John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 30:1-3

"The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Thus speaketh Jehovah, the God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For, lo, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith Jehovah; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." — Jeremiah 30:1-3 (ASV)

This and the next chapter contain, as we will see, a most profitable truth; and so that the people might be more attentive, God introduced these prophecies with a preface. Jeremiah spoke many things which afterwards, as has appeared elsewhere, had been collected and inserted into one volume by the priests and Levites; but God reminds us in these words that the prophecies which are to follow concerning the liberation of the people were especially to be remembered.

There is, however, another circumstance to be noticed. We have seen that the stubbornness of the people was such that Jeremiah spent his labor among them in vain, for he addressed the deaf, or rather stocks and stones, because they were so possessed by stupor that they understood nothing, for God had even blinded them—a judgment they fully deserved.

Such was the condition of the people. We must also bear in mind the comparison between Jeremiah's doctrine and the fables of those who fed the miserable people with flatteries by giving them the hope of a return after two years. God knew what the outcome would be; but the people did not cease to entertain hope and to boast of a return at the end of two years.

Thus they despised God’s favor, because seventy years was a long period: “What! God indeed promises a return, but after seventy years who of us will be alive? Hardly one of us will be found remaining then; therefore, so cold a promise is nothing to us.” At the same time, as I have said, they were filled with a false confidence, as with wind, and behaved insolently toward God and his prophets, as though they were to return sound and safe in a short time.

But profane men always run to extremes. At one time they are inflated with pride—that is, when things go prosperously, or when a hope of prosperity appears—and they carry themselves proudly against God, as though nothing adverse could happen to them. Then, when hope and false confidence disappoint them, they are completely disheartened, so that they receive no comfort but plunge into the abyss of despair.

God saw that this would be the case with the people unless He came to their aid. Therefore, He proposes here the best and most fitting remedy: that the Prophet, as he had achieved nothing by speaking, should write and, as it were, convert into formal records what he had spoken. This was intended so that after two years had passed, they might gather courage. They could then acknowledge that they had been deceived by unprincipled men and had thus justly suffered for their recklessness; in this way, they might finally begin to look to God, embrace the promised liberation, and not completely lose hope.

This, then, is the reason why the Prophet was commanded to write the words which he had previously spoken.

Now, as we understand God's design, let us learn that when we happen to go astray and wander after false imaginations, we are not for that reason to cast away the hope of salvation. For we see that God here stretches forth His hand to those who had erred and who had even willfully cast themselves into ruin, because they had been more than sufficiently admonished and warned by true and faithful prophets. They had stopped their ears; they had hardened their hearts. And yet, when they had, as it were, intentionally sought to ruin themselves, we see how God still recalled them to Himself.

He says that God had commanded him to write in a book all the words which he had heard; and the reason follows, For, behold, come shall the days, saith Jehovah, in which I will restore the captivity of my people Israel and Judah. A contrast is to be understood between the restoration mentioned here and that about which the false prophets had prattled when they animated the people with the hope of a return in a short time. For, as I have said, that false expectation—when the Jews unseasonably sought to return to their own country—was a kind of mental intoxication.

But when they found that they had been deceived, only despair remained for them. Therefore, the Prophet recalls them here to a quietness of mind, so that they might know that God would prove faithful after they found out that they had rashly embraced what impostors had of themselves proclaimed. We then see that there is an implied comparison here between the sure and certain deliverance God had promised and the false and foolish hope with which the people had been intoxicated: come, then, shall the days. Now it appears that two years had taken away every expectation, for they believed the false prophets who said that God would restore them in two years; after the end of that time, all the hope of the people failed.

Therefore, the Prophet here removes that erroneous impression which had been made on their minds, and he says that the days would come in which God would redeem His people. Thus he indirectly derides the people's folly and condemns the impiety of those who had dared to promise so quick a return.

We now see, then, why he says, come shall the days; for every hope after two years would have been extinguished if God had not intervened. Come, then, shall the days in which I will restore the captivity of Israel and Judah. The ten tribes, we know, had already been led into exile; only the tribe of Judah and the half-tribe of Benjamin remained. Therefore, the ten tribes, the whole kingdom of Israel, are mentioned first. The exile of Israel was much longer than that of Judah.