Jeremiah 23:7

23:1-8 Woe be to those who are set to feed God's people, but take no concern to do them good! Here is a word of comfort to the neglected sheep. Though only a remnant of God's flock is left, he will find them out, and they shall be brought to their former habitations. Christ is spoken of as a branch from David's family. He is righteous himself, and through him all his people are made righteous. Christ shall break the usurped power of Satan. All the spiritual seed of believing Abraham and praying Jacob shall be protected, and shall be saved from the guilt and dominion of sin. In the days of Christ's government in the soul, the soul dwells at ease. He is here spoken of as the Lord our Righteousness. He is so our Righteousness as no creature could be. His obedience unto death is the justifying righteousness of believers, and their title to heavenly happiness. And their sanctification, as the source of all their personal obedience is the effect of their union with him, and of the supply of this Spirit. By this name every true believer shall call him, and call upon him. We have nothing to plead but this, Christ has died, yea, rather is risen again; and we have taken him for our Lord. This righteousness which he has wrought out to the satisfaction of law and justice, becomes ours; being a free gift given to us, through the Spirit of God, who puts it upon us, clothes us with it, enables us to lay hold upon it, and claim an interest in it.

The Lord our Righteousness is a sweet name to a convinced sinner; to one that has felt the guilt of sin in his conscience; seen his need of that righteousness, and the worth of it. This great salvation is far more glorious than all former deliverances of his church. May our souls be gathered to Him, and be found in him.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... Or, "are coming" (i); and will begin to take place in a little time, even upon the Jews' return from Babylon; and reached to the times of Christ, to which they have a special regard; and include the whole Gospel dispensation, even the latter day glory, when the Jews shall return to, and dwell in, their own land; as Jeremiah 23:8 ; shows: that they shall no more say, the Lord liveth: the people of Israel in particular, or the Lord's people in general, shall no more swear by the living God, described as follows; or, as the Targum, declare no more the power of God, in the instance next mentioned, they had been used to do: which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt: which, though a wonderful deliverance, and never to be forgotten; yet not to be named with the redemption and salvation wrought out by Christ the Lord our righteousness; that being a deliverance from far greater and more powerful enemies, and from the far greater bondage of sin, Satan, and the law; nor with the restoration of the Jews in the latter day, which will be a most wonderful and amazing event, Romans 11:15. (i) "dies venientes", Montanus, Schmidt.

Jeremiah 23:7-8. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord — Here the prophet proceeds to fore-tel one very important, although remote, consequence of God’s raising up the righteous branch to David, namely, the great salvation which should thereby come to the Jews in the latter days of their state, which should be so illustrious as far to outshine their deliverance out of Egypt. That they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, &c. — These words we had before, Jeremiah 16:14-15 , where see the note. But here the passage seems to point more plainly than it did there to the days of the Messiah, and to compare, not so much the two deliverances themselves, giving the preference to the latter, as the two states to which the church should grow after those deliverances. About four hundred and eighty years after they were come out of Egypt, Solomon’s temple was built, 1 Kings 6:1 ; and at that time that nation, which was so wonderfully brought out of Egypt, was gradually arrived to its height. And four hundred and ninety years (seventy weeks) after they came out of Babylon, Messiah the Prince set up the gospel temple, which was the greatest glory of that nation that was so wonderfully brought out of Babylon: see Daniel 9:24-25 .

Now the spiritual glory of the second period of that nation, especially as transferred to the gospel church, is much more admirable and illustrious than all the temporal glory of the first period of it, in the days of Solomon; for that was no glory, compared with the glory which excelleth. Add to this, the prophet, it seems, also foretels a second gathering of the Jews from their dispersions, namely, one that should take place after the coming of the Messiah, and the ruin of their city and country by the Romans, and therefore yet future. Now this work of God, whenever it shall be effected, including, as it undoubtedly will, their conversion to Christianity, and perhaps, also, their restoration to their own land, will assuredly appear so wonderful as greatly to outshine every former deliverance wrought for that people, and therefore may well put every other out of remembrance. St. Paul calls this restoration of them, life from the dead, ( Romans 9:25 ,) meaning that it would be a miracle as surprising as the resurrection of a multitude of dead bodies.

Verses 7, 8. - This is another of Jeremiah's repetitions (see Jeremiah 16:14, 15 ). Either the Septuagint translator or the copyist of the Hebrew manuscript which he used appears to have thought that the passage might, therefore, be dispensed with. In the Septuagint it is placed at the end of the chapter (being possibly supplied from another Hebrew manuscript), and the form given in this version to the close of ver. 6 ( Ἰωσεδὲκ ἐν τοῖς προφηταῖς , combining the opening words of ver. 9) shows that ver. 9 followed immediately upon ver. 6 in the Hebrew manuscript. Jeremiah 23:7

7 . they shall no more say ] The exodus from Egypt, always hitherto quoted as the crowning manifestation of Jehovah’s favour, would be eclipsed by a yet more glorious deliverance. 7, 8 . See on Jeremiah 16:14-15 . The LXX’s omission of the vv . here, and insertion of them in a wholly incongruous context after Jeremiah 23:40 , fall in with the supposition that, even if of Jeremiah’s authorship, they do not rightly belong to this place. See further on Jeremiah 33:14-26 .

(7) The days come, saith the Lord. —See Notes on Jeremiah 16:14-15 , of which the words are almost verbally a reproduction. There, however, stress is laid chiefly on the fact of the exile, here on that of the restoration. The LXX. version omits them here, but inserts them, where they are obviously out of place, at the end of the chapter. It was fitting that they should be repeated here, as connecting the hope that had before been general with the personal reign of the “Branch” of the house of David.

This is his name whereby he shall be called - From remote antiquity the person here spoken of has been understood to be "the righteous germ," and this alone is in accordance with the grammar and the sense. Nevertheless, because Jeremiah Jer 33:15-16 applies the name also to Jerusalem, some understand it of Israel. the Lord OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS - Messiah is here called: (1) Yahweh, and (2) our righteousness, because He justifies us by His merits. Some render, He by whom Yahweh works righteousness. Righteousness is in that case personal holiness, which is the work of the Spirit after justification.

7, 8. Repeated from Jer 16:14, 15. The prophet said the same things often, in order that his sayings might make the more impression. The same promise as in Jer 23:3, 4. The wide dispersion of the Jews at the Babylonish captivity prefigures their present wider dispersion (Isa 11:11; Joe 3:6). Their second deliverance is to exceed far the former one from Egypt. But the deliverance from Babylon was inferior to that from Egypt in respect to the miracles performed and the numbers delivered. The final deliverance under Messiah must, therefore, be meant, of which that from Babylon was the earnest.