John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 16:14-15

"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither he had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers." — Jeremiah 16:14-15 (ASV)

Jeremiah seems here to promise a return to the Jews; and so the passage is commonly interpreted, as though a consolation is inserted, in which the faithful alone are concerned. But I consider the passage as mixed: the Prophet, in part, speaks in severe terms of the dreadful exile which he foretells, and in part blends some consolation. However, the latter subject seems to me to be indirectly referred to by the Prophet.

I therefore think this to be an amplification of what he had said. This is to be kept in mind. He had said, “I will expel you from this land, and will send you to a land unknown to you and to your fathers.” Now follows a circumstance which increased the severity of the exile: they knew how cruel was that servitude from which God had delivered their fathers.

Their condition was worse than a hundred deaths when they were driven to their slavish labor, and also when all justice was denied them, and when their offspring were put to death from the womb. Since they knew how cruelly their fathers had been treated by the Egyptians, the comparison he states more fully showed what a dreadful punishment awaited them, for their redemption would be much more incredible.

We now perceive what the Prophet meant, as though he had said, “You know from what your fathers came out—even from a brazen furnace, as it is said elsewhere, and as it were from the depth of death—so that redemption ought to be remembered to the end of the world. But God will now cast you into an abyss deeper than that of Egypt from which your fathers were delivered. And when he will redeem you from there, it will be a miracle far more wonderful to your descendants, so that it will almost extinguish, or at least obscure, the memory of the first redemption: It will not then be said any more, Live does Jehovah, who brought the children of Israel from Egypt, for that Egyptian captivity was far more endurable than what this latter one will be. For you will be plunged, as it were, into the infernal regions; and when God will rescue you from there, it will be a work far more wonderful.” This I consider to be the real meaning of the Prophet.

Yet his object was at the same time indirectly to give them some hope of their future redemption, but this he did not do openly. We ought then to regard what the Prophet had in view: even to strike the Jews, as I have said, with terror, so that they might know that there was an evil near at hand more severe than what their fathers suffered in Egypt, who, however, had been most cruelly oppressed. Then their former liberation would be rendered obscure and not celebrated as before, though it was nevertheless an evidence of the wonderful power of God.

But, it will be rather said, Live does Jehovah, for he has brought his people from the land of the north. This is because there will be less hope remaining for you when the Chaldeans will subdue and scatter you like a body torn apart, and when the name of Israel will be extinguished, when the worship of God will be overthrown and the Temple destroyed.

When therefore all things will appear to be past remedy, this captivity will be much more dreadful than that by which your fathers had been oppressed. Therefore, when God restores you, it will be a miracle much more remarkable. And that the Prophet took occasion to give them some hope of God’s favor may be gathered from the end of the verse, when he says, And I will make them to return to their own land. But the conjunction ought to be rendered as a conditional particle, as though he had said, When I shall restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.