Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, when I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, who shall reign as king, and act wisely, and shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
Jeremiah 23 opens with God's anger at the shepherds who scattered His flock. In the same breath He promises a King He will raise up Himself — the answer to the question left by a long line of failed rulers: with David's house in ruins, who will ever rule Israel well?
Chapters 21–22 pass sentence on one king after another. The last of them is Coniah. The prophet even changes the kings' names, and one writer sees the point of it in the very promise of verse 5.
Jehoiachin means "The Lord will establish." Jeremiah called him Jeconiah, which means "The Lord establishes." This is surely meant to show that it will be done, not in Jehoiachin, but in our Lord Jesus Christ, as he explains in Jeremiah 23:5-6. The reason: just before, Jeremiah had called him Coniah in scorn — "a despised broken idol; a vessel in which there is no pleasure." Only in Christ, raised from among the dead, of the seed of David, can the Kingdom stand for ever.
"Branch" is a picture word. It means fresh growth from a tree cut down to the ground — the very state of David's house in these chapters.
The stem has been cut down. It is better described as Jesse's than David's, because royalty no longer belongs to it. So the Son of David comes into no outward state or glory, but the opposite. And yet Jesse's name also bears witness that "Jehovah exists"; and He is the God of resurrection. The Sprout, though lowly, still has the energy of life in it. In Him the cut-down tree is to revive, and to outshine all its former glories. He is the "righteous branch" of Jeremiah.
The same title runs through several prophets, and it always names one Person.
A title of the Lord Jesus, which He will bear in connection with Israel in the future. Isaiah 4:2; Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12-13. In two of the passages the words "unto David" are added, which fits the Lord Jesus being the "offspring" (a word similar to "branch") as well as the "root" of David. He will be a righteous Branch and a King. He will build the temple of the LORD, bear the glory, sit and rule on His throne, and be a priest on His throne.
The shepherds of verse 1 are not preachers. Seeing who they are explains why God's remedy is a king.
Jeremiah 23 pronounces a woe on the shepherds in general. By the shepherds, the prophet means the kings who ought to have provided protection and food for the people. But they scattered and destroyed the sheep of Jehovah's flock. However, He would raise up a competent Ruler and Shepherd-King for His sheep.
The verse promises a King whose rule succeeds. Older versions read "a King shall reign and prosper," where the ESV has "reign as king and deal wisely."
This prophecy has never been fulfilled. He is the One who will fulfil every letter of it, and its full spirit too. Yet when He came He did not reign or prosper. Instead He was cast out from the earth and exalted in heaven. So greater things came about than a Davidic kingdom or a restoration of the scattered tribes of Israel. For the very rejection of the Messiah by the Jews gave occasion for the mighty work of redemption by the blood of the cross… But when those times end… the Lord will turn the heart of His ancient people, at least of a remnant, to Himself. He will return and reign in glory, executing judgment and justice in the earth.
The closing words describe how this King will govern — "judgment and justice in the earth," as older versions put it. That is not God's method now.
Grace is now reigning through righteousness. Righteousness itself will then reign over the earth, as it never has. That reign comes before the eternal state. Then, once judgment has removed all evil, righteousness will dwell in holiness, peace and love — unbreakable in the heavens and on the earth throughout the day that has no end.
Writers here warn against reading the verse as a description of the church's role in the world. The Christian's share in it is different, and larger.
Our distinctive Christian hope is that Christ will not only reign over us; we shall reign along with Him. So if you take such prophetic words as these… and apply them to the church, you lower the status of the church from heaven to earth.
- Cut down. Jeremiah writes off David's royal line as a broken vessel. The Branch sprouts from the cut-down stump.
- Raised up. God gives this King; the failed dynasty does not produce Him. The Kingdom stands only in Christ, raised from the dead.
- Shepherd. The kings scattered the flock; the remedy God names is one competent Ruler and Shepherd-King.
- Not yet. At His first coming He neither reigned nor prospered. His rejection opened the way to redemption by the cross.
- Then. At His return He executes justice and righteousness in the land. Grace reigns now; righteousness will reign then, and believers reign with Him.
In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness.
Jeremiah 23 opens with a woe on Israel's failed leaders, then turns to promise a King from David's line. This verse gives His name — and with it the question of whose righteousness that name announces.
The shepherds in this chapter are Israel's kings. This verse answers their failure.
Jeremiah 23 pronounces a woe upon the shepherds in general. By the shepherds, the prophet means the kings who should have protected and fed the people. But they scattered and destroyed the sheep of the Lord's flock. However, He would raise up a competent Ruler and Shepherd-King for His sheep.
The failure was not just a few bad kings. It reached the best of them, and priesthood as well:
Kingship, no less than priesthood, failed completely in human hands. The best of the kings of Israel — David, Solomon and all the rest — broke down. And the wicked kings, as we see here, only helped to destroy and scatter the flock of God. The work of the enemy is to scatter and destroy. The work of grace is to save and gather.
The name here is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, printed in older translations as one title, "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." It belongs to a family of names that tie God to what His people lack.
"Jehovah-jireh" (the Lord will provide). "Jehovah-nissi" (the Lord my banner). "Jehovah-shalom" (the Lord send peace). "Jehovah-tsidkenu" (the Lord our righteousness). God unfolds all these gracious titles of His to meet the needs of His people. When He calls Himself "I AM," it includes them all. In taking this title, the Lord was giving His people a blank cheque, to be filled in for any amount... If we want righteousness, He is THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The Branch of David carries the name of God Himself — and the reign described here has not yet begun.
A great Messianic prophecy follows. "The Righteous Branch," the Son of David, is the Lord Jesus Christ. His name is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Jehovah Tsidkenu). He is the King who will reign and prosper, executing judgment and justice in the earth. The prophecy is unfulfilled. He came as the Son of David, the promised King. He offered that kingdom to Israel; they rejected Him. But He is coming again, and in that day of glory this great prediction will be accomplished.
One writer warns against applying such promises to the church:
Our distinctive Christian hope is this: Christ will not only reign over us, we will reign along with Him. Therefore to take up such prophetic words as these... and to apply them to the church is to lower the status of the church from heaven to earth.
The verse promises rescue for Judah and safety for Israel. Both come with the nation's conversion, at the point where Israel has always stumbled:
Clearly, then, the restoration foretold here is bound up with the conversion of the nation. Israel will yet acknowledge what they have so far always refused to own — that in the Lord they have righteousness and strength. Up to now they have always stumbled at this. "Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness." But they will do so in days to come.
Later in the same book, Jeremiah 33:16 gives this same name to the city of Jerusalem.
Compare Jeremiah 23:6 and 33:16. In the first passage the Lord is called "our righteousness"... In the second passage, "this is the name by which she [Jerusalem] will be called, The Lord our Righteousness." So Jerusalem receives by grace a standing in association with Him. He is the source of her justification.
The name is not a quantity of righteousness handed over, but a Person.
When God demands righteousness, I point to the Lord Jesus. He is the "Lord my righteousness." To say His righteousness is given to me belittles grace. Jesus is the "Lord my righteousness."... Not some of His righteousness — He Himself is my righteousness — His whole self. As a believer, I am complete in Him. Jesus the Lord my righteousness. Oh, why not receive Him as your righteousness, poor sinner? God asks you for nothing more; He will have nothing less.
- Failure — the kings who should have fed and guarded the flock scattered it instead. God's answer is a Shepherd-King He raises up Himself.
- Name — Jehovah-Tsidkenu ties God's own name to a need, as Jehovah-jireh and Jehovah-shalom do. Here the need is righteousness.
- Gift — the righteousness in this name is not produced by the nation. It is found in the Lord. Israel's long stumble was trying to set up its own.
- Shared — His name in chapter 23 becomes Jerusalem's name in chapter 33. The city gets that standing by grace, from the One who justifies her.
- Future — Jesus came as Son of David, and Israel rejected Him. Commentators hold that the reign promised here is still to come. It belongs to Israel and the earth, not to the church's heavenly hope.
Therefore behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, [As] Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
but, [As] Jehovah liveth, who brought up and who led back the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land.
Jeremiah 23 begins with a woe against the rulers who scattered God's flock, then turns to the King who will gather them. Verse 8 closes that turn with a question: what rescue could be so great that Israel stops naming God by the exodus from Egypt?
Commentators read this as prophecy, not history. The King of verse 6 came, but His people cast Him out, and the gathering promised here never followed.
This prophecy has never been fulfilled. When He came — the One who is to fulfil every letter of it, and its spirit to the full — He did not reign or prosper. He was cast out from the earth and exalted in heaven... This future deliverance will be so great that it will completely overshadow the day when they first left Egypt and soon saw their enemies lying dead on the seashore. It is absurd to claim that any such gathering of the tribes has happened yet. So it is still future.
Israel measured God's power by one event. Whenever trouble came, they looked back to the Red Sea. This verse moves the marker, and fixes where the new rescue ends: settled in their own land for good.
If Israel asked how God had stepped in for them most visibly, the answer was surely the power that brought them out of the land of Egypt. This was always their comfort in the middle of disasters and troubles. The God who divided the Red Sea, and brought them across the Jordan, was equal to any difficulty that could ever come against them again. In the prophets this also stays the standard, until God uses His power in another way. Then people will no longer speak of Him as the Lord who brought them out of the land of Egypt, but as the One who brought them out of the north country into their land, where He will settle them for ever.
The same wording appears earlier in the book, and there the direction is identified. North meant Babylon, the power that carried Judah away.
So the same chapter that brings such a solemn sentence of judgment also gives the pledge of their final deliverance. This will happen after the captivity in Babylon, since Babylon is "the land of the north" spoken of here.
Yet the return from Babylon is not the fulfilment. The reason is the King named a few verses earlier:
The raising up of their long-awaited King, the righteous Branch, also rules out any idea that this means the return from Babylon, or the Spirit's work under the gospel.
The verse names "the offspring of the house of Israel" — the whole nation, both parts of a people long divided. It also says God Himself drove them into those countries. Commentators warn against moving the promise over to Christians.
Clearly the passage speaks about the deliverance of the whole earthly people, both the ten tribes and the two tribes, and about nothing else. We may use the principle of Israel's promised restoration to show how good the Lord is towards us, but no more than that. The truth is that we have never been driven out of our inheritance, as Israel was. We may have failed to take hold of God's gifts, we may have given up the blessings that are properly ours, but God has never driven Christians out of their own place in Christ Jesus.
The gathering is not just about geography. It is tied to something Israel has refused until now.
So the restoration foretold here is clearly tied to the conversion of the nation. Israel will one day admit what they have refused to admit until now — that "in the Lord they have righteousness and strength." So far they have always stumbled at this... But they will admit it in days to come. They will yet say, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." And then He will return.
This verse is about which rescue gets remembered. One writer connects it to the Passover meal the Lord kept before He suffered.
The Lord valued the opportunity of keeping the Passover — "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." These words show us how the Lord Jesus, as one of Israel, viewed the Passover. They also teach us how we should view the privilege and the opportunity of remembering His death now. And when Israel enjoys the fruits of that death, it will push God's memorable intervention in the past into second place.
- Cause. The new rescue depends on the King of verse 5, the righteous Branch. That rules out the return from Babylon, and the gospel age too.
- Power. God will act "in another way." Then people will name Him not as the One who brought Israel out of Egypt, but out of the north country.
- Reach. "The offspring of the house of Israel" covers both the ten tribes and the two — the whole earthly people, not the church, which God never drove out of its inheritance.
- Condition. The homecoming comes with the nation's conversion. Israel will at last admit that righteousness and strength are in the Lord, and will welcome the One they refused.
- Result. A settled land and a new memorial. A greater deliverance pushes the exodus into second place — still future, and certain.