Jeremiah 23:1-8

New Leaders over a Regathered Remnant

23:1 The Lord says, ¹  “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. ²  They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered. ³  23:2 So the Lord God of Israel has this to say about the leaders who are ruling over his people: “You have caused my people ⁴  to be dispersed and driven into exile. You have not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil that you have done. ⁵  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁶  23:3 Then I myself will regather those of my people ⁷  who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. ⁸  They will greatly increase in number. 23:4 I will install rulers ⁹  over them who will care for them. Then they will no longer need to fear or be terrified. None of them will turn up missing. ¹⁰  I, the Lord, promise it! ¹¹ 

23:5 “I, the Lord, promise ¹²  that a new time will certainly come ¹³ 

when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, ¹⁴  a descendant of David.

He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding ¹⁵ 

and will do what is just and right in the land. ¹⁶ 

23:6 Under his rule ¹⁷  Judah will enjoy safety ¹⁸ 

and Israel will live in security. ¹⁹ 

This is the name he will go by:

‘The Lord has provided us with justice.’ ²⁰ 

23:7 “So I, the Lord, say: ²¹  ‘A new time will certainly come. ²²  People now affirm their oaths with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.” 23:8 But at that time they will affirm them with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the descendants of the former nation of Israel ²³  from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished ²⁴  them.” ²⁵  At that time they will live in their own land.’”

[23:1]  ¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:1]  ² sn Heb This particle once again introduces a judgment speech. The indictment is found in v. 1 and the announcement of judgment in v. 2. This leads into an oracle of deliverance in vv. 3-4. See also the note on the word “judged” in 22:13.

[23:1]  ³ tn Heb “Woe to the shepherds who are killing and scattering the sheep of my pasture.” See the study note on 22:13 for the significance of “Sure to be judged” (Heb “Woe”) See the study note for the significance of the metaphor introduced here.

[23:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “about the shepherds who are shepherding my people. ‘You have caused my sheep….’” For the metaphor see the study note on the previous verse.

[23:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who should be shepherding my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away and you have not taken care of them. Behold I will visit upon you the evil of your deeds.” “Therefore” announces the judgment which does not come until “Behold.” It is interrupted by the messenger formula and a further indictment. The original has been broken up to conform more to contemporary English style, the metaphors have been interpreted for clarity and the connections between the indictments and the judgments have been carried by “So.”

[23:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “my sheep.”

[23:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “their fold.”

[23:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “shepherds.”

[23:4]  ¹⁰ tn There are various nuances of the word פָּקַד (paqad) represented in vv. 2, 4. See Ps 8:4 (8:5 HT) and Zech 10:3 for “care for/take care of” (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.1.a). See Exod 20:5; Amos 3:2; Jer 9:24; 11:22 for “punish” (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Qal.A.3). See 1 Kgs 20:39 and 2 Kgs 10:19 for “be missing” (cf. BDB 823 s.v. פָּקַד Niph.1).

[23:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:5]  ¹² tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”

[23:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a righteous sprig to David” or “a righteous shoot” (NAB).

[23:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he will reign as king and act wisely.” This is another example of the use of two verbs joined by “and” where one becomes the adverbial modifier of the other (hendiadys). For the nuance of the verb “act wisely” rather than “prosper” see Amos 5:13; Ps 2:10 (cf. BDB 968 s.v. שָׂכַל Hiph.5).

[23:5]  ¹⁶ sn This has been the constant emphasis in this section. See 22:3 for the demand, 22:15 for its fulfillment, and 22:13 for its abuse. The ideal king would follow in the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor David (2 Sam 8:15) who set this forth as an ideal for his dynasty (2 Sam 23:3) and prayed for it to be true of his son Solomon (Ps 72:1-2).

[23:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “In his days [= during the time he rules].”

[23:6]  ¹⁸ tn Parallelism and context (cf. v. 4) suggest this nuance for the word often translated “be saved.” For this nuance elsewhere see Ps 119:117; Prov 28:18 for the verb (יָשַׁע [yasha’] in the Niphal); and Ps 12:6; Job 5:4, 11 for the related noun (יֶשַׁע, yesha’).

[23:6]  ¹⁹ sn It should be noted that this brief oracle of deliverance implies the reunification of Israel and Judah under the future Davidic ruler. Jeremiah has already spoken about this reunification earlier in 3:18 and will have more to say about it in 30:3; 31:27, 31. This same ideal was espoused in the prophecies of Hosea (1:10-11 [2:1-2 HT]), Isaiah (11:1-4, 10-12), and Ezekiel (37:15-28) all of which have messianic and eschatological significance.

[23:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his name will be called ‘The Lord our righteousness’.”

[23:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:7]  ²² tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”

[23:8]  ²³ tn Heb “descendants of the house of Israel.”

[23:8]  ²⁴ tc It is probably preferable to read the third masculine singular plus suffix (הִדִּיחָם, hiddikham) here with the Greek version and the parallel passage in 16:15 rather than the first singular plus suffix in the MT (הִדַּחְתִּים, hiddakhtim). If this is not a case of mere graphic confusion, the MT could have arisen under the influence of the first person in v. 3. Though sudden shifts in person have been common in the book of Jeremiah, that is unlikely in a context reporting an oath.

[23:8]  ²⁵ tn This passage is the same as 16:14-15 with a few minor variations in Hebrew wording. The notes on that passage should be consulted for the rendering here. This passage has the Niphal of the verb “to say” rather than the impersonal use of the Qal. It adds the idea of “bringing out” to the idea of “bringing up out” and (Heb “who brought up and who brought out,” probably a case of hendiadys) before “the people [here “seed” rather than “children”] of Israel [here “house of Israel”] from the land of the north.” These are minor variations and do not affect the sense in any way. So the passage is rendered in much the same way.