13. pass ... under ... hands of him that telleth them--Shepherds, in sending forth and bringing back their sheep to the folds, count them by striking each as it passes with a rod, implying the shepherd's provident care that not one should be lost ([Le 27:32]; [Mi 7:14]; compare [Joh 10:28], ; ).
14. perform--"I will make to rise"; God's promise having for a time seemed to "lie" dead and abortive [Calvin].
15. Repeated from [Jr 23:5].
the land--the Holy Land: Israel and Judah ([Jr 23:6]).
16. Jerusalem--In [Jr 23:6], instead of this, it is "Israel." "The name" in the Hebrew has here to be supplied from that passage; and for "he" (Messiah, the antitypical "Israel"), the antecedent there ([Is 49:3]), we have "she" here, that is, Jerusalem. She is called by the same name as Messiah, "The Lord Our Righteousness," by virtue of the mystical oneness between her (as the literal representative of the spiritual Church) and her Lord and Husband. Thus, whatever belongs to the Head belongs also to the members ([Ep 5:30], ). Hence, the Church is called "Christ" ([Ro 16:7]; [1Co 12:12]). The Church hereby professes to draw all her righteousness from Christ ([Is 45:24], ). It is for the sake of Jerusalem, literal and spiritual, that God the Father gives this name (Jehovah, Tsidkenu, "The Lord our Righteousness") to Christ.
17. The promises of perpetuity of the throne of David fulfilled in Messiah, the son of David ([2Sa 7:16]; [1Ki 2:4]; [Psa 89:4], 29, 36; compare [Lu 1:32], 33).
18. Messiah's literal priesthood ([He 7:17], 21, 24-28), and His followers' spiritual priesthood and sacrifices ([Jr 33:11]; [Ro 12:1]; ; [1Pe 2:5], ; [Re 1:6]), shall never cease, according to the covenant with Levi, broken by the priests, but fulfilled by Messiah ([Nu 25:12], ; Mal [2:4, 5], ).
20. covenant of the day--that is, covenant with the day: answering to "covenant with David" ([Jr 33:21], also [Jr 33:25], "with day"; compare [Jr 31:35], ; [Le 26:42]; [Psa 89:34], ).
22. ([Ge 15:5]; ). The blessing there promised belonged to all the tribes; here it is restricted to the family of David and the tribe of Levi, because it was on these that the welfare of the whole people rested. When the kingdom and priesthood flourish in the person of Messiah, the whole nation shall temporally and spiritually prosper.
24. this people--certain of the Jews, especially those who spoke with Jeremiah in the court of the prison ([Jr 32:12]; ).
the two families--Judah and Israel.
before them--in their judgment. They suppose that I have utterly cast off Israel so as to he no more a nation. The expression, "My people," of itself, shows God has not cast off Israel for ever.
25. ([Jr 31:35], ; [Ge 8:22]; [Psa 74:16], ). I who have established the laws of nature am the same God who has made a covenant with the Church.
26. Isaac--([Psa 105:9]; [Am 7:9], ).
Chapter 34
Jr 34:1-22. Captivity of Zedekiah and the People Foretold for Their Disobedience and Perfidy
The prophecy ([Jr 34:1-7]) as to Zedekiah is an amplification of that in [Jr 32:1-5], in consequence of which Jeremiah was then shut up in the court of the prison. The prophecy ([Jr 34:8-22]) refers to the Jews, who, afraid of the capture of the city, had, in obedience to the law, granted freedom to their servants at the end of seven years, but on the intermission of the siege forced them back into bondage.
1. Jerusalem and ... all the cities thereof--(see on [Jr 19:15]). It was amazing blindness in the king, that, in such a desperate position, he should reject admonition.
3. ([Jr 32:4]).
4-5. Mitigation of Zedekiah's punishment.
7. these ... retained--alone (compare [2Ch 11:5], ).
8. By the law a Hebrew, after having been a bond-servant for six years, on the seventh was to be let go free ([Ex 21:22]; [De 15:12]).
Zedekiah made a covenant--with solemn ceremonial in the temple ([Jr 34:15], [18, 19]).
them--bond-servants ([Jr 34:9]).
9. none ... serve himself of a Jew--([Le 25:39-46]).
11. During the interruption of the siege by Pharaoh-hophra (compare [Jr 34:21], , with [Jr 37:5-10]), the Jews reduced their servants to bondage again.
13. The last year of Zedekiah was the sabbatical year. How just the retribution, that they who, against God's law and their own covenant, enslaved their brethren, should be doomed to bondage themselves: and that the bond-servants should enjoy the sabbatical freedom at the hands of the foe ([Jr 52:16]) which their own countrymen denied them!
14. At the end of seven years--that is, not on the eighth year, but within the limit of the seventh year, not later than the end of the seventh year ([Ex 21:2]; ; [De 15:12]). So "at the end of three years" ([De 14:28]; [2Ki 18:10]), and "after three days, I will rise again" ([Mt 27:63]), that is, on the third day (compare [Mt 27:64]).
15. in the house ... called by my name--the usual place of making such covenants ([2Ki 23:3]; compare [1Ki 8:31]; [Ne 10:29]).
16. polluted my name--by violating your oath ([Ex 20:7]).
17. not ... proclaiming liberty--Though the Jews had ostensibly emancipated their bond-servants, they virtually did not do so by revoking the liberty which they had granted. God looks not to outward appearances, but to the sincere intention.
I proclaim a liberty--retribution answering to the offense ([Mt 7:2]; , ; [Ga 6:7]; [Jas 2:13]). The Jews who would not give liberty to their brethren shall themselves receive "a liberty" calamitous to them. God will manumit them from His happy and safe service ([Psa 121:3]), which is real "liberty" ([Psa 119:45]; [Joh 8:36]; [2Co 3:17]), only to pass under the terrible bondage of other taskmasters, the "sword," &c.
to be removed--The Hebrew expresses agitation (see on [Jr 15:4]). Compare [De 28:25], 48, 64, 65, as to the restless agitation of the Jews in their ceaseless removals from place to place in their dispersion.
18. passed between the parts thereof--The contracting parties in the "covenant" (not here the law in general, but their covenant made before God in His house to emancipate their slaves, [Jr 34:8], ) passed through the parts of the animal cut in two, implying that they prayed so to be cut in sunder ([Mt 24:51]; Greek, "cut in two") if they should break the covenant ([Ge 15:10], ).
20. I will even give--resuming the sentence begun, but not completed ([Jr 34:18]), "I will give," &c.
seek their life--implacably: satisfied with nothing short of their blood; not content with booty.
dead bodies--The breakers of the covenant shall be cut in pieces, as the calf between whose parts they passed.
21. gone up--that is, raised the siege in order to meet Pharaoh-hophra ([Jr 37:7-10]). The departure of the Chaldeans was a kind of manumission of the Jews; but as their manumission of their bond-servants was recalled, so God revoked His manumission of them from the Chaldeans.
22. I will command--Nebuchadnezzar, impelled unconsciously by a divine instigation, returned on the withdrawal of the Egyptians.
Chapter 35
Jr 35:1-19. Prophecy in the Reign of Jehoiakim, when the Chaldeans, in Conjunction with the Syrians and Moabites, Invaded Judea
By the obedience of the Rechabites to their father, Jeremiah condemns the disobedience of the Jews to God their Father. The Holy Spirit has arranged Jeremiah's prophecies by the moral rather than the chronological connection. From the history of an event fifteen years before, the Jews, who had brought back their manumitted servants into bondage, are taught how much God loves and rewards obedience, and hates and punishes disobedience.
2. Rechabites--a nomadic tribe belonging to the Kenites of Hemath ([1Ch 2:55]), of the family of Jethro, or Hobab, Moses' father-in-law ([Ex 18:9], &c.; [Nu 10:29-32]; [Jud 1:16]). They came into Canaan with the Israelites, but, in order to preserve their independence, chose a life in tents without a fixed habitation ([1Sa 15:6]). Besides the branch of them associated with Judah and extending to Amalek, there was another section at Kadesh, in Naphtali ([Jud 4:11], ). They seem to have been proselytes of the gate, Jonadab, son of Rechab, whose charge not to drink wine they so strictly obeyed, was zealous for God ([2Ki 10:15-23]). The Nabatheans of Arabia observed the same rules [Diodorus Siculus, 19.94].
bring ... into ... house of ... Lord--because there were suitable witnesses at hand there from among the priests and chief men, as also because he had the power immediately to address the people assembled there ([Jr 35:13]). It may have been also as a reproof of the priests, who drank wine freely, though commanded to refrain from it when in the discharge of their duties [Calvin].
chambers--which were round about the temple, applied to various uses, for example, to contain the vestments, sacred vessels, &c.