Then, when Babylon shall have fallen, the children of Israel and Judah return out of their captivity, seeking Jahveh their God with tears of repentance, and marching to Zion, for the purpose of joining themselves to Him in an eternal covenant. The fall of Babylon has the deliverance of Israel as its direct result. The prophet views this in such a way, that all the steps in the fulfilment (the return from Babylon, the reunion of the tribes previously separated, their sincere return to the Lord, and the making of a new covenant that shall endure for ever), which will actually follow successively in long periods, are taken together into one view. By the statement made regarding the time, "In those days, and at that time," the fall of Babylon and the deliverance of Israel (which Jeremiah sees in the spirit as already begun) are marked out as belonging to the future. Israel and Judah come together, divided no more; cf. Jeremiah 3:18. "Going and weeping they go," i.e., they always go further on, weeping: cf. Jeremiah 41:6; 2 Samuel 3:16; Ewald, 280, b. Cf. also Jeremiah 3:21; Jeremiah 31:9. Seeking the Lord their God, they ask for Zion, i.e., they ask after the way thither; for in Zion Jahveh has His throne. "The way hither" (i.e., to Jerusalem) "is their face," sc. directed. "Hither" points to the place of the speaker, Jerusalem. באוּ are imperatives, and words with which those who are returning encourage one another to a close following of the Lord their God. נלווּ is imperative for ילּווּ, like נקבּצוּ in Isaiah 43:9, Joel 3:11; cf. Ewald, 226, c. It cannot be the imperfect, because the third person gives no sense; hence Graf would change the vowels, and read נלוה. But suspicion is raised against this by the very fact that, excepting Ecclesiastes 8:15, לוה, in the sense of joining oneself to, depending on, occurs only in the Niphal. בּרית עולם is a modal accusative: "in an eternal covenant which shall not be forgotten," i.e., which we will not forget, will not break again. In fact, this is the new covenant which the Lord, according to Jeremiah 31:31., will make in time to come with His people. But here this side of the matter is withdrawn from consideration; for the point treated of is merely what Israel, in his repentant frame and returning to God, vows he shall do.

Israel comes to this determination in consequence of the misery into which he has fallen because of his sins, Jeremiah 50:5-7. Israel was like a flock of lost sheep which their shepherds had led astray. צאן , a flock of sheep that are going to ruin. The participle in the plural is joined with the collective noun ad sensum, to show what is imminent or is beginning to happen. The verb היה points to the subject צאן; hence the Qeri היוּ is unnecessary. The plural suffixes of the following clause refer to עמּי as a collective. The shepherds led the people of God astray on הרים שׁובבים (a local accusative; on the Kethib שׁובבים, cf. Jeremiah 31:32; Jeremiah 49:4; it is not to be read שׁובבים), mountains that render people faithless. These mountains were so designated because they were the seats of that idolatry which had great power of attraction for a sinful people, so that the seduction or alienation of the people from their God is ascribed to them. שׁובב is used in the sense which the verb has in Isaiah 47:10. The Qeri שׁובבוּם gives the less appropriate idea, "the shepherds made the sheep stray." Hitzig's translation, "they drove them along the mountain," does to suit the verb שׁובב. Moreover, the mountains in themselves do not form unsuitable pasture-ground for sheep, and הרים does not mean "a bare, desolate mountain-range." The objection to our view of הרים, that there is no very evident proof that worship on high places is referred to (Graf), is pure fancy, and the reverse only is true. For the words which follow, "they (the sheep) went from mountain to hill, and forgot their resting-place," have no meaning whatever, unless they are understood of the idolatrous dealings of Israel. The resting-place of the sheep (רבחם, the place where the flocks lie down to rest), according to Jeremiah 50:7, is Jahveh, the hope of their fathers. Their having forgotten this resting-place is the result of their going from mountain to hill: these words undeniably point to the idolatry of the people on every high hill (Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:2; Jeremiah 17:2, etc.).

Jeremiah 50:11 Parallel Commentaries

ye were

Proverbs 17:5 Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.

Lamentations 1:21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it...

Lamentations 2:15,16 All that pass by clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying...

Lamentations 4:21,22 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through to you: you shall be drunken...

Ezekiel 25:3-8,15-17 And say to the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus said the Lord GOD; Because you said, Aha, against my sanctuary...

Ezekiel 26:2,3 Son of man, because that Tyrus has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned to me...

Obadiah 1:12 But you should not have looked on the day of your brother in the day that he became a stranger...

ye destroyers

Jeremiah 50:17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria has devoured him...

Jeremiah 51:34,35 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel...

Psalm 74:2-8 Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old; the rod of your inheritance, which you have redeemed; this mount Zion...

Psalm 79:1-4 O God, the heathen are come into your inheritance; your holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps...

Psalm 83:1-5 Keep not you silence, O God: hold not your peace, and be not still, O God...

Isaiah 10:6,7 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil...

Isaiah 47:6 I was wroth with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and given them into your hand: you did show them no mercy...

Zechariah 2:8,9 For thus said the LORD of hosts; After the glory has he sent me to the nations which spoiled you...

Zechariah 14:1-3,12 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, and your spoil shall be divided in the middle of you...

ye are

Jeremiah 50:27 Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

Jeremiah 46:21 Also her hired men are in the middle of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together...

Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: you are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness...

Psalm 22:12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

Hosea 10:11 And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loves to tread out the corn; but I passed over on her fair neck...

Amos 4:1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy...

fat [heb] big. or, corpulent

Jeremiah 5:28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yes, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless...

bellow as bulls. or, neigh as steeds

Jeremiah 5:8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.