Discovery BoxJeremiah 3:18 
Context3:18 At that time 1 the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. 2 Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession. ” 3
Jeremiah 23:5-7
Context23:5 “I, the Lord, promise 4 that a new time will certainly come 5
when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, 6 a descendant of David.
He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding 7
and will do what is just and right in the land. 8
23:6 Under his rule 9 Judah will enjoy safety 10
and Israel will live in security. 11
This is the name he will go by:
‘The Lord has provided us with justice.’ 12
23:7 “So I, the Lord, say: 13 ‘A new time will certainly come. 14 People now affirm their oaths with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.”
Jeremiah 24:6-7
Context24:6 I will look after their welfare 15 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 16 and will not uproot them. 17 24:7 I will give them the desire to acknowledge that I 18 am the Lord. I will be their God and they will be my people. For they will wholeheartedly 19 return to me.’
Jeremiah 29:10-14
Context29:10 “For the Lord says, ‘Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule 20 are over will I again take up consideration for you. 21 Then I will fulfill my gracious promise to you and restore 22 you to your homeland. 23 29:11 For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. 24 ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you 25 a future filled with hope. 26 29:12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, 27 I will hear your prayers. 28 29:13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, 29 29:14 I will make myself available to you,’ 30 says the Lord. 31 ‘Then I will reverse your plight 32 and will regather you from all the nations and all the places where I have exiled you,’ says the Lord. 33 ‘I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’
1 tn Heb “In those days.”
2 tn Heb “the house of Judah will walk together with the house of Israel.”
3 tn Heb “the land that I gave your [fore]fathers as an inheritance.”
4 tn Heb “Oracle of the
5 tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”
6 tn Heb “a righteous sprig to David” or “a righteous shoot” (NAB).
sn This passage and the parallel in Jer 33:15 are part of a growing number of prayers and prophecies regarding an ideal ruler to come forth from the Davidic line who will bring the justice, security, and well-being that the continuing line of Davidic rulers did not. Though there were periodic kings like Josiah who did fulfill the ideals set forth in Jer 22:3 (see Jer 22:15), by and large they were more like Jehoiakim who did not (see Jer 22:13). Hence the
7 tn Heb “he will reign as king and act wisely.” This is another example of the use of two verbs joined by “and” where one becomes the adverbial modifier of the other (hendiadys). For the nuance of the verb “act wisely” rather than “prosper” see Amos 5:13; Ps 2:10 (cf. BDB 968 s.v. שָׂכַל Hiph.5).
8 sn This has been the constant emphasis in this section. See 22:3 for the demand, 22:15 for its fulfillment, and 22:13 for its abuse. The ideal king would follow in the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor David (2 Sam 8:15) who set this forth as an ideal for his dynasty (2 Sam 23:3) and prayed for it to be true of his son Solomon (Ps 72:1-2).
9 tn Heb “In his days [= during the time he rules].”
10 tn Parallelism and context (cf. v. 4) suggest this nuance for the word often translated “be saved.” For this nuance elsewhere see Ps 119:117; Prov 28:18 for the verb (יָשַׁע [yasha’] in the Niphal); and Ps 12:6; Job 5:4, 11 for the related noun (יֶשַׁע, yesha’).
11 sn It should be noted that this brief oracle of deliverance implies the reunification of Israel and Judah under the future Davidic ruler. Jeremiah has already spoken about this reunification earlier in 3:18 and will have more to say about it in 30:3; 31:27, 31. This same ideal was espoused in the prophecies of Hosea (1:10-11 [2:1-2 HT]), Isaiah (11:1-4, 10-12), and Ezekiel (37:15-28) all of which have messianic and eschatological significance.
12 tn Heb “his name will be called ‘The
sn The Hebrew word translated “justice” here is very broad in its usage, and it is hard to catch all the relevant nuances for this word in this context. It is used for “vindication” in legal contexts (see, e.g., Job 6:29), for “deliverance” or “salvation” in exilic contexts (see, e.g., Isa 58:8), and in the sense of ruling, judging with “justice” (see, e.g., Lev 19:15; Isa 32:1). Here it probably sums up the justice that the
13 tn Heb “Oracle of the
14 tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”
15 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).
16 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.
17 sn For these terms see Jer 1:10.
18 tn Heb “I will give them a heart to know me that I am the
19 tn Heb “with all their heart.”
20 sn See the study note on Jer 25:11 for the reckoning of the seventy years.
21 tn See the translator’s note on Jer 27:22 for this term.
22 tn Verse 10 is all one long sentence in the Hebrew original: “According to the fullness of Babylon seventy years I will take thought of you and I will establish my gracious word to you by bringing you back to this place.” The sentence has been broken up to conform better to contemporary English style.
23 tn Heb “this place.” The text has probably been influenced by the parallel passage in 27:22. The term appears fifteen times in Jeremiah and is invariably a reference to Jerusalem or Judah.
sn See Jer 27:22 for this promise.
24 tn Heb “Oracle of the
25 tn Heb “I know the plans that I am planning for you, oracle of the
26 tn Or “the future you hope for”; Heb “a future and a hope.” This is a good example of hendiadys where two formally coordinated nouns (adjectives, verbs) convey a single idea where one of the terms functions as a qualifier of the other. For this figure see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 658-72. This example is discussed on p. 661.
27 tn Heb “come and pray to me.” This is an example of verbal hendiadys where two verb formally joined by “and” convey a main concept with the second verb functioning as an adverbial qualifier.
28 tn Or “You will call out to me and come to me in prayer and I will hear your prayers.” The verbs are vav consecutive perfects and can be taken either as unconditional futures or as contingent futures. See GKC 337 §112.kk and 494 §159.g and compare the usage in Gen 44:22 for the use of the vav consecutive perfects in contingent futures. The conditional clause in the middle of 29:13 and the deuteronomic theology reflected in both Deut 30:1-5 and 1 Kgs 8:46-48 suggest that the verbs are continent futures here. For the same demand for wholehearted seeking in these contexts which presuppose exile see especially Deut 30:2, 1 Kgs 8:48.
29 tn Or “If you wholeheartedly seek me”; Heb “You will seek me and find [me] because you will seek me with all your heart.” The translation attempts to reflect the theological nuances of “seeking” and “finding” and the psychological significance of “heart” which refers more to intellectual and volitional concerns in the OT than to emotional ones.
30 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.”
31 tn Heb “Oracle of the
32 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.
33 tn Heb “Oracle of the
