Jeremiah 33:10

33:1-13 Those who expect to receive comforts from God, must call upon him. Promises are given, not to do away, but to quicken and encourage prayer. These promises lead us to the gospel of Christ; and in that God has revealed truth to direct us, and peace to make us easy. All who by sanctifying grace are cleansed from the filth of sin, by pardoning mercy are freed from the guilt. When sinners are thus justified, washed, and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit, they are enabled to walk before God in peace and purity. Many are led to perceive the real difference between the people of God and the world around them, and to fear the Divine wrath. It is promised that the people who were long in sorrow, shall again be filled with joy. Where the Lord gives righteousness and peace, he will give all needful supplies for temporal wants; and all we have will be comforts, as sanctified by the word and by prayer.

Thus saith the Lord, again there shall be heard in this place,.... This is to be connected with the beginning of Jeremiah 33:11 ; and what follows to be put in a parenthesis: which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast: as in Jeremiah 32:43; the destruction of it being now certain and inevitable; and by which such desolation would be made throughout the country, that very few men or cattle would be left: even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate; as they were already, the country being in the hands of the enemy, and the city almost depopulated by the sword, famine, and pestilence, and just about to be delivered up: and so without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast; neither inhabited by man or beast; which is an hyperbolical exaggeration of the miserable condition of the city, and country; expressing the unbelief and despair of the Jews, at least of some of them, ever seeing better times: whereas, be it so, that this was or would be the case; yet here should be heard again, in the times of the Messiah, when he should appear in Judea, and his Gospel be preached there, from whence it should go into all the world, what follows:

Jeremiah 33:10-11 . Again there shall be heard in this place which ye say shall be desolate — See note on Jeremiah 32:43 ; the voice of joy and the voice of gladness — The contrary to what takes place in the times of captivity and desolation. The voice of them that shall say, Praise ye the Lord, for the Lord is good, &c. — We read, ( Ezra 3:11 ,) that those who returned from captivity used this very hymn. And of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord — Such as was wont to be offered upon any great deliverance. See Leviticus 7:12 ; Psalm 107:22 ; Psalm 116:17 . The Hebrew, מבאים תודה , is literally, of them that bring praise, or, thanksgiving, there being nothing for the word sacrifice. This, however, is called by St. Paul, the sacrifice of praise, even the fruit of our lips, ( Hebrews 13:15 ,) to distinguish it from the oblations commanded by the law, which consisted of the fruits of the ground, or of the flock and herd. The sum of this verse is, that those who were carried into captivity should return, and, upon their return, should be in their former state as to civil transactions, marrying and giving in marriage; and, as to religion, should publicly praise the Lord with holy and spiritual joy, as they had been wont to do in the best and most prosperous times of their commonwealth, which was fulfilled, as we see, Nehemiah 12:27-40 .

10–13 . See introd. summary to the section. The genuineness of these vv . may be regarded as questionable; although the fact that the overthrow of Jerusalem is a thing of the past and the land is waste does not prove it to be non-Jeremianic, as the prophet survived the final disaster. The form of the doxology ( Jeremiah 33:11 ), we may note, differs distinctly from that of post-exilic times.

(10) Again there shall be heard in this place. —The promise of restoration is repeated with a more local distinctness. “This place” is probably, as in Jeremiah 42:18 , Jerusalem. The “streets” are, more strictly, the “open places,” the “bazaars,” or even the “outskirts” of the city, which were deserted during the progress of the siege. Now they were waste and silent. The time would come when they would once again re-echo with the sounds of jubilant exultation.

Ye say; those of you who, though you find no great difficulty to believe what I have prophesied concerning the Chaldeans’ taking this city, seeing it upon the matter already taken, yet find a difficulty to believe what I tell you about the people’s returning, and the rebuilding of it. The Lord speaketh the one as well as the other; There shall be heard again in it, &c.

In consequence of the renovation of Israel externally and internally, Jerusalem will become to the Lord a name of delight, i.e., a name which affords joy, delight. שׁם here signifies, not fame, but a name. But the name, as always in Scripture, is the expression of the essential nature; the meaning therefore is, "she will develope into a city over which men will rejoice, whenever her name is mentioned." On the following words, "for praise and for glory," i.e., for a subject of praise, etc., cf. Jeremiah 13:11 . לכל־גּויי, "to all," or "among all nations." How far Jerusalem becomes such is shown by the succeeding clauses: "who shall hear...and tremble and quake because of the good," i.e., not from fear "because they are seized with terror through these proofs of the wonderful power of God in contrast with the helplessness of their idols, and through the feeling of their miserable and destitute condition as contrasted with the happiness and prosperity of the people of Israel" (Graf). Against this usual view of the words, it has already been remarked in the Berleburger Bible, that it does not agree with what precedes, viz., with the statement that Jerusalem shall become a name of joy to all nations. Moreover, פּחד and רגז, in the sense of fear and terror, are construed with מפּני or מן; here, they signify to shake and tremble for joy, like פּחד in Isaiah 60:5 , cf.

Hosea 3:5 , i.e., as it is expressed in the Berleburger Bible, "not with a slavish fear, but with the filial fear of penitents, which will also draw and drive them to the reconciled God in Christ, with holy fear and trembling." Calvin had previously recognised this Messianic idea, and fitly elucidated the words thus: haec duo inter se conjuncta, nempe pavor et tremor, qui nos humiliet coram Deo, et fiducia quae nos erigat, ut audeamus familiariter ad ipsum accedere. אותם may be for אתּם, cf. Jeremiah 1:16 ; but probably עשׂה is construed with a double accusative, as in Isaiah 42:16 . The prosperity which the Lord designs to procure for His people, is, Jeremiah 33:10-13, further described in two strophes (Jeremiah 33:10-11 and Jeremiah 33:12-13); in Jeremiah 33:10, Jeremiah 33:11, the joyous life of men. In the land now laid waste, gladness and joy shall once more prevail, and God will be praised for this. The description, "it is desolate," etc., does not imply the burning of Jerusalem, Jeremiah 52:12., but only the desolation which began about the end of the siege. "In this place" means "in this land;" this is apparent from the more detailed statement, "in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem." "The voice of gladness," etc., forms the subject of the verb ישּׁמע. On the expression see Jeremiah 7:34; Jeremiah 16:9; Jeremiah 25:10.