Jeremiah 33:15

33:14-26 To crown the blessings God has in store, here is a promise of the Messiah. He imparts righteousness to his church, for he is made of God to us righteousness; and believers are made the righteousness of God in him. Christ is our Lord God, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. But in this world prosperity and adversity succeed each other, as light and darkness, day and night. The covenant of priesthood shall be secured. And all true believers are a holy priesthood, a royal priesthood, they offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God; themselves, in the first place, as living sacrifices. The promises of that covenant shall have full accomplishment in the gospel Israel. In Ga 6:16, all that walk according to the gospel rule, are made to be the Israel of God, on whom shall be peace and mercy. Let us not despise the families which were of old the chosen people of God, though for a time they seem to be cast off.

In those very selfsame days before spoken of; in those days to come, and which were hastening on; in the fulness of time, agreed on between Jehovah and his Son; the appointed, fixed, determined time: will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; not Zerubbabel, but the Messiah; who is not only a branch of David's family, and therefore said to grow up unto him, being of his seed, his son, and offspring; but a Branch of righteousness, or a righteous Branch; perfectly righteous in himself, and the author of righteousness unto others; which cannot be said of Zerubbabel, or of any other branch springing from David but the Messiah; and of him the Targum interprets it, paraphrasing it thus, "the Messiah of righteousness;'' and Kimchi's note is, "this is the King Messiah;'' and so it is by other Jewish writers (x) interpreted of him: and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land; judgment upon the blind Pharisees given up to judicial blindness and hardness of heart; and upon the world, and the prince of it, who was cast out by him; and though he came not at first to judge the world and all the individuals of it, as he will do at his second coming; yet all judgment, rule, and government of his church, is committed to him by his Father; and he is on the throne to order and establish it with judgment, and to overrule all things for the good of it, and his own and his Father's glory: and he has "wrought" out an everlasting "righteousness", agreeably to law

In those days, and at that time, will I cause {l} the Branch of righteousness to grow up to David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. (l) That is, I will send the Messiah, who will come of the house of David, of whom this prophecy is meant, as testify all the Jews and that which is written, Jer 23:5.

Compare the marginal reference. When the good word was spoken, the name Yahweh our Righteousness was given to the righteous Sprout: here it is given to Jerusalem, i. e., to the Church, because it is her business mediately to work on earth that righteousness which Christ works absolutely. Compare Ephesians 1:23 .

Whatsoever the Jews and some others say, the Branch of righteousness here spoken of can be meant of no other but Christ, who is called a Branch out of the stem of Jesse, Isaiah 11:1 ; the Branch of the Lord , Isaiah 4:2 ; a righteous Branch, Jeremiah 23:5 . (See the notes on those places.) Zorobabel, though descended from David, cannot be meant here, but the same who is thus called in all those parallel texts, of whom yet Zorobabel (being a good man, and descended from the family of David) may be allowed to have been a type; but this text far more concerneth Christ, as he in whom all the promises are founded, and in whom they are all yea and Amen . The kings they had hitherto had of the line of David were most of them unrighteous men, but God promiseth that after the captivity they should have a Branch of David that should execute judgment and righteousness in the land, for the protection and government of those that feared him.

The re-establishment of the Davidic monarchy and of the Levitical priesthood. - Jeremiah 33:14 . "Behold, days are coming, saith Jahveh, when I will perform the good word which I have spoken to the house of Israel, and concerning the house of Judah. Jeremiah 33:15 . In those days and at that time will I cause to sprout unto David a sprout of righteousness, and he shall do judgment and righteousness in the land. Jeremiah 33:16 . In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is how she shall be called, 'Jahveh our righteousness.' Jeremiah 33:17 . For thus saith Jahveh: David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. Jeremiah 33:18 . Nor shall the Levitical priests want a man before me to offer a burnt-offering, to burn a meat-offering, or to perform sacrifice every day. Jeremiah 33:19. "And the word of Jahveh came unto Jeremiah, saying: Jeremiah 33:20. Thus saith Jahveh, If ye shall be able to break my covenant (with) the day and my covenant (with) the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their proper time, Jeremiah 33:21. Then also shall my covenant with David my servant be broken, so that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers. Jeremiah 33:22. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites who serve me.

Jeremiah 33:23. "And the word of Jahveh came to Jeremiah, saying: Jeremiah 33:24. Hast thou not seen what this people have spoken, saying, 'The two families which the Lord hath chosen, these He hath rejected?' and my people they have despised, so that they are no longer a nation before them. Jeremiah 33:25. Thus saith Jahveh: If my covenant with day and night doth not exist, if I have not appointed the laws of heaven and earth, Jeremiah 33:26. Then also will I reject the seed of Jacob and David my servant, so as not to take any of his seed as rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will turn their captivity, and take pity on them." Jeremiah 33:14-21 Jeremiah 33:14-18 contain the promise of the restoration of the monarchy and the priesthood. Jeremiah 33:19-26 further present two special messages from God, in the form of supplements, which guarantee the eternal continuance of these institutions. (Note: The portion contained within Jeremiah 33:14-26 is wanting in the lxx; for this reason, and chiefly because of the promise of the eternal duration, not merely of the royal house of David, but also of the Levitical priests, and their innumerable increase, J. D. Michaelis and Jahn have considered it spurious. To these must be added Movers, who takes Jeremiah 33:18, Jeremiah 33:21-25 as later interpolations, and Hitzig, who treats the whole passage as a series of separate additions made in a later age.