Jeremiah 33 - Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jeremiah 33:3. Call to me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things. What a gracious promise in the time of war and siege, and impending extremities. God even now would have delivered them, had they turned to him with their whole heart: Jeremiah 36:3. But if the city must fall, the remnant are consoled with the double promise of a return and of glory above conception, all of which proceeds from Christ Jesus, the ever-flourishing branch of David's house.

Jeremiah 33:8. I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have transgressed against me. Idolatry has been their leading sin; but on their return, no idol should exist in the land. The promise extends also to the times of the new covenant: Jeremiah 31:31-34.

Jeremiah 33:14. Behold the days come that I will perform that good thing which I have promised, in all the succession of promises concerning the Saviour. Isaiah 9:6; Haggai 2:5.

Jeremiah 33:15. At that time will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David. The Chaldaic reads, the Messiah, whom the prophet had seen promised under the figure of a branch ever-flourishing with beauty in the church. Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 11:1.

Jeremiah 33:16. This is the name wherewith he shall be called, The Lord our righteousness. The prophets mostly used a sacred brevity when speaking of the Messiah; and their brevity is not obscurity but reverence. The subject, in regard of the branch, the person, and David, is the same as in Jeremiah 23:6: he is the Saviour of Judah. Dahler reads as in chap. 23.; and he understands the sense to be the same. Cocceius reads, et hic, qui vocabit illam, Jehovah justitia nostra; or et hoc, quod vocabitur, &c., which is equivalent to, Zion or Jerusalem shall call him, or this which is called, the Lord our righteousness. The ancient Versions, like Dahler, repeat the reading of Jeremiah 23:6.

Our Arians are here again hard at work. “One is satisfied that the text in Jeremiah 23:6, and here, were not intended to express the same thing!” As to the quibble about the affix, whether hah her, or lo him, since the Chaldaic understands the text of Christ, it ought not to disturb the sense of the ancients. All must admit that the gender in Hebrew is frequently changed; and by consequence, that the old Versions give us the true sense, and to the utter confusion of Blaney who will read, Jehovah shall call him our righteousness.

Jeremiah 33:17. David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. Christ is here understood, who reigns as king and priest for ever in the church. So Zacharias understood these texts. Luke 1:68.

Jeremiah 33:24. The two families which the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off. המשׁפחות hammishepachoth, which cannot denote less than kingdoms; by consequence the kingdom of Judah, and the kingdom of Israel are here understood. To guess at families does but embarrass criticism.

REFLECTIONS.

While the priests and princes of Judah were doing evil to Jeremiah, he was praying for their good, and extending the eye of faith to the glory of the latter day. On learning that the villas and palaces were thrown down to prepare the lines of war, and out-works of defence; that the suburbs were become mounts for the engines of Chaldea; and that the glory and beauty of Judah was hasting to set in the clouds of desolation and death, all his sorrows flowed afresh, and his prayers ascended as a cloud to heaven. Such was the piety, and such were the prison-thoughts of this most excellent man.

God honours the saints who suffer indignities for his name. While the prophet was imprisoned for the testimony of the truth, God made that place the council chamber of his presence; and as he could not afford the country any comfort till the abominations were purged with fire and sword, the Lord once more very largely consoled the prophet with promises of temporal good. He would heal all Israel's wounds, he would turn the captivity of the two houses of Israel and Judah, he would cheer Jerusalem with the voice of the bride and the bridegroom, and surround the cities with peaceful flocks and smiling fields. Yea, so great should be the blessings as to cause all the nations who heard of it to be afraid. So also after the day of Pentecost great fear fell on every soul.

The Messiah was again promised to crown the glory of temporal gifts. The righteous branch to grow from David's root could not be understood of Zerubbabel any farther than as a link to the chain. This branch is called Theman JEHOVAH. Genesis 4:1. The branch JEHOVAH. Isaiah 4:2. The man, Lord and God. 2 Samuel 7:19. The man who is God's fellow. Zechariah 13:7. And what man in the church was ever called by these titles? Who of the Hebrew princes was ever called JEHOVAH our Just One, our Righteousness? Who was ever called Messiah, the righteous king? And JEHOVAH, in whom we ought to glory? See 1 Corinthians 1:30-31; Jeremiah 9:23-24; Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10. Poole's Synop. Hence we see that the Lord Christ was the constant hope of Israel, and that they fled to the promises of his coming when every other hope failed.

We see here the immutability of the promises. The covenants which God had made with day and night, and with the seasons of the year, were pledges to the faithful that God would ever keep covenant and promise with his church. So he said to Noah. Genesis 9. So he said to Isaiah 54:10. Yes, so long as a praying remnant shall remain, God will never forsake them. And in cases when the wicked are so multiplied that vengeance cannot be delayed, he will mark those who sigh for the wickedness of the place. This maxim has been most astonishingly realized by the care of providence. But that all may watch, God has sometimes suffered the righteous, for special reasons, to fall with the crowd. Meanwhile, let us be careful to conform to the conditions of God's covenant, that the fruits of righteousness may add to our confidence in the evil day.