Second Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: Jeremiah 33:14-16

[To see the first pass at the lesson and to find an explanation of what this is about, go here.]

Jeremiah 33:14-16

A Few More General Comments
What follows summarizes a discussion of this passage and its literary context found in The New Interpreter's Bible (except where noted).

1. NIB, I think correctly, sees these verses as part of a section that's comprised of Jeremiah 33:1-26. The theme it ascribes to the section is "Restoration of Jerusalem and Its Leaders."

2. According to NIB, the section can be further subdivided, the first part of which is composed of verses 1-13. It ties in with the preceding chapter, "referring to a 'second' divine word sent to Jeremiah while he was in prison...The chapter anticipates a future announced in the midst of terrifying judgment."

3. (NOTE: The historical circumstances surrounding this passage are summarized well in a Middle East timeline that appears at the beginning of Jimmy Carter's new book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid:

ca. 930 B.C.: The Israelite nation divides into two weaker kingdoms, Israel and Judah. Israel [Samaria] is conquered by the Assyrians about 720 B.C, and Judah is destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

ca. 538 B.C.: Persia conquers Babylon and permits exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem.)

(Jeremiah, or more probably a later writer in the tradition established by the prophet, wrote our lesson, an oracle about the punishment God had meted against His people because of their faithfulness and about God's intent to restore the people and a king.)

4. Restoration in the wake of Babylonian destruction of Judah is an ongoing theme of Jeremiah, chapters 3o-33. In 33:1-13, "that notion is made concrete: a vision of the future that holds quite specific ingredients--healing, security, prosperity, and joy--beyond the present death and terror, deprivation, and sorrow." God's forgiveness is also part of the vision, together with an unflinching acknowledgement of the sins of both the nation and its leaders.

5. The next subdivision of this section of Jeremiah, as identified by NIB, is 33:14-26. As I mentioned in my first pass, these oracles are missing from the Septuagint, indicating that they were added by a later editor operating in the Jeremiah tradition.

The focus of these thirteen verses is the future leadership of God's people.

6. Consistent with what I noted in the first pass, NIB points out that this section echoes chapters 22 and 23 of Jeremiah. It indicts Judah's political leaders for failing "to render justice and righteousness in the community and announcing God's intention to provide leaders who will do that."

7. But the vision is about more than restoration of things like "abundance, prosperity, and partying. It also includes the reestablishment of systems of governance and [worship], creating leaders who will rightly render the affairs of the people and will lead them in their worship of the Lord."

8. In the parallel passage, Jeremiah 23:6, we're told that "the Lord is our righteousness." Here, it's the city of Jerusalem that's called by this name. Jeremiah 33 says that it will be from Jerusalem that God's chosen King will execute justice and righteousness. (It's easy to see why the New Testament writers understood Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy!)

9. This struck me as very important as I studied the NIB's commentary of the passage: Forgiveness is part of the vision in this passage. But there is also a social dimension throughout chapters 32 and 33. God means for the restoration to have an effect on economic and social practices, because God is interested in all aspects of our lives.

A Few Verse-by-Verse Comments
14The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
1. Israel, as mentioned in the first pass, is the Northern Kingdom or Samaria. The Southern Kingdom is Judah or Judea.

2. We may forget our promises. But God never forgets His.

15In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
1. The Bible is filled with horticultural and agricultural imagery like "branch." A branch comes from the strong trunk or center of a tree. David, by then the long-ago king of Israel, was to be the forebear of a new King Who would restore God's people.

16In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”