Jeremiah 30

Verse 2. Book. This was spoken in the reign of Sedecias, for the people’s conviction. The prophet had received orders to write in the 4th year of Joakim. Calmet. 36:1. Calmet.

Verse 3. Come. Some in S. Jerom explain this and the following chapter of the end of the world, when all shall confess Christ. Others refer them to the preaching of the gospel alone. E. Tirinus.—But the return from captivity is specified, as prefiguring that event. Saint Thomas, and so forth Calmet.—It is probable that many of the ten tribes returned to Samaria. Calmet. 31. Ezekiel 33. Worthington.

Verse 4. To Juda. All the race of Abraham are concerned. The kingdom was no longer divided.

Verse 5. We. Jeremias is ordered to express the alarms of the captives, at the news of the destruction of Jerusalem, or rather of the Chaldee empire, by Cyrus. They were naturally afraid that they would also suffer.

Verse 6. Bear. Lit. “beget,” generat. But it has here the former signification, ( Bible.) pariat. Vat.—Yellow. The Babylonians are in great anxiety. Calmet.

Verse 7. Great, and terrible for this city, the outer walls of which shall be demolished, (Beros. Calmet.) and all its glory perish. Bible.—Of it. Cyrus liberated the Jews. 1 Ezra 1.

Verse 8. Strangers. Idols. The people were not so prone to worship them. Yet the Jews were almost constantly subject to foreigners ( Calmet.) despectissima pars servientium, Macedonibus invalidis … sibi ipsis reges imposuere. Tacit. Hist. 5.—Christ granted a more perfect liberty to the faithful. John 8:33. Calmet.

Verse 9. David. That is, Christ, of the house of David. Challoner. Ezekiel 37:24. Osee 3:5.—Grotius and some modern Jews, in opposition to their ancestors, (Chal. Kimchi, and so forth) and to all Christians, would understand Zorobabel, though he was never possessed of the title or authority of king. Calmet.—The prophecy may allude to him, but it is fulfilled only in Christ. Theodoret.

Verse 11. Nations, which are now no more. Grabe supplies verse 10. 11. 15 and 22. Bible.—Judgment, like a father, ( Calmet.) though the chastisement may seem cruel. verse 14. Bible.—Hebrew “with justice, but I will not deny thee for ever.” Chal. “utterly.” Calmet.—Only the Church is preserved continually. All other kingdoms change. Worthington.

Verse 13. Up. There is none to judge thy cause, or to be thy physician. Calmet.

Verse 14. Lovers. Nations which had seduced thee to worship their idols. Bible.—Enemy. This judgment (verse 11) was requisite. Calmet.

Verse 16. Prey. The Romans utterly overturned the Macedonian empire, ( Bible.) as the former had done the Persian, and they the Chaldee monarchy, which has risen on the ruins of the Assyrian empire. But the Jews rise as it were from their ashes. Calmet.

Verse 17. Close. Septuagint “remove the healing plaster from thy painful wound.” Bible.

Verse 18. Temple. After 70 years, it was rebuilt. The Church was founded on a rock. Worthington.

Verse 19. Play, or laugh. Calmet.—Prot. “make merry.” Calmet. 31:4.—Lessened. The Jews were as numerous in our Saviour’s time Bible. as ever they had been. Calmet.

Verse 21. Leader. Zorobabel, the figure (Theod.) of Christ, who is here meant. Calmet.—He springs from Jacob. Worthington.—The sceptre was not taken away till his coming. Genesis 49. Bible.—Who. Cyrus alludes to this passage in his decree. 1 Ezra 1. Calmet.—The prediction is fully verified in Christians. Saint Jerome—Christ is near to God, being one. John 14. Worthington.

Verse 23. Wicked, at Jerusalem, or rather the Chaldees; and the Jews, who crucified their Messias. Saint Jerome and so forth Calmet.