From: Jeremiah 30:1-2, 12-16, 18-22
Distress and hope
[12]”For thus says the Lord:
Your hurt is incurable,
and your wound is grievous.
[13]There is none to uphold your cause,
no medicine for your wound,
no healing for you.
[14]All your lovers have forgotten you;
they care nothing for you;
for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy,
the punishment of a merciless foe,
because your guilt is great,
because your sins are flagrant.
[15]Why do you cry out over your hurt?
Your pain is incurable.
Because your guilt is great,
because your sins are flagrant,
I have done these things to you.
[18]”Thus says the Lord:
Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob,
and have compassion on his dwellings:
the city shall be rebuilt upon its mound,
and the palace shall stand where it used to be.
[19]Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving,
and the voices of those who make merry.
I will multiply them, and they shall not be few;
I will make them honoured, and they shall not be small.
[20]Their children shall he as they were of old.
and their congregation shall be established before me;
and I will punish all who oppress them.
[21]Their prince shall be one of themselves,
their ruler shall come forth from their midst;
I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me,
for who would dare of himself to approach me? says the Lord.
[22] And you shall be my people,
and I will be your God.”
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Commentary:
30:1-33:26. The second section of the second part of the hook is traditionally
called the “Book of Consolation” because both the oracles in verse and the
prose passages interspersed among them carried a message of consolation for
the people during their years in exile.
Although the section may seem to break the thread of the narrative, it does not
really do so. Having dealt with the difficulties met by Jeremiah in his attempts
to dispel false hopes in an early return from exile, the book now records oracles
about a future return to Judah. The central theme is hope in the restoration of
Israel and Judah based on a “new covenant”. This section could date from the
end of Zedekiah’s reign (587 BC) or a little later.
The oldest part of the section consists in verse oracles. In these we find recur-
ring references to impending judgment and punishment (30:5-7, 12-15, 23-24),
calls to hope (30:10-11, 16-17, 18-21; 31:2-14), laments (31:15, 18-19), and pro-
mises of better times to come (31:16-17; 31:20-22). The general tone is rather
sombre. However, in the final form of the book these oracles are linked by prose
passages beginning with the words “days are coming” (30:3; 31:27, 31, 38) and
which have the effect of giving these chapters a hopeful tone.
The most important passage announces the “new covenant’ that will replace the
one broken by the people’s repeated transgressions down the years (cf. 31:31-
37). From very early on, Christian writers have drawn attention to this passage:
“God announces that a new covenant shall be made, and it will be a light to all
the nations. We believe in his proclamation: our conviction derives from the po-
wer of the name of Jesus Christ who was crucified. All the people will forsake
idolatry and sin in order to draw closer to God; they will suffer death to pledge
their belief in him and to fulfil the creed of their religion. It is clear from the his-
tory of events and the power that lies behind them that God’s proclamation is
fulfilled in the New Law and the New Covenant, in which all righteous men from
all nations who desire God’s goodness place their hope. We, who were led to
God by Christ crucified, are the people of Israel in spirit and in truth, the people
of Judah and Jacob and Isaac, and of Abraham, the one to whom God bore wit-
ness before the time of circumcision, who was blessed and called the father of
many nations” (St Justin, “Dialogus cum Tryphone”, 11, 4-5).
30:1-24. The oracles that start of the “Book of Consolation” include some in
verse, which are designed mainly to nourish the hope of Israel, that is, the Nor-
thern kingdom. To these, others are added (they are usually in prose) which ap-
ply those promises of restoration to Judah. The former were probably composed
by Jeremiah early in his ministry, in the reign of Josiah, when Assyrian power
was on the wane and when religious reform in the Southern kingdom gave
ground for hope that the Israelites, who had borne the brunt of Assyrian aggres-
sion, would come back into the fold. The later oracles were composed after Ju-
dah had suffered deportations. God is not forgetful of his followers, be they from
North or South, and he promises to re-establish his people in their land.
In the first oracles a sharp contrast is drawn between the suffering and anguish
that prevails in Israel (seemingly an insoluble situation: vv. 5-7, 12-15), and the
Lord’s promise that he will not abandon his people or allow them to be destroyed
even though they are experiencing the punishment that their sins deserve (vv.
10-11, 16-24). Similarly, Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and after a period of religious
and moral reform, it will flourish again (vv. 18-21). Just as the Lord will deliver
Israel, so he will come to Judah’s rescue in due course. He will lift the yoke that
Babylon has placed on the Jews (cf. 27:1-22) and they will be able to serve God
once more, under the rule of a descendant of David (vv. 8-9; cf. 23:5; Ezek 34:23;
37:24). The Septuagint version omits verse 22, which occurs again in 31:33. It is
a wording of the Covenant valid for all times and situations (cf. 7:23; 11:4; 24:7;
32:38).
The grounds for hope are the same as appear right through the book: “I am with
you” (v. 11; cf. 1:8; 1:19; 15:20; 30:11; 46:28). Despite the sins of men God is
merciful: his love endures: “sin too constitutes man’s misery. The people of the
Old Covenant experienced this misery from the time of the Exodus, when they
set up the golden calf. The Lord himself triumphed over this act of breaking the
covenant when he solemnly declared to Moses that he was a ‘God merciful and
gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness’ (Ex
34:6). It is in this central revelation that a people, and each of its members, will
find, every time that they have sinned, the strength and the motive for turning to
the Lord to remind him of what he had exactly revealed about himself and to be-
seech his forgiveness” (Bl. John Paul II, “Dives in misericordia”, 4).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.