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Jeremiah 30: What the Passage Says

87 claims across 24 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Jeremiah 30 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Jeremiah to write down in a book all the words he has been given, because a time is coming when God will bring his people Israel and Judah back to the land he gave their ancestors. The chapter describes a day of terror called the time of Jacob's trouble, out of which Jacob will be saved: the yoke on their necks will be broken, and they will serve the LORD their God and David their king. God says the wound he gave them is incurable and came from their own great sin, yet he will heal them, turn on those who devoured them, rebuild the city and the palace, multiply the people, and give them a ruler from among themselves. It closes with the LORD's anger going out like a storm on the wicked until his purposes are carried out.

Claim by Claim

  1. 30:1
    • A word came to Jeremiah from the LORD.
  2. 30:2
    • The LORD, the God of Israel, spoke.
    • The LORD commanded Jeremiah to write in a scroll all the words that the LORD had spoken to him.
  3. 30:3
    • The LORD declares that days are coming.
    • The LORD will restore the fortunes of his people Israel and Judah.
    • The LORD will bring them back to the land he gave to their fathers.
    • They will take possession of that land.
  4. 30:4
    • These are the words the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.
  5. 30:5
    • The LORD says a sound of trembling has been heard.
    • There is terror and no peace.
  6. 30:6
    • A command is given to ask and see whether a male gives birth.
    • The speaker asks why he sees every strong man with his hands on his loins like a woman giving birth.
    • The speaker asks why every face has turned pale.
  7. 30:7
    • A cry of dismay is uttered.
    • That day is great.
    • There is no day like that day.
    • It is a time of distress for Jacob.
    • Jacob will be saved out of that time of distress.
  8. 30:8
    • On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the LORD will break the yoke from off your neck.
    • The LORD will tear off your bonds.
    • Strangers will no longer make him serve them.
  9. 30:9
    • They will serve the LORD their God.
    • They will serve David their king.
    • The LORD will raise up David for them.
  10. 30:10
    • The LORD tells his servant Jacob not to fear.
    • The LORD tells Israel not to be dismayed.
    • The LORD will save you from far away.
    • The LORD will save your offspring from the land of their captivity.
    • Jacob will return.
    • Jacob will be quiet and at ease.
    • No one will make him afraid.
  11. 30:11
    • The LORD declares that he is with you to save you.
    • The LORD will make a complete end of all the nations among which he scattered you.
    • The LORD will not make a complete end of you.
    • The LORD will discipline you in just measure.
    • The LORD will not leave you entirely unpunished.
  12. 30:12
    • The LORD says your injury is incurable.
    • Your wound is grievous.
  13. 30:13
    • There is no one to plead your cause so that you may be bound up.
    • You have no healing remedies.
  14. 30:14
    • All your lovers have forgotten you.
    • They do not seek you.
    • The LORD has struck you with the blow of an enemy.
    • The LORD has struck you with the chastisement of a cruel one.
    • This was because of the greatness of your iniquity.
    • Your sins have become numerous.
  15. 30:15
    • The speaker asks why you cry out over your injury.
    • Your pain is incurable.
    • This is because of the greatness of your iniquity.
    • Your sins have become numerous.
    • The LORD has done these things to you.
  16. 30:16
    • All who devour you will be devoured.
    • All your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity.
    • Those who plunder you will become plunder.
    • The LORD will make all who prey upon you into prey.
  17. 30:17
    • The LORD will restore health to you.
    • The LORD will heal you of your wounds.
    • This is declared by the LORD.
    • They called you an outcast.
    • They said this is Zion, whom no one seeks after.
  18. 30:18
    • The LORD says he will restore the fortunes of Jacob's tents.
    • The LORD will have compassion on Jacob's dwellings.
    • The city will be rebuilt on its own mound of ruins.
    • The palace will stand in its rightful place.
  19. 30:19
    • Thanksgiving will come out from them.
    • The sound of those who make merry will come out from them.
    • The LORD will multiply them.
    • They will not be few.
    • The LORD will honor them.
    • They will not be insignificant.
  20. 30:20
    • Their children will be as they were in former times.
    • Their congregation will be established before the LORD.
    • The LORD will punish all who oppress them.
  21. 30:21
    • Their noble one will be from among themselves.
    • Their ruler will come out from their midst.
    • The LORD will bring him near.
    • He will approach the LORD.
    • The LORD asks who would dare pledge his heart to approach him.
    • This is declared by the LORD.
  22. 30:22
    • You will be a people belonging to the LORD.
    • The LORD will be your God.
  23. 30:23
    • The storm of the LORD has gone forth in fury.
    • It is a sweeping whirlwind.
    • It will burst upon the head of the wicked.
  24. 30:24
    • The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has carried it out.
    • It will not turn back until he has accomplished the purposes of his heart.
    • In the latter days you will understand this.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

30:1
"The LORD" in small capitals stands for the Hebrew personal name of God, four consonants usually written YHWH. Jewish readers avoided saying it aloud and substituted the word for "Lord," and English versions have followed that practice ever since.
30:2
A "book" here is a scroll, a long strip of papyrus or leather rolled on a stick. Bound books with pages did not exist yet.
30:3
"Israel and Judah" are the two kingdoms the nation had split into after Solomon: Israel in the north, destroyed by Assyria about 722 BC, and Judah in the south, with Jerusalem as its capital, conquered by Babylon in Jeremiah's own lifetime. Naming both means the whole people, including the northerners long since deported. The Hebrew phrase behind "bring back from captivity" can mean either "restore the fortunes of" or "bring back the captives of"; the two senses overlap and translators are divided.
30:6
Comparing fighting men to a woman in labor was a standard prophetic way of saying that soldiers had been reduced to helplessness. The King James "his hands on his loins" describes a man doubled over, gripping himself, the posture of someone in sudden pain or panic.
30:7
"Jacob" was the ancestor whose name was changed to Israel; poets and prophets use his name for the whole nation descended from him, the way "Rome" can mean the Romans. "That day" is a set phrase in the prophets for a coming day when God acts decisively, in judgment, in rescue, or both at once.
30:8
A yoke is the wooden bar strapped across the necks of oxen to harness them to a plow. Used of people it was the standard image for being another nation's subject, paying tribute and taking orders. "The LORD who commands armies" renders a title ("LORD of hosts") whose "armies" have been understood as Israel's fighting men, the stars, or heavenly beings; the Hebrew does not specify. The Hebrew of this verse slips between "his neck" and "your neck," addressing the nation now as "he," now as "you."
30:9
David had been dead about four hundred years when Jeremiah spoke. "David their king" means a king of David's family line, the dynasty that had ruled Judah since David; "raise up" is the ordinary word for putting someone in office.
30:10
"Your children" translates a word meaning "seed", descendants of any generation, not only sons and daughters.
30:11
Scattered means spread far apart. Enemies had moved the people into many different countries. "Correct you in measure" means just the right amount, and not too much.
30:12
God talks about the people's trouble like a cut on someone's body. Their land had been hurt by war. It is a hurt that will not close up on its own.
30:13
This is courtroom language. "Speak up for you" means act as an advocate, someone who argues your case before a judge. The verse then switches back to the image of a wound.
30:14
"The ones who loved you" are the foreign nations Judah had courted as political allies, Egypt and others, and who failed to help when Babylon came. The prophets routinely describe such alliances as adultery, with the nation as an unfaithful wife.
30:16
"Robbed" here means plundered in war: an army stripping a conquered town of its goods, livestock and people.
30:17
Zion was originally the ridge in Jerusalem where the city's fortress stood; the name came to stand for the whole city and for its people.
30:18
Ancient towns were rebuilt directly on the flattened rubble of the previous town, so a long-inhabited site grew into an artificial mound. Rebuilding "on its own pile of ruins" is a picture of a place resettled where it always stood, not a picture of leaving it in ruins. The word behind "palace" can mean the king's residence or a fortified stronghold.
30:20
"Community" translates a word for the people gathered as a formal assembly, the nation convened as a body, especially for worship.
30:21
The point is that the ruler will be a native, not a governor installed by an occupying empire, as Judah's rulers had become. "Come near" and "approach" are the technical words for entering God's presence in the temple, something restricted to priests; ordinary people, and even kings, could not do it on their own initiative.
30:22
"You will be my people, and I will be your God" is a fixed formula, repeated throughout the Hebrew scriptures, that states the covenant bond between God and Israel, worded much like the mutual pledges in ancient treaties.
30:23
These two closing verses appear almost word for word earlier in the book, at chapter 23, where they describe judgment falling on false prophets.
30:24
"In the days to come" translates a phrase meaning literally "in the after part of the days", later on, in a future the speaker leaves undated. It does not by itself mean the end of the world.

Read Jeremiah 30