In those days, and at that time, saith Jehovah, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping as they go, and shall seek Jehovah their God.
Jeremiah's prophecy against Babylon opens with the city's idols smashed. The very next words leave the falling empire and follow a people heading home in tears. Who are these travellers, when do they set out, and why do they weep instead of cheer?
The verse opens with "in those days and in that time." That phrase ties the homecoming to the fall of Babylon, announced just before:
Babylon's doom has come under the Medes, led by Cyrus the Persian. The consequence God cares about most is this: the fall of Babylon opens the door for His people to return from captivity. It is a picture of a final deliverance, when One greater than Cyrus will be there to completely destroy the last holder of the last empire.
Why weep on the way home? The answer is what God is doing inside them:
The fiftieth chapter shows how Israel will come under the blessings of the new covenant (verses 4 and 5). It stresses again the reunion of the twelve tribes. Here is the Spirit of God at work, producing genuine repentance in people who had been so long away from Himself.
They "seek the LORD their God," and that search has a direction:
Israel and Judah then seek the Lord their God. Their faces are turned toward Zion. They go, weeping as they go, to the One who is their only hope. The temporary centre of government is overthrown. The proper centre is set up when Christ returns and Israel returns to Him — the One called here "The Lord, the habitation of righteousness, even the Lord, the Hope of their fathers," the One against whom they had sinned.
Until now, others had spoken about Israel's guilt — God, and their enemies:
The Lord bore witness of their ruin. Now they will confess their sins themselves. They will no longer leave it to their enemies to turn their evil into an excuse for hatred and plunder.
Israel and Judah had long been two separate kingdoms. Here they travel as one people. Writers agree that the return under Cyrus does not fill out these words, though they weigh past and future differently. One reads the language as reaching past all history so far:
Whatever these words applied to in the past, it seems clear they cannot be fully explained yet. We must wait for a larger and closer fulfilment in the last days. Then the sons of both Israel and Judah will take the place of repentance. They will return from their long wanderings far away to Zion, under the everlasting covenant and their Messiah.
Another keeps the historical event firmly in view, and treats it as a down payment:
Still, God gives the deliverance of Israel at the time of Babylon's destruction as a pledge and foretaste of their complete and final deliverance (Jeremiah 50:4-19, 20, 34; see also Jeremiah 51:19-21).
Judgment on Babylon is never God's last word about His people:
The heart of the prophet, like the Lord Himself, always turns from the judgment of the great enemy to poor guilty Israel. God pledges not pity only, but a restoration so truly divine that the end will far surpass all beginnings. It is moral too, not national only. Their heart is to be set right with God, as surely as they are destined to refreshment and rest in their land.
Sixteen verses on, the same phrase returns — "in those days and in that time." This time it brings pardon:
When the Lord overthrows the final Babylon, as seen in the book of Revelation… then Israel's day of glory and blessing breaks. "In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel will be searched for, and there will be none. The sins of Judah will not be found. For I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant" (50:20).
- Timing. The homecoming hangs on Babylon's fall. The collapse of the world power opens the door for God's people to return.
- Tears. The weeping is repentance. It is the Spirit's work in people long away from God, and they now confess what God had already said about them.
- Direction. Sorrow with a destination: faces turned toward Zion, seeking the Lord Himself, the Hope of their fathers.
- Together. Israel and Judah travel as one people. The twelve tribes come back together under the blessings of the new covenant.
- Pardon. The road that starts in tears ends in pardon, with no sin left to find. The past return was a foretaste; writers look for the full sweep still to come.
They shall inquire concerning Zion, with their faces thitherward, [saying,] Come, and let us join ourselves to Jehovah, in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.
Jeremiah 50 opens by announcing Babylon's fall. The first thing God says about it concerns His people: a road home opens. Verse 5 catches them on that road, asking the way and binding themselves to the Lord by a covenant that will never be forgotten.
This judgment on Babylon is not an end in itself. One writer names what God cared about most in the empire's collapse.
Babylon's doom has come under the Medes, led by Cyrus the Persian. The result that matters most to God is this: the fall of Babylon opens the door for His people to return from captivity. It is a picture of a final deliverance, when someone greater than Cyrus will be there to destroy the last holder of the last empire completely.
Some of this happened when the exiles went back. But the language of verses 4 and 5 outruns anything the history records.
Whatever these words meant for the past, they clearly cannot be explained in full until a larger and closer fulfilment comes in the last days. Then the sons of both Israel and Judah will take the place of repentance. They will return from their long wanderings far away to Zion, under the everlasting covenant and their Messiah. The LORD Himself testified to their ruin. Now they will confess their sins themselves, instead of leaving their enemies to use their evil as an excuse for hatred and plunder.
The call "let us join ourselves to the LORD" comes from people who first had to join themselves to each other. Israel and Judah walk the same road. And the tears are not their own doing.
We now come to the last passage in Jeremiah, the fiftieth chapter. It shows how Israel will come under the blessings of the new covenant (verses 4 and 5). It also stresses again the reunion of the twelve tribes. The Spirit of God is at work here, producing genuine repentance in people who had been away from Him for so long.
One writer follows the word "covenant" through the whole book, from where it first appears to where it lands.
Jeremiah uses the word "covenant" twenty-five times. His first use of it is both interesting and instructive. It comes in Jeremiah 3:16, where he speaks of "the ark of the covenant." … The last mention of "covenant" is in Jeremiah 50:5. There God judges Babylon. In true sincerity the children of Israel and Judah together seek the Lord their God, so that they may be joined to Him in "an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten." This one lasts.
The covenant they ask for is the new covenant. Its terms end up written inside the people who ask for it.
Now we see this repentant people turning to Zion with weeping, asking the way there, and going back with this resolve formed by the Spirit of God: we will join ourselves to Him by an everlasting covenant that will not be broken. This is the new covenant we have been considering. … Psalm 119 shows how the terms of the new covenant are written in the hearts of the repentant people — that very law they had despised, now written inside them. … This does not mean, of course, a repeat of Sinai. There the law was God's claim on the natural man, and it could only condemn him. This is the will of a gracious God, and a people born again delight in it.
A promise of full pardon raises a hard question. The answer came centuries after Jeremiah wrote.
Israel had failed. They had forfeited their blessings, broken the covenant, and lost their right to the land. How could God admit all this and still promise blessing anyway? What was the basis for God's "I will," above all for His "I will pardon" and "I will remember their sin no more"? How could God be righteous and yet "remember no more"? Centuries later the Lord Himself answered this question, saying: "This is my blood, that of the new covenant." He was about to carry out the work of redemption, and so to lay the basis for the new covenant: His own blood.
Because the chapter reaches beyond Cyrus, it also reaches into the present.
Babylon's principles are widely at work today, and seeing God's judgment on this system keeps us clear of it with understanding. … Babylon's ways are always ready to trap those who seek to exalt the Lord and to call on Him out of a pure heart. But as we learn the mind of God we are strengthened against the advance of this lawless and superstitious system.
- Babylon falls — the empire's collapse is not the point. It opens the door home, and pictures a greater deliverance still to come.
- Tears follow — the weeping on the road is the Spirit's work, producing real repentance in people long away from God.
- Zion draws — two long-divided kingdoms ask for the same road and walk it together.
- The covenant holds — Jeremiah's last use of the word is the lasting one. It is the new covenant, with God's will written on willing hearts.
- Blood secures — God's "I will remember their sin no more" rests on the blood of Christ. That is why this covenant will never be forgotten.
My people are lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they turned them away on the mountains they went from mountain to hill, they forgot their resting-place.
Jeremiah 50 announces the fall of Babylon. In the middle of that judgment God turns to look at His own people. He still calls them "My people," yet He sees a flock in ruin, wrecked by the very men who were meant to care for it. Two questions follow: what does it mean to call a whole nation "lost," and who is to blame when the sheep wander?
The word describes a spiritual state, not a place on the map. The same chapter uses a different word for being scattered.
The word "lost" however means spiritually lost. Turn to Jeremiah 50 and read verses 6 and 17. You will see that Israel is both "lost" and "scattered." They are lost because their shepherds led them astray — spiritually lost. The kings of Assyria and Babylon scattered them — geographically scattered. Scripture seems to keep this distinction between the two words.
"Shepherds" here means the men who held authority over the nation. One writer names them and states their failure:
The shepherds of Israel were the kings and princes and all who had authority over them. The prophet Jeremiah had received a similar message (Jer. 23:1-2). These shepherds of Israel were responsible for the terrible condition of the flock. They were completely selfish. They did not care for the sheep of His pasture. They did not fear God, and they had no heart for God's people. The flock ended up scattered and plundered.
Jeremiah names this failure again and again. The charge ends in judgment on the leaders themselves.
The pastors also sinned against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal (Jer. 2:8). He tells us, "The pastors have become senseless and have not sought the Lord." … The Lord says, "My people have been lost sheep, and their shepherds (pastors) have led them astray" (Jer. 50:6). Woe falls on these scattering, selfish pastors (Jer. 23:1-2); the wind will eat them up (Jer. 22:22); they will cry and howl when the fierce anger of the Lord falls (Jer. 25:34-36).
The flock wanders from mountain to hill because it has forgotten the place where it belongs. The chapter answers that loss with a change of centre.
Israel and Judah then seek the Lord their God. They turn their faces toward Zion. They go to the One who is their only hope, weeping as they go (vv. 4-8). The temporary centre of government falls, and the true centre takes its place when Christ returns. Then Israel returns to Him whom this chapter strikingly names "The Lord, the habitation of righteousness, even the Lord, the Hope of their fathers," against whom they had sinned.
This return is more than a journey home. One writer points to the work God does in the heart:
The Spirit of God is at work, producing genuine repentance in people who had been away from Him so long. And so "they shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten."
Centuries later the same words still described the nation. This is the flock Christ came to as Shepherd.
Christ, then, is the Shepherd of Israel whom Jehovah Himself approved. They were the "people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand," and He had met every requirement of the owner of the flock. But at that time, sadly, they proved to be "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Most of the nation, and above all its rulers, were blinded by a false view of their own condition before God, and they sheltered behind their religious ceremonies. So they did not know the person of Him who came in grace to meet their need.
One writer looks beyond any fulfilment in the past:
Whatever these words meant for the past, it seems clear they cannot be fully explained on that basis. They wait for a larger and closer fulfilment in the last days. Then the sons of both Israel and Judah will take the place of repentance. They will return from their long, distant wanderings to Zion, under the everlasting covenant and their Messiah.
- Lost, not just displaced — the ruin named here is spiritual. The scattering in verse 17 is a separate, physical thing.
- Lost through leaders — kings, princes and prophets cared only for themselves, and they turned the sheep away.
- Lost the fold — cut off from the true centre, the flock roams from mountain to hill and never settles.
- Sought by the Shepherd — Christ came to that same lost flock, and the rulers who had ruined it did not recognise Him.
- Found at last — the Spirit works repentance, their faces turn to Zion, and the full gathering waits for Christ's return.
All that found them devoured them, and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Jehovah, the habitation of righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers.
Jeremiah 50 turns from the nations that punished Judah to Babylon, the empire God will judge for that. Verse 7 stops on the scattered people, hunted down by all who found them, while their destroyers plead innocence — does Israel's sin make that cruelty innocent?
One writer says the past does not exhaust these words. He points to a day when the people themselves will own their sin.
Whatever the application to the past, it seems clear that these words cannot be fully explained until a larger and closer fulfilment comes in the last days. Then the sons of both Israel and Judah will take the place of repentance. They will return from their long and distant wanderings to Zion, under the everlasting covenant and their Messiah. The Lord bore witness of their ruin, and in the same way they will confess their sins themselves. They will not leave it to their enemies to make their evil an excuse for their own hatred and plunder.
The destroyers' defence is half true. God had real cause to judge His people. Babylon had no such cause for what it did.
He does not in this ignore the righteousness of God in visiting His people with judgment. On that side there was cause enough. But by any ordinary standard of fairness, Babylon's oppression of Judah had no excuse. Her wars were driven by greed for control and lust for power. God often allows sorrows to come on His own people as discipline, even when the troubles themselves were not really deserved... But this, seen rightly, is only a chance to share in Christ's sufferings. Was He not hated "without a cause"? Did not false witnesses rise up against Him?
God used the nations to punish His people. Their aim and His were not the same.
God also announces His extreme displeasure with the nations. They were at ease, and they used their comfortable position to oppress the Jews because the Jews were downtrodden and afflicted. It was true that God had been displeased with His own people. He had allowed them to suffer for their disobedience, and He even used the Gentile nations to punish them in many ways. So the nations had helped God punish Israel, "but with evil intent" (Zechariah 1:15, in an older translation). They were willing even to cut Israel off from being a nation... When God disciplines His people, this is not His purpose. He has their eventual restoration and blessing in view.
The verse names God twice over. One writer reads both titles as belonging to the One Israel will return to.
The temporary centre of government is overthrown. The proper centre takes its place when Christ returns and Israel returns to Him. He is given a striking title here: "the LORD, their habitation of righteousness, the LORD, the hope of their fathers" — the One against whom they had sinned.
One writer sees a religion like Babylon's still growing today, and finds comfort in what God has purposed against it.
We see that the Lord has purposed to judge this system and to overthrow it completely. We also see that He will save His people from its power. In this connection Scripture says, "Their Redeemer is strong" (Jer. 50:34). This encourages us today, as a religion like Babylon's grows fast with world power on its side.
Writers weigh the chapter's reach differently. Kelly and Vine look to a future day. Another keeps the focus on the empire of Jeremiah's own time.
This is the judgment of that empire. It avenges the oppression of Israel by Nebuchadnezzar, who had broken Israel's bones (chap. 50:17). Still, Israel's deliverance at the time of Babylon's destruction serves as a pledge and foretaste of their complete and final deliverance.
- Home abandoned. The verse names God as their habitation of righteousness and the hope of their fathers — the One they sinned against.
- Home avenged. God had cause enough to judge them, but Babylon's greed for control and power had no excuse.
- Home intended. The nations struck with evil intent. God disciplined His people with restoration and blessing in view.
- Home defended. Against all this, one claim stands: their Redeemer is strong, and He will save His people from Babylon's power.
- Home confessed. Real return means the people confess their own sin. They stop leaving it to their enemies to name it as cover for plunder.