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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Jeremiah 33:9 - 33:9
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In consequence of the renovation of Israel externally and internally, Jerusalem will become to the Lord a name of delight, i.e., a name which affords joy, delight. שֵׁם here signifies, not fame, but a name. But the name, as always in Scripture, is the expression of the essential nature; the meaning therefore is, "she will develope into a city over which men will rejoice, whenever her name is mentioned." On the following words, "for praise and for glory," i.e., for a subject of praise, etc., cf. Jer 13:11. לְכָל־גֹּויֵי, "to all," or "among all nations." How far Jerusalem becomes such is shown by the succeeding clauses: "who shall hear...and tremble and quake because of the good," i.e., not from fear "because they are seized with terror through these proofs of the wonderful power of God in contrast with the helplessness of their idols, and through the feeling of their miserable and destitute condition as contrasted with the happiness and prosperity of the people of Israel" (Graf). Against this usual view of the words, it has already been remarked in the Berleburger Bible, that it does not agree with what precedes, viz., with the statement that Jerusalem shall become a name of joy to all nations. Moreover, פָּחַד and רָגַז, in the sense of fear and terror, are construed with מִפְּנֵי or מִן; here, they signify to shake and tremble for joy, like פָּחַד in Isa 60:5, cf. Hos 3:5, i.e., as it is expressed in the Berleburger Bible, "not with a slavish fear, but with the filial fear of penitents, which will also draw and drive them to the reconciled God in Christ, with holy fear and trembling." Calvin had previously recognised this Messianic idea, and fitly elucidated the words thus: haec duo inter se conjuncta, nempe pavor et tremor, qui nos humiliet coram Deo, et fiducia quae nos erigat, ut audeamus familiariter ad ipsum accedere. אֹותָם may be for אִתָּם, cf. Jer 1:16; but probably עָשָׂה is construed with a double accusative, as in Isa 42:16.
The prosperity which the Lord designs to procure for His people, is, Jer 33:10-13, further described in two strophes (Jer 33:10-11 and Jer 33:12-13); in Jer 33:10, Jer 33:11, the joyous life of men. In the land now laid waste, gladness and joy shall once more prevail, and God will be praised for this. The description, "it is desolate," etc., does not imply the burning of Jerusalem, Jer 52:12., but only the desolation which began about the end of the siege. "In this place" means "in this land;" this is apparent from the more detailed statement, "in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem." "The voice of gladness," etc., forms the subject of the verb יִשָּׁמַע. On the expression see Jer 7:34; Jer 16:9; Jer 25:10. There is here added: "the voice of those who say, 'Praise the Lord,' " etc. - the usual liturgic formula in thanksgiving to God; cf. 2Ch 5:13; 2Ch 7:3; Ezr 3:11; Psa 106:1. תֹּודָה, praise and thanks in word and deed; see Jer 17:26. On אָשִׁיב אֶת־שְׁבוּת see Jer 32:44. The rendering, "I shall bring back the captives of the land" (here as in Jer 33:7), is both grammatically indefensible, and further, unsuitable: (a) inappropriate, on account of כְּבָרִאשֹׁנָה, for no previous restoration of captives had taken place; the leading of the people out of Egypt is never represented as a bringing back from captivity. And (b) it is grammatically untenable, because restoration to Canaan is expressed either by אֶל־הָאָרֶץ הֵבִיא, after Deu 30:5; or by הֵשִׁיב, with the mention of the place (); cf. Jer 16:15; Jer 24:6; Jer 32:37, etc.