Jeremiah 30:16

Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 30:16-17. Therefore — Or rather, yet surely, as לכןshould be rendered; (see note on Jeremiah 16:14;) all they that devour thee shall be devoured — The Egyptians, Philistines, Midianites, Ammonites, Edomites, Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and others, who have afflicted and oppressed you, shall be extirpated, while you shall be restored and re- established. See note on Jeremiah 30:11. Though God chastises his own people with severity, according to the nature and quality of their faults, yet he does it so as never utterly to destroy them. The Assyrians, who afflicted Israel and Judah, were so destroyed by the Babylonians, Medes, and Persians, that mention is no more made of their empire. The monarchy of the Chaldeans, who destroyed Jerusalem, and carried the Jews into captivity, was overthrown by the Persians, and never recovered itself. The empires of the Persians and Egyptians were destroyed by Alexander. The Grecian. or Syro-Macedonian kingdom, which, especially under Antiochus Epiphanes, cruelly persecuted them, was destroyed by the Romans. And the Roman empire, powerful as it was, after being made the instrument of bringing greater calamities on the Jewish nation than they had ever suffered from any other power, was broken to pieces by the incursions of the northern nations on the one hand, and by the Saracens and Turks on the other. But the Jewish people, who have repeatedly appeared to be almost destroyed and annihilated in their dispersions, have reappeared, and sprung up again, as it were, from their ashes, and become as numerous and powerful as before.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

30:12-17 When God is against a people, who will be for them? Who can be for them, so as to do them any kindness? Incurable griefs are owing to incurable lusts. Yet, though the captives suffered justly, and could not help themselves, the Lord intended to appear for them, and to punish their oppressors; and he will still do so. But every effort to heal ourselves must prove fruitless, so long as we neglect the heavenly Advocate and sanctifying Spirit. The dealings of His grace with every true convert, and every returning backslider, are the same in effect as his proceedings to the Jews.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore - i. e., Because thou hast undergone thy punishment and cried out in consciousness of thy guilt.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. Therefore—connected with Jer 30:13, because "There is none to plead thy cause … therefore" I will plead thy cause, and heal thy wound, by overwhelming thy foes. This fifteenth verse is inserted to amplify what was said at the close of Jer 30:14. When the false ways of peace, suggested by the so-called prophets, had only ended in the people's irremediable ruin, the true prophet comes forward to announce the grace of God as bestowing repentance and healing.

devour thee … be devoured … spoil … be a spoil … prey upon … give for a prey—retribution in kind (see on [938]Jer 2:3; Ex 23:22; Isa 33:1).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The particle Nbl is thought here to be ill translated therefore, for manifestly it is not a causal or illative, and those who interpret it therefore refer it to what went before, Jeremiah 30:10,11. It were better translated nevertheless, or notwithstanding yet: so the learned author of the English Annotations thinks it should be translated Isaiah 7:14 30:18, and in many other texts.

This text is a declaration of God’s free mercy: though this people had justly provoked the Lord by their iniquities to punish them, yet he would at length revenge them of their enemies, and those that spoiled them should feel his justice, and be themselves spoiled: so Isaiah 10:12 33:1. God ordinarily punisheth those that have been enemies to his people more severely than his people have been punished by them; the reasons are, because though they serve God in chastising his people, yet they do it not designedly, Isaiah 10:7, and commonly they exceed a measure in their executing God’s vengeance.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured,.... Thus rendering the words, they are to be connected with Jeremiah 30:10; and all between to be put into a parenthesis: but rather, in connection with the preceding words, they should be rendered "nevertheless", or "notwithstanding" (y); though they had sinned at so great a rate, and were so much afflicted and chastened by the Lord, yet their enemies should not go unpunished, and mercy in the issue would be showed to them. Jarchi calls it an oath, that so it should be; the Romans that devoured them, and ate up their substance, were devoured by the Goths and Vandals; for this may be carried further than to the destruction of the Babylonish empire by the Persians;

and all thine adversaries, everyone of them shall, fro into captivity; or be conquered and subdued, as were the Assyrians, Egyptians, Chaldeans, Grecians, Romans; and not only Rome Pagan has been destroyed, but Rome Papal also will go into captivity; see Revelation 13:10;

and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey: they shall be used according to the law of retaliation; the same measure they have measured shall be measured to them again.

(y) "verumtamen, vel nihilominus", Gataker. So Kimchi and Abarbinel.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. Therefore] Because thou hast undergone thy portion of suffering and it is plain that none other than Myself can deliver thee. For the general sense cp. Isaiah 14:2; Isaiah 51:22 f. Co. points out that the logical force of the word is not evident. Why should the sins of Judah be the reason for their enemies being overthrown? Accordingly, he transposes Jeremiah 30:16-17, and begins Jeremiah 30:17 with “I” (’ânôki) instead of “For” (ki). This change, combined with others which he here makes, seems too drastic to be accepted with confidence.

all they that devour thee] See on Jeremiah 2:3.

shall go into captivity] The LXX, by a slight variation from MT., have shall eat their own flesh, a reading which Co. supports from Isaiah 49:26. The meaning will then be, shall engage in internecine strife. For this thought cp. Ezekiel 38:21; Haggai 2:22; Zechariah 14:13.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - Therefore; i.e. because of the extremity of thy need. Comp. Isaiah 10:23, 24, "The Lord Jehovah Sabaoth shall make a consumption Therefore be not afraid of Assyria;" and Isaiah 30:17, 18, "At the rebuke of five shall ye flee .... And therefore will Jehovah wait, that he may be gracious unto you." Jeremiah 30:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Therefore (i.e., because Israel, although punished for his sins, is destitute of help) will the Lord take pity on him. He will recompense to his oppressors and spoilers according to their deeds, and will heal his wounds. The enemies of Zion will now meet the fate which they have prepared for Zion. Those who, like rapacious animals, would devour Israel (see on Jeremiah 2:3), shall be devoured, and all his oppressors shall go into captivity; cf. Jeremiah 22:22. The Kethib שׁאסיך is the Aramaic form of the participle from שׁאס for שׁסס; the Qeri substitutes the Hebrew form שׁסיך, after Jeremiah 50:11, Isaiah 17:14. עלה ארכה, to put on a bandage, lay on a plaster. ארכה signifies, primarily, not a bandage, but, like the Arabic arîkah (according to Fleischer in Delitzsch on Isaiah 58:8), the new skin which forms over a wound as it heals, and (as is shown by the expression of Isaiah, ארכתך־תּצמח) proves the healing of the wound. Against the direct transference of the meaning of the word in Arabic to the Hebrew ארכה, without taking into consideration the passage in Isaiah just referred to, there is the objection that the word is always used in connection with עלה, "to be put on" (cf. Isaiah 8:22; 2 Chronicles 24:13; Nehemiah 4:1), or העלה, "to put on" (here and in Jeremiah 33:6), which is not the proper verb to be used in speaking of the formation of a new skin over a wound after suppuration has ceased. Hence the word in Hebrew seems to have received the derived sense of "a healing-plaster;" this is confirmed by the employment of the word תּעלה, "plaster," in Jeremiah 30:13 and Jeremiah 46:11. - The second כּי, Jeremiah 30:17, is subordinate to the clause which precedes. "Because they called thee one rejected," i.e., because the enemies of Zion spoke of her contemptuously, as a city that has been forsaken of God, and the Lord will heal her wounds.