JEREMIAS - Chapter 30

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859 edition.

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JEREMIAS - Chapter 30

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Jeremias xxx.

Notes & Commentary:

Ver. 2. Book. This was spoken in the reign of Sedecias, for the people's conviction. The prophet had received orders to write in the 4th year of Joakim, chap. xxxvi. 1. (Calmet)

Ver. 3. Come. Some in St. Jerome explain this and the following chapter of the end of the world, when all shall confess Christ. Others refer them to the preaching of the gospel alone. (Estius) (Tirinus) --- But the return from captivity is specified, as prefiguring that event. (St. Thomas Aquinas, &c.) (Calmet) --- It is probable that many of the ten tribes returned to Samaria, chap. xxxi., and Ezechiel xxxiii. (Worthington)

Ver. 4. To Juda. All the race of Abraham are concerned. The kingdom was no longer divided.

Ver. 5. We. Jeremias is ordered to express the alarms of the captives, at the news of the destruction of Jerusalem, or rather of the Chaldean empire, by Cyrus. They were naturally afraid that they would also suffer.

Ver. 6. Bear. Literally, "beet," generat. But it has here the former signification, (Haydock) pariat. (Vatable) --- Yellow. The Babylonians are in great anxiety. (Calmet)

Ver. 7. Great, and terrible for this city, the outer walls of which shall be demolished, (Beros.; Calmet) and all its glory perish. (Haydock) --- Of it. Cyrus liberated the Jews, 1 Esdras i.

Ver. 8. Strangers. Idols. The people were not so prone to worship them. Yet the Jews were almost constantly subject to foreigners (Calmet) despectissima pars servientium, Macedonibus invalidis....sibi ipsis reges imposuere. (Tacitus, Hist. 5.) --- Christ granted a more perfect liberty to the faithful, John viii. 33. (Calmet)

Ver. 9. David. That is, Christ, of the house of David. (Challoner) (Ezechiel xxxvii. 24., and Osee iii. 5.) --- Grotius and some modern Jews, in opposition to their ancestors, (Chaldean; Kimchi, &c.) and to all Christians, would understand Zorobabel, though he was never possessed of the title or authority of king. (Calmet) --- The prophecy may allude to him, but it is fulfilled only in Christ. (Theodoret)

Ver. 11. Nations, which are now no more. Grabe supplies ver. 10, 11, 15., and 22. (Haydock) --- Judgment, like a father, (Calmet) though the chastisement may seem cruel, ver. 14. (Haydock) --- Hebrew, "with justice, but I will not deny thee for ever." Chaldean, "utterly." (Calmet) --- Only the Church is preserved continually. All other kingdoms change. (Worthington)

Ver. 13. Up. There is none to judge thy cause, or to be thy physician. (Calmet)

Ver. 14. Lovers. Nations which had seduced thee to worship their idols. (Haydock) --- Enemy. This judgment (ver. 11.) was requisite. (Calmet)

Ver. 16. Prey. The Romans utterly overturned the Macedonian empire, (Haydock) as the former had done the Persian, and they the Chaldean monarchy, which has risen on the ruins of the Assyrian empire. But the Jews rise as it were from their ashes. (Calmet)

Ver. 17. Close. Septuagint, "remove the healing plaster from thy painful wound." (Haydock)

Ver. 18. Temple. After 70 years, it was rebuilt. The Church was founded on a rock. [Matthew xvi. 18.] (Worthington)

Ver. 19. Play, or laugh. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "make merry," chap. xxxi. 4. --- Lessened. The Jews were as numerous in our Saviour's time (Haydock) as ever they had been. (Calmet)

Ver. 21. Leader. Zorobabel, the figure (Theodoret) of Christ, who is here meant. (Calmet) --- He springs from Jacob. (Worthington) --- The sceptre was not taken away till his coming, Genesis xlix. (Haydock) --- Who. Cyrus alludes to this passage in his decree, 1 Esdras i. (Calmet) --- The prediction is fully verified in Christians. (St. Jerome) --- Christ is near to God, being one, John xiv. (Worthington)

Ver. 23. Wicked, at Jerusalem, or rather the Chaldeans; and the Jews, who crucified their Messias. (St. Jerome, &c.) (Calmet)

Bible Text & Cross-references:

God will deliver his people from their captivity: Christ shall be their king: and his Church shall be glorious for ever.

1 This *is the word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

2 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: Write thee all the words that I have spoken to thee, in a book.

3 For behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Juda, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land which I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.

4 And these are the words that the Lord hath spoken to Israel and to Juda:

5 For thus saith the Lord: We have heard a voice of terror: there is fear, and no peace.

6 Ask ye, and see if a man bear children ? why then have I seen every man with his hands on his loins, like a woman in labour, and all faces are turned yellow?

7 *Alas, for that day is great, neither is there the like to it: and it is the time of tribulation to Jacob, but he shall be saved out of it.

8 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst his bands: and strangers shall no more rule over him:

9 But they shall serve the Lord, their God, and David, their king, whom I will raise up to them.

10 *Therefore, fear thou not, my servant Jacob, saith the Lord, neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from a country afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity: and Jacob shall return, and be at rest, and abound with all good things, and there shall be none whom he may fear:

11 For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: for I will utterly consume all the nations among which I have scattered thee: but I will not utterly consume thee: but I will chastise thee in judgment, that thou mayst not seem to thyself innocent.

12 For thus saith the Lord: Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound is very grievous.

13 There is none to judge thy judgment to bind it up : thou hast no healing medicines.

14 All thy lovers have forgotten thee, and will not seek after thee: *for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement: by reason of the multitude of thy iniquities, thy sins are hardened.

15 Why criest thou for thy affliction? thy sorrow is incurable: for the multitude of thy iniquity, and for thy hardened sins, I have done these things to thee.

16 Therefore, all they that devour thee, shall be devoured: and all thy enemies shall be carried into captivity: and they that waste thee shall be wasted; and all that prey upon thee, will I give for a prey.

17 For I will close up thy scar, and will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord. Because they have called thee, O Sion, an outcast: This is she that had none to seek after her.

18 Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I bring back the captivity of the pavilions of Jacob, and will have pity on his houses, and the city shall be built in her place, and the temple shall be found according to the order thereof.

19 And out of them shall come forth praise, and the voice of them that play: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be made few: and I will glorify them, and they shall not be lessened.

20 And their children shall be as from the beginning, and their assembly shall be permanent before me: and I will visit against all that afflict them.

21 And their leader shall be of themselves: and their prince shall come forth from the midst of them: and I will bring him near, and he shall come to me: for who is this that setteth his heart to approach to me, saith the Lord?

22 And you shall be my people: and I will be your God.

23 Behold the whirlwind of the Lord, his fury going forth, a violent storm, it shall rest upon the head of the wicked.

24 The Lord will not turn away the wrath of his indignation, till he hath executed and performed the thought of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand these things.

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1: Year of the World 3406, Year before Christ 598.

7: Joel ii. 11.; Amos v. 18.; Sophonias i. 15.

10: Isaias xliii. 1. and xliv. 2.; Luke i. 70.

14: Jeremias xxiii. 19.