Jeremiahchapter 33
26 verses · BSBJeremiah book hub →
Speaks with:Jeremiah 32×5Psalms 89×3Jeremiah 23×3Isaiah 65×2Psalms 107×2Jeremiah 31×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Still confined, Jeremiah receives the invitation the whole book has been earning: 'Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great things, and difficult, which thou knowest not' (33:3). Siege-torn houses give way to health and cure and abundance of peace and truth. Into streets now desolate returns the voice of joy and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride, and of those bringing thanksgiving into the house of Jehovah. The Branch is promised again (in those days Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem dwell safely, called 'Jehovah our righteousness' (33:16)) and secured by covenant with day and night: as surely as the ordinances of heaven hold, David and the Levites will not lack a man.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–9 Call Unto Me and I Will Show Thee Great and Hidden Things
- B. 10–16 The Voice of the Bridegroom Returns; a Branch of Righteousness
- C. 17–26 As Sure as My Covenant with Day and Night
The outline
A.Call Unto Me and I Will Show Thee Great and Hidden Thingsvv. 1 to 9
Read vv. 1 to 9 →B.The Voice of the Bridegroom Returns; a Branch of Righteousnessvv. 10 to 16
Read vv. 10 to 16 →C.As Sure as My Covenant with Day and Nightvv. 17 to 26
Read vv. 17 to 26 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 33The history
The chapter names a detail of siege engineering. Houses of the city and houses of the kings of Judah were being torn down to make defences against the siege mounds and the sword. Defenders stripped stone and timber from buildings to plug breaches and raise the inner wall, and the excavated houses of Jerusalem's last decade show the wreckage.
Into that noise comes a promise of sound. In the streets now desolate, without man or beast, there will again be the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, and the voices of people bringing thank offerings to the temple.
The image of healing returns from chapter 30, this time with the word for a scar tissue that closes over — I will bring health and healing, and reveal an abundance of prosperity and security. And the ordinary economy comes back with it: shepherds counting flocks under the hand of the one who tallies them, in the hill country, the lowland, the Negev and around Jerusalem.
The chapter closes with two covenants staked against the sky. As surely as day and night keep their appointed times, David will not lack a man to sit on his throne, and the Levitical priests will not lack a man to offer sacrifice. Read in the traditional framework this looks beyond the return from Babylon to the reign of the righteous Branch himself.
What it meant to them
The offer at the head of the chapter — call to me and I will answer you, and tell you great and hidden things you have not known — was made to a man locked up in a courtyard inside a city that was days from falling. That is the setting the first hearers would have supplied automatically.
The point they needed most is the last one. If God's covenant with day and night can be broken, then his covenant with David can be broken. Otherwise, the throne outlasts the siege.
Sources cited
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Jeremiah
- Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 33. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.