-14]) to the ungodly listeners, to false prophets.
16. people ... in this city ... not gone forth--So far from your returning to Jerusalem soon, even your brethren still left dwelling there shall themselves also be cast into exile. He mentions "the throne of David," lest they should think that, because David's kingdom was to be perpetual, no severe, though temporary, chastisements could interpose ([Psa 89:29-36]).
17. vile figs--Hebrew, "horrible," or nauseous, from a root, "to regard with loathing" (see [Jr 24:8], ).
18. removed to all ... kingdoms--([Jr 15:4]; [De 28:25]).
curse, &c.--([Jr 29:6]; ; ).
21. Zedekiah--brother of Zephaniah ([Jr 29:25]), both being sons of Maaseiah; probably of the same family as the false prophet under Ahab in Israel ([1Ki 22:11], ).
22. shall be taken ... a curse--that is, a formula of imprecation.
Lord make thee like Zedekiah--(Compare [Ge 48:20]; [Is 65:15]).
roasted in the fire--a Chaldean punishment ([Da 3:6]).
23. villainy--literally, "sinful folly" ([Is 32:6]).
24-32. A second communication which Jeremiah sent to Babylon, after the messenger who carried his first letter had brought a letter from the false prophet Shemaiah to Zephaniah, &c., condemning Jeremiah and reproving the authorities for not having apprehended him.
Nehelamite--a name derived either from his father or from a place: alluding at the same time to the Hebrew meaning, "a dreamer" (compare [Jr 29:8]).
Chapter 30
Jr 30:1-24. Restoration of the Jews from Babylon after Its Capture, and Raising Up of Messiah
2. Write ... in a book--After the destruction of Jerusalem Jeremiah is not ordered as heretofore to speak, but to write the succeeding prophecy ([Jr 30:4], &c.), so as thereby it might be read by his countrymen wheresoever they might be in their dispersion.
3. bring again ... captivity of ... Israel and Judah--the restoration not merely of the Jews (treated of in this thirtieth chapter), but also of the ten tribes ("Israel"; treated in the thirty-first chapter), together forming the whole nation ([Jr 30:18]; [Jr 32:44]; [Eze 39:25]; [Am 9:14], ). "Israel" is mentioned first because its exile was longer than that of Judah. Some captives of the Israelite ten tribes returned with those of Judah ([Lu 2:36]; "Aser" is mentioned). But these are only a pledge of the full restoration hereafter ([Ro 11:26], "All Israel"). Compare [Jr 16:15]. This third verse is a brief statement of the subject before the prophecy itself is given.
5. We have heard ... trembling--God introduces the Jews speaking that which they will be reduced to at last in spite of their stubbornness. Threat and promise are combined: the former briefly; namely, the misery of the Jews in the Babylonian captivity down to their "trembling" and "fear" arising from the approach of the Medo-Persian army of Cyrus against Babylon; the promise is more fully dwelt on; namely, their "trembling" will issue in a deliverance as speedy as is the transition from a woman's labor pangs to her joy at giving birth to a child ([Jr 30:6]).
6. Ask--Consult all the authorities, men or books, you can, you will not find an instance. Yet in that coming day men will be seen with their hands pressed on their loins, as women do to repress their pangs. God will drive men through pain to gestures more fitting a woman than a man ([Jr 4:31]; ). The metaphor is often used to express the previous pain followed by the sudden deliverance of Israel, as in the case of a woman in childbirth ([Is 66:7-9]).
paleness--properly the color of herbs blasted and fading: the green paleness of one in jaundice: the sickly paleness of terror.
7. great--marked by great calamities ([Joe 2:11], 31; [Am 5:18]; [Zep 1:14]).
none like it ... but he shall be saved--([Da 12:1]). The partial deliverance at Babylon's downfall prefigures the final, complete deliverance of Israel, literal and spiritual, at the downfall of the mystical Babylon ([Re 18:1-19:21]).
8. his yoke ... thy neck--his, that is, Jacob's ([Jr 30:7]), the yoke imposed on him. The transition to the second person is frequent, God speaking of Jacob or Israel, at the same time addressing him directly. So "him" rightly follows; "foreigners shall no more make him their servant" ([Jr 25:14]). After the deliverance by Cyrus, Persia, Alexander, Antiochus, and Rome made Judah their servant. The full of deliverance meant must, therefore, be still future.