Context No. 59 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 30:1-11: in context

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2“The LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book. 3For, behold, the days come,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will reverse the captivity of my people Israel and Judah,’ says the LORD. ‘I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.’” 4These are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. 5For the LORD says: “We have heard a voice of trembling; a voice of fear, and not of peace. 6Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned pale? 7Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it! It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he will be saved out of it. 8It will come to pass in that day, says the LORD of Armies, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds. Strangers will no more make them their bondservants; 9but they will serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them. 10Therefore don’t be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says the LORD. Don’t be dismayed, Israel. For, behold, I will save you from afar, and save your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob will return, and will be quiet and at ease. No one will make him afraid. 11For I am with you, says the LORD, to save you; for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.”

Most of Jeremiah is warning. Chapters 30 to 33 are the exception, a short section often called the Book of Consolation, and this passage opens it. The first instruction is to write. Take all the words I have spoken to you and put them in a book, God says, because the days are coming when I will bring my people back.

The command to write matters. Jeremiah has spent his life speaking to people who would not listen, and now he is told to commit the promise to a document that will outlast the hearing of it. What follows is not soothing. He describes the terror first: strong men clutching their stomachs like women in labor, every face gone pale. He names the day the time of Jacob's trouble. Then the hinge, four words: but he will be saved out of it.

The consolation does not skip the disaster or explain it away. It goes straight through the middle of it and comes out the other side, and the promise is written down while the trouble is still in front of them, not after. God says he will make an end of the nations where they were scattered, but not an end of Israel. What promise do I need to write down now, in the plain worst of something, so that I can still read it when I would never be able to say it?

Sources

Jeremiah 30-33, the Book of Consolation, the promise section within a book of warning
Jeremiah 30:7: the time of Jacob's trouble, and the promise that he will be saved out of it
Jeremiah 36: the scroll Jeremiah dictated and Jehoiakim burned, the book that had to be written twice