Jeremiah 33:14-16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Behold, the days come that I will perform that good thing, &c. The Lord's word is not yea and nay: he cannot lie, or repent. There shall come a time when he will verify every good word which he hath spoken to, or concerning, his people. In those days will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up to David The kings they had hitherto had of the line of David were most of them unrighteous men; but God here promises that after the captivity they should have a branch of David that would execute judgment and righteousness in the land, for the protection and government of those that feared him. If this passage point at all to Zerubbabel, who was a good man, a descendant of David, and, though not a king, a ruler of the Jews, after their return from Babylon, and who governed with equity and not as Jehoiakim had done; yet it can only refer to him as a type of the Messiah, the branch out of the stem of Jesse, Isaiah 11:1; the branch of the Lord that was to be beautiful and glorious, Isaiah 4:2; and the righteous branch that was to be raised up unto David, as he is described Jeremiah 23:5, a passage exactly similar to this, and undoubtedly meant of the same person. See the notes on these passages. In those days shall Judah be saved, &c. If, a temporal salvation be here at all intended, it must be, not that which the Jews enjoyed for a short season under the government of Zerubbabel, a deliverance and protection from, or security against their enemies, which was very imperfect, and frequently interrupted; but that more perfect salvation, peace, and prosperity, which they shall enjoy in the latter days, after their conversion to Christianity, and restoration to their own land, according to the predictions contained in this and the three preceding Chapter s. But a spiritual and eternal salvation undoubtedly is chiefly intended here, as well as in the parallel passage, Jeremiah 23:6. And this is the name wherewith ye shall be called, The Lord our righteousness According to this reading it is here foretold, that the name which properly belongs to the Messiah shall be given to Jerusalem, that is, to the church; “to signify,” says Lowth, “that it is in a peculiar manner dedicated to him, he having chosen it for the place of his residence, (see Ezekiel 48:35,) and that all the righteousness of the faithful, both their justification and sanctification, is derived from him. this seems,” adds he, “to be the genuine sense of the words, as may appear to any that will compare the original phrase here, יקרא לה, with Isaiah 62:4; Isaiah 62:12, where it is said of Zion, Thou shalt be called Hephzibah, or, my delight is in her, and sought out, a city not forsaken. Nor is there any greater impropriety in giving the name Jehovah to a city, than in calling an altar Jehovah-nissi, that is, Jehovah my banner, (Exodus 17:15,) and Jehovah-shalom, Jehovah peace, (Judges 6:24,) in token that the Lord was the author of those mercies of which the said altars were designed to be monuments. So the servants of God are described as having his name written upon their foreheads, Revelation 3:12; Revelation 14:1; but several interpreters, particularly Huetius, and our learned Bishop Pearson, (in his Exposition of the Creed, p. 165,) render the words thus: He that shall call her [to be his peculiar people] is the Lord our righteousness.” Thus also Dr. Waterland and others. But Blaney, who renders the last clause of Jeremiah 23:6, This is the name by which Jehovah shall call him, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, translates this, And this is he whom Jehovah shall call OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, judging that the ה in לה, rendered her, is not the feminine pronoun affix, but the masculine, after the Chaldee form.