Jeremiah 23:3

23:3 Then I myself will regather those of my people 1  who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. 2  They will greatly increase in number.

Jeremiah 24:5-6

24:5 “I, the Lord, the God of Israel, say: ‘The exiles whom I sent away from here to the land of Babylon 3  are like those good figs. I consider them to be good. 24:6 I will look after their welfare 4  and will restore them to this land. There I will build them up and will not tear them down. I will plant them firmly in the land 5  and will not uproot them. 6 

Jeremiah 29:14

29:14 I will make myself available to you,’ 7  says the Lord. 8  ‘Then I will reverse your plight 9  and will regather you from all the nations and all the places where I have exiled you,’ says the Lord. 10  ‘I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’

Jeremiah 30:3

30:3 For I, the Lord, affirm 11  that the time will come when I will reverse the plight 12  of my people, Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors 13  and they will take possession of it once again.’” 14 

Jeremiah 32:27

32:27 “I am the Lord, the God of all humankind. There is, indeed, nothing too difficult for me. 15 

1 tn Heb “my sheep.”

2 tn Heb “their fold.”

3 tn Heb “the land of the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4.

4 tn Heb “I will set my eyes upon them for good.” For the nuance of “good” see Jer 21:10; Amos 9:4 (in these cases the opposite of harm; see BDB 375 s.v. טוֹבָה 1).

5 tn The words “There” and “firmly in the land” are not in the text but are implicit from the connection and the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

6 sn For these terms see Jer 1:10.

7 tn Heb “I will let myself be found by you.” For this nuance of the verb see BDB 594 s.v. מָצָא Niph.1.f and compare the usage in Isa 65:1; 2 Chr 15:2. The Greek version already noted that nuance when it translated the phrase “I will manifest myself to you.”

8 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

9 tn Heb “restore your fortune.” Alternately, “I will bring you back from exile.” This idiom occurs twenty-six times in the OT and in several cases it is clearly not referring to return from exile but restoration of fortunes (e.g., Job 42:10; Hos 6:11–7:1; Jer 33:11). It is often followed as here by “regather” or “bring back” (e.g., Jer 30:3; Ezek 29:14) so it is often misunderstood as “bringing back the exiles.” The versions (LXX, Vulg., Tg., Pesh.) often translate the idiom as “to go away into captivity,” deriving the noun from שְׁבִי (shÿvi, “captivity”). However, the use of this expression in Old Aramaic documents of Sefire parallels the biblical idiom: “the gods restored the fortunes of the house of my father again” (J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire [BibOr], 100-101, 119-20). The idiom means “to turn someone's fortune, bring about change” or “to reestablish as it was” (HALOT 1386 s.v. 3.c). In Ezek 16:53 it is paralleled by the expression “to restore the situation which prevailed earlier.” This amounts to restitutio in integrum, which is applicable to the circumstances surrounding the return of the exiles.

10 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

11 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

12 tn Heb “restore the fortune.” For the translation and meaning of this idiom see the note at 29:14.

13 tn Heb “fathers.”

14 sn As the nations of Israel and Judah were united in their sin and suffered the same fate – that of exile and dispersion – (cf. Jer 3:8; 5:11; 11:10, 17) so they will ultimately be regathered from the nations and rejoined under one king, a descendant of David, and regain possession of their ancestral lands. The prophets of both the eighth and seventh century looked forward to this ideal (see, e.g., Hos 1:11 (2:2 HT); Isa 11:11-13; Jer 23:5-6; 30:3; 33:7; Ezek 37:15-22). This has already been anticipated in Jer 3:18.

15 tn Heb “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” The question is rhetorical expecting an emphatic negative answer (cf. E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 949, citing the parallel in Gen 18:14). The Hebrew particle “Behold” (הִנֵּה, hinneh) introduces the grounds for this rhetorical negative (cf. T. O. Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew, 170, §135 [3]), i.e., “Since I am the Lord, the God of all mankind, there is indeed nothing too hard for me [or is there anything too hard for me?].”

sn This statement furnishes the grounds both for the assurance that the city will indeed be delivered over to Nebuchadnezzar (vv. 28-29a) and that it will be restored and repopulated (vv. 37-41). This can be seen from the parallel introductions in vv. 28, “Therefore the Lord says” and “Now therefore the Lord says.” As the creator of all and God of all mankind he has the power and authority to do with his creation what he wishes (cf. Jer 27:5-6).