16 Therefore all that devour thee shall be devoured, and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be for a spoil; and all they that prey upon thee will I give to be a prey.
Son of man, because Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken, the gate of the peoples! she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished [now] she is laid waste; therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth its waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers. And I will scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock. She shall be [a place] for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken [it], saith the Lord Jehovah; and she shall become a spoil for the nations. And her daughters that are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring from the north, against Tyre, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, the king of kings, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and an assemblage, and much people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field, and he shall make forts against thee, and cast up a mound against thee, and lift up the target against thee; and he shall set his engines of attack against thy walls, and with his spikes he shall break down thy towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee; thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter through thy gates, as a city is entered into, wherein is made a breach. With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall slay thy people by the sword, and the pillars of thy strength shall go down to the ground. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy wares; and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the waters. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard. And I will make thee a bare rock; thou shalt be [a place] for the spreading of nets; thou shalt be built no more: for I Jehovah have spoken [it], saith the Lord Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to Tyre: Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? And all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and put off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling, they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble [every] moment, and be astonied because of thee. And they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and say to thee, How hast thou perished, that wast inhabited from the seas, O renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, -- she and her inhabitants, who caused their terror to be on all them that dwell therein! Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; and the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I bring up the deep upon thee, and the great waters cover thee: then will I bring thee down, with them that go down to the pit, to the people of old time, and will cause thee to dwell in the lower parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living. And I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no [more]; and thou shalt be sought for, and shalt never be found again, for ever, saith the Lord Jehovah.
and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth; and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, and be drunken, and vomit, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword that I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup from thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Ye shall certainly drink. For behold, I begin to bring evil on the city that is called by my name, and should ye be altogether unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished; for I call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith Jehovah of hosts.
Lo, all that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they that strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them -- them that contend with thee; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
Sit silent, and get thee into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for thou shalt no more be called, Mistress of kingdoms. I was wroth with my people, I polluted mine inheritance, and gave them into thy hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the aged didst thou very heavily lay thy yoke;
All that found them devoured them, and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Jehovah, the habitation of righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flock. For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon, an assemblage of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her: from thence shall she be taken. Their arrows shall be as those of a mighty expert man: none shall return empty. And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all the spoilers thereof shall be satiated, saith Jehovah. For ye rejoiced, for ye triumphed, ye plunderers of my heritage; for ye have been wanton as the heifer at grass, and neighed as steeds.
Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria devoured him, and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will visit the king of Babylon and his land, like as I have visited the king of Assyria.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah were together oppressed; and all that took them captives held them fast: they refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah of hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. The sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith Jehovah, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men; the sword is upon the liars, and they shall become fools; the sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed; the sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her, and they shall become as women; the sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed: a drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of graven images, and they are mad after frightful idols. Therefore wild beasts of the desert with jackals shall dwell there, and ostriches shall dwell therein; and it shall be no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and their neighbour cities, saith Jehovah, no one shall dwell there, neither shall a son of man sojourn therein.
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel; he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitress of Zion say; and, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her spring dry. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz: the cup shall pass also unto thee; thou shalt be drunken, and make thyself naked. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity. He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.
and say unto the children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity: therefore behold, I will give thee to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in thee, and make their dwellings in thee; they shall eat thy fruits, and they shall drink thy milk. And I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and the children of Ammon a couching-place for flocks: and ye shall know that I [am] Jehovah. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast clapped the hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the despite of thy soul against the land of Israel; therefore behold, I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and will give thee for a spoil to the nations; and I will cut thee off from the peoples, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee, and thou shalt know that I [am] Jehovah.
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Commentary on Jeremiah 30 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
B. The Announcement of Deliverance for All Israel - Jeremiah 30-33
In view of the impending fall of the kingdom of Judah, Jeremiah seeks to present the godly with a strong anchor of hope in the realization of God's gracious promises, which were to be fulfilled after the appointed season of punishment had passed. For this purpose, after predicting the ills of exile times, the prophet gives a comprehensive statement concerning the deliverance which the Lord will vouchsafe to His people in the future, and gathers together the repeated briefer promises regarding the restoration and glorious condition of Israel and Judah, so as to give a full description of the deliverance intended for all the covenant people under the sceptre of the future David. This detailed announcement of the deliverance consists of a pretty long prophetic address (which Hengstenberg very properly designates "the triumphal hymn of Israel's salvation," Jer 30 and 31), and two pieces confirmatory of this address, viz.: (1) one recording a symbolical act performed by the prophet at God's command - the sale of a piece of hereditary property in land during the last siege of Jerusalem, shortly before the breaking up of the kingdom, which commenced with the taking of the city - together with a message from God explaining this act, Jer 32; and (2) another passage giving, in prophetic language, a renewed promise that Jerusalem and Judah would be restored with the blissful arrangements connected with the Davidic monarchy and the Levitical priesthood, Jer 33. According to the headings given in Jeremiah 32:1 and Jeremiah 33:1, these two latter pieces belong to the tenth year of Zedekiah's reign; the address contained in Jer 30 and 31, on the other hand, belongs to a somewhat earlier period, and was not uttered publicly before the people, but simply composed in writing, and meant to be preserved for future use. As regards the exact time of its composition, the views of modern expositors are very dissimilar. While Hengstenberg, with many others, places it in the same period with the allied chapters 32 and 33, viz., in the time when Jerusalem was being besieged, immediately before the capture and destruction of the city, Nהgelsbach reckons this address among the oldest portions of the whole book, and assigns its composition to the times of King Josiah, to which Jeremiah 3:11-25 belongs. But the arguments adduced in support of this view are quite insufficient to establish it. It does not by any means follow from the substantial agreement of the address with that in Jer 3, so far as it exists, that they were both composed at the same time; and if (as Nהgelsbach thinks) the fact that there is no mention made of the Chaldeans were taken as a criterion of composition before the fourth year of Jehoiakim, then, too, would the address in Jer 33 be put down as having been composed before that year, but in glaring contradiction to the inscription given Jeremiah 33:1. And as little reason is there for inferring, with Hengstenberg, from Jeremiah 30:5-7, that the final catastrophe of Jeremiah's time is represented as still imminent; for these verses do not refer at all to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. That learned writer is, however, quite correct in his remark, that the prophet takes his stand-point within the period of the catastrophe, as if it had already begun, but that this time is an ideal present, so that we must not allow ourselves to be deceived as to the time of composition by the circumstance that, generally, Judah no less than Israel appears to be already in a state of exile, far from the land of the Lord. The time of composition cannot be made out with perfect certainty. Yet there is nothing against the assumption that it is the tenth year of Zedekiah.
Israel's Deliverance and Glorious Condition in the Future - Jeremiah 30-31
A great day of judgment, before which all the world trembles, will bring to Israel deliverance from the yoke imposed on them. The Lord will bring them out of the land of their captivity (Jeremiah 30:4-11). He will bind up and heal the wounds which He inflicted on them because of their sins; will render to those who oppressed and chastised them according to their deeds (Jeremiah 30:12-17); will again build up His kingdom, and render His people glorious, both in temporal and spiritual respects (Jeremiah 30:18-22). The wrath of the Lord will be poured forth upon all evil-doers like a tempest, till He has performed the thoughts of His heart at the end of the days (Jeremiah 30:23, Jeremiah 30:24). At that time the Lord will become the God of all the families of Israel, and show them favour as His own people (Jeremiah 31:1-6); He will also gather the remnant of Israel out of the land of the north, lead them back into their inheritance, and make them glad and prosperous through His blessing (Jeremiah 31:7-14); the sorrow of Ephraim will He change to joy, and He will perform a new thing in the land (Jeremiah 31:15-22). In like manner will He restore Judah, and make want to cease (Jeremiah 31:23-26). Israel and Judah shall be raised to new life (Jeremiah 31:27-30), and a new covenant will be made with them, for the Lord will write His law in their heart and forgive their sins (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Israel shall for ever remain the people of God, and Jerusalem be built anew to the honour of the Lord, and, as a holy city, shall no more be laid waste for ever (Jeremiah 31:35-40).
This address forms a united whole which divides into two halves. In Jer 30:4-22 it is the deliverance of Israel in general that is set forth; while in the passage from Jeremiah 30:23 on to the end of Jer 31 it is deliverance, more especially in reference to Israel and Judah, that is portrayed. As there is no doubt about its unity, so neither is there any well-founded doubt regarding its genuineness and integrity. Hence the assertion of Hitzig, that, as a whole, it exhibits such a want of connection, such constant alternation of view-point, so many repetitions, and such irregularity in the structure of the verses, that there seems good ground for suspecting interpolation - such an assertion only shows the inability of the expositor to put himself into the course of thought in the prophetic word, to grasp its contents properly, and to give a fair and unprejudiced estimate of the whole. Hitzig would reject Jeremiah 31:38-40, and Nהgelsbach Jeremiah 30:20-24, as later additions, but in neither case is this admissible; and Kueper ( Jeremias , p. 170ff.) and Graf, in his Commentary, have already so well shown with what little reason Movers and Hitzig have supposed they had discovered so many "interpolations," that, in our exposition, we merely intend to take up in detail some of the chief passages.
Introduction, and Statement of the Subject - Jeremiah 30:1. "The word which came to Jeremiah from Jahveh, saying: Jeremiah 30:2 . Thus hath Jahveh the God of Israel said: Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book; Jeremiah 30:3 . For, behold, days come, saith Jahveh, when I shall turn the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith Jahve, and I shall bring them back to the land which I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it."