John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 30:5

"For thus saith Jehovah: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace." — Jeremiah 30:5 (ASV)

For thus says the Lord
Yet what follows are the words of others; therefore some supply it, "for thus says the Lord, the nations shall say" ^F16; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it as what the Gentiles will say in the times of the Messiah; but it might be better supplied, "you shall say"; that is, Israel and Judah; to whom the words of the Lord are spoken in (Jeremiah 30:3); or else the Lord here represents his people, saying:

we have heard a voice of trembling, fear, and not of peace;
which is to be understood, not of the fear and dread injected into them by the Babylonians when they besieged their city, and burned that, and their temple; nor of the fear and dread which came upon the Babylonians at the taking of their city by Cyrus, upon which followed the deliverance of the Jews.

Kimchi interprets this of something yet future, the war of Gog and Magog, which he supposes will be when their Messiah comes; and Jarchi says it is so understood in their Midrash Agadah.

This distress, I think, refers to the slaying of the witnesses, and to that hour of temptation which shall come upon all the earth to try the inhabitants of it; and which will be followed with the destruction of antichrist; and that will make way for the call and conversion of the Jews.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F16: "Gentes dicturae sunt", Vatablus.