Jeremiah 30:17

For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) I will restore health unto thee . . .—Literally, I will place a healing plaster on thee. The image of the plague-stricken sufferer is resumed from Jeremiah 30:13. Men had scorned her. The contemptuous term of outcast had been flung at her. She was like Tyre, as a “harlot that had been forgotten” (Isaiah 23:16). There were none who sought her company. No nation courted her alliance. It was as though that extremest misery had touched the heart of Jehovah with pity, even for the adulteress who had forsaken Him. The whole passage brings the history, or the parable, of Gomer very vividly to our memory (Hosea 1-3).

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

Restore health - Or, "apply a bandage" (Jeremiah 8:22 note). For they called read "they call."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. (Jer 8:22; 33:6).

Outcast—as a wife put away by her husband (Isa 62:4, contrasted with Jer 30:12).

Zion—alluding to its Hebrew meaning, "dryness"; "sought after" by none, as would be the case with an arid region (Isa 62:12). The extremity of the people, so far from being an obstacle to, will be the chosen opportunity of, God's grace.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

As the miserable state of this people was by the prophet, Jeremiah 30:12,13, described under the similitude of a man wounded, and bruised, and sick; so their more prosperous state is described under the nation of health, and God’s action in restoring them expressed under the notion of healing, both here and in many other texts, Isaiah 6:10 19:22 Isaiah 57:18,19. The particle here translated because may so signify, here, for often the scorn and contempt of God’s people’s enemies causeth God to make haste to their salvation and deliverance; but many think that it were better translated although, as it is Joshua 17:18: though the heathens call thee one that I have cast off, as a man doth his wife; yet they shall see the contrary, for I will heal thee of thy wounds.

Saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after; though they deriding say, This Zion whom none cares for. Some think that in this they alluded to the original signification of the word Zion, which is, a dry or waste place.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For I will restore health to thee,.... That is, bring thee into a comfortable and prosperous condition, both in church and state, with respect to things religions and civil: as the afflictions and distresses of the Jewish nation are expressed by sickness, wounds, and bruises; so their prosperity, both spiritual and temporal, is signified by health. The words may be rendered, "I will cause length to ascend unto thee"; or a long plaster (z); or rather, that which has been long looked for, and long in coming, prosperity; or else, that whereas they were before bowed down with afflictions and sorrows, now they should be as a man in an erect posture, that rises up in his full height and length, being in a robust and healthful state;

and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; pardon their sins, remove their afflictions, and bring them into a comfortable situation, into a Gospel church state, and into their own land:

because they called thee an outcast; as the Jews now are, cast out of their own land, rejected from being the people of God; so they are reckoned by the nations among whom they are:

saying, this is Zion, whom no man seeketh after: after their good, either temporal or spiritual; despised by most, pitied and prayed for by few; and fewer still they are that seek after, and are solicitous about, or take any methods, or make use of any means, for their conversion; but though man does not, God will, and his work will appear the more manifest.

(z) "adducam tibi emplastrum longum", so some in Gataker; "faciam ut ad justam constitutionem assurgas", Junius & Tremellius; "ut assurgat sanitas tibi", Piscator; "nam faciam ut ascendat tibi proceritas", Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. I will restore health unto thee] better, I will bring new flesh upon thee. See on Jeremiah 8:22, also Jeremiah 33:6.

Zion] The LXX, reading the end of the word somewhat differently, render prey. This Co. prefers. The enemy, he would explain, consider Zion and her sons as a free hunting ground, where they may range about and devour at will.

seeketh after] mg. careth for. Cp. Deuteronomy 11:12; Psalm 142:4.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - Restore health; rather, apply a bandage. They called thee an Outcast. Jehovah, speaking after the manner of men. cannot bear to hear his enemies, as they pass along, scornfully denominating the holy city an Outcast. Jeremiah 30:17

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.