Jeremiah 3:17

3:12-20 See God's readiness to pardon sin, and the blessings reserved for gospel times. These words were proclaimed toward the north; to Israel, the ten tribes, captive in Assyria. They are directed how to return. If we confess our sins, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive them. These promises are fully to come to pass in the bringing back the Jews in after-ages. God will graciously receive those that return to him; and by his grace, he takes them out from among the rest. The ark of the covenant was not found after the captivity. The whole of that dispensation was to be done away, which took place after the multitude of believers had been greatly increased by the conversion of the Gentiles, and of the Israelites scattered among them. A happy state of the church is foretold. He can teach all to call him Father; but without thorough change of heart and life, no man can be a child of God, and we have no security for not departing from Him.

Jeremiah 3:17 . At that time — Of reformation, διορθωσεως , emendation, ( Hebrews 9:10 ,) when things should be put into a better state by the coming of the Messiah; they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord — Instead of the ark, the Christian Church, typified by Jerusalem, shall be the place of God’s special residence, power, and glory; where he will rule and act, and display his glory, in and by his word and ordinances, and especially in and by the Messiah. And all the nations shall be gathered unto it — Not only the Jews and Israelites, but many of all nations: many of the heathen shall be brought to worship the true God, and to embrace the Christian faith. To the name of the Lord — Which shall be both manifested and called upon in his church, as formerly at Jerusalem. Neither shall they walk, &c. — Both Jews and Gentiles shall now conform themselves to the will of God. The word שׁררות , here rendered imagination, is derived from a root that signifies to see, and is sometimes applied to the judgment, and sometimes to the affections. Here it may comprehend both: they shall neither follow their own corrupt judgment nor affection, but wholly the word of God.

Verse 17. - Jerusalem's spiritual glory . With Jeremiah's description, comp. that of Ezekiel," The name of the city from that day shall be, "The Lord is there" ( Ezekiel 48:35 ). This gives us the positive aspect of the Messianic period (comp. on ver. 16). Jerusalem shall be the spiritual center of the universe, because it is pervaded by the presence of the Most High (comp. Isaiah 4:5 ). May we explain with Dr. Payne Smith, "Jerusalem, i . e . the Christian Church?" Only if the provisional character of the existing Church be kept well in view. All the nations ; i . e . all except the chosen people. The word for "nations" ( goyim ) is that often rendered "heathen." To the name ; or, because of the name , i . e . because Jehovah has revealed his name at Jerusalem. The phrase occurs again with a commentary in Joshua 9:9 , "Thy servants are come because of the name of Jehovah thy God, for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt." But we must not suppose that "name" is equivalent to "revelation;" rather, there is here an ellipsis - "because of the name" is equivalent to "because of the revelation of the name ," or better still, "... of the Name ." The "Name of Jehovah" is in fact a distinct hypostasis in the Divine Being; no mere personification of the Divine attributes (as the commentators are fond of saying), but (in the theological sense) a Person. The term, "Name of such and such a God,:' is common to Hebrew with Phoenician religion.

In the famous inscription of Eshmunazar, King of Zidon, Ashtoreth is called "Name of Baal;" and to whichever proper name the religious term Name may be attached, it means a personal existence in the Divine nature, specially related to the world of humanity; or, to use the language of Hengstenberg, the bridge between the latter and the transcendent heights of God as he is in himself. In short, the Name of Jehovah is virtually identical with the Logos of St. John, or the second Person in the blessed Trinity. Hence the personal language now and again used of this Name in the Old Testament, e.g. Isaiah 30:27 , "The Name of Jehovah cometh from far... his lips are full of indignation;" Isaiah 26:8 ," The desire of our soul was to thy Name;" Isaiah 59:19 , "So shall they fear the Name of Jehovah from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun." Comp. also Proverbs 18:10 ; men do not run for safety to an abstract idea. Nor will all nations in the latter days resort either to a localized or to a spiritually diffused Jerusalem in the future, to gratify a refined intellectual curiosity. Neither shall they walk , etc.; i . e . the Israelites of the latter days; not the "nations" before mentioned (as Hengstenberg). The phrase occurs eight times in Jeremiah, and is always used of the Israelites. The word rendered "imagination" is peculiar ( sheri-ruth ).

At that time they shall call Jerusalem {r} the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. (r) Meaning, the Church, where the Lord will be present to the world's end, Mt 28:20.

(17) They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord. —Up to Jeremiah’s time that title, “the throne of God,” though the language of the Old Testament had referred it to the “heavens” ( Psalm 11:4 ; Psalm 103:19 ), had probably been applied, in popular language, to the ark where the Lord “dwelt between the cherubim” ( 1Samuel 4:4 ; 2Kings 19:15 ). The prophet extends it to the whole city, in that future of which he was doubtless thinking. To him, as to Micah ( Micah 4:1-2 ) and Isaiah ( Isaiah 2:1-3 ), there came a vision of the holy city as the centre of the divine Kingdom. It was not given to him to see what even the Apostles were slow to understand, that there is no holy city upon earth, and that his hopes would only be fulfilled in the heavenly Jerusalem which is the Church or family of God. The imagination.—Better, stubbornness, as in the margin.

The throne of the Lord - Yahweh's throne shall not be the ark, but Jerusalem, i. e., the Christian Church Revelation 21:2 ; Galatians 4:26 . To Jerusalem - The Septuagint and Syriac are probably right in omitting this word. Imagination ... - Stubbornness (margin). A word always used in a bad sense, for "obstinacy."

They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; instead of the ark, whereon was the mercy-seat, now the church, typified by Jerusalem, Galatians 4:26 Revelation 21:2 , shall be the place of God’s residence, where by his Spirit he will rule and act in his word and ordinances, and in special the Messias. See Jeremiah 14:21 , and Jeremiah 3:16 . All the nations shall be gathered unto it; intimating both their readiness to come in, and their number, according to first prophecy of Jacob, Genesis 49:10 . See Isaiah 2:2 . By nations here understand either the ten tribes, who are called many people, both Israel and Judah united, their distance being taken away; see Jeremiah 3:18 ; or rather some of all nations, that shall flock into the gospel church; for when the prophets foretell this state, they generally usher it in with the return of this people, at which time the church shall be greatly enlarged. To the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem, i.e. dwelling in Jerusalem, or where the Lord placed his name, viz. of old in Jerusalem, Psalm 122:2,3 , &c., but now in the church, Revelation 21:2,3 , without ark or temple, Revelation 21:22 , where he will be known as it were by his proper name, Isaiah 60:9 , or as manifest in the flesh. Neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart; both Jew and Gentile shall now conform themselves to the will of God, Isaiah 2 3 .

The word imagination here comes from a root that signifies to see , and thus it is sometimes applied to the judgment, Psalm 17:2 , and sometimes to the affection, Psalm 66:18 ; here it may comprehend both, they will follow neither their own judgment nor affection, but wholly the word of God. The word is thus phrased Numbers 15:39 Ecclesiastes 11:9 ; some read it after the hardness , Deu 29:19 .

17. Jerusalem—the whole city, not merely the temple. As it has been the center of the Hebrew theocracy, so it shall be the point of attraction to the whole earth (Isa 2:2-4; Zec 2:10, 11; 14:16-21). throne of … Lord—The Shekinah, the symbol of God's peculiar nearness to Israel (De 4:7) shall be surpassed by the antitype, God's own throne in Jerusalem (Ps 2:6, 8; Eze 34:23, 24; Zec 2:5). imagination—rather, as Margin, "the obstinacy" or stubbornness.