However, The Nations Too Will Suffer Both Because Of Their Own Deserts And Because They Have Mocked Judah's God, While On The Other Hand Judah Will Be Restored (Jeremiah 30:16-17).
But Israel/Judah will not be alone in their sufferings, for those who are their adversaries will also themselves finally suffer. For they too are deserving of judgment and have sown misery, and what they have sown they will reap. On the other hand, because they have dismissed Zion (God's people) in derision as of no account, Zion will be restored, in order that they might learn the lesson not to dismiss YHWH's love and concern.
“Therefore all those who devour you,
Will be devoured,
And all your adversaries, every one of them,
Will go into captivity,
And those who despoil you,
Will be a spoil,
And all who prey on you,
Will I give for a prey.”
So those who devoured them would not go unpunished. They too in their turn would be devoured (those who take to the sword will perish by the sword) because they too were filled with iniquity and had increased in sin. And they too would go into captivity, even mighty Babylon. Those who despoiled them would themselves be despoiled, and those who preyed on them would themselves become a prey. God's righteous judgment would reach to all. Thus in all their sufferings the people could recognise that it was not they alone who would suffer. Their conquerors too would become the conquered. It was the way of all flesh.
“For I will restore health to you,
And I will heal you of your wounds,
The word of YHWH,
Because they have called you an outcast,
(Saying), ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after'.”
The one difference was that one day Judah/Israel's strength would be restored. They alone of all the nations would be preserved through thick and thin. For YHWH Himself would one day restore health to them and heal their ‘incurable' wounds, the wounds which He alone could cure because He had inflicted them. This was on the sure word of YHWH. And all this would be because men had derided them and had called them an outcast, and had spoken of them as ‘Zion whom no man seeks after', because all had turned away from them. The mention of ‘Zion' suggests that underneath the derision we are to see lying derision at Zion's God. Judah/Israel themselves had boasted in ‘Zion'. Very well, say the nations, who wants them now?
This mention of Zion is a theme within a theme, for it is preparing for the following chapter when the restoration of Zion will be a feature of the whole restoration (Jeremiah 31:12; Jeremiah 31:23; Jeremiah 31:40). Then indeed men will seek after Zion for His people will be restored. Its mention here in this derogatory fashion is thus preparation for its restoration.