Jeremiahchapter 33
26 verses · KJVJeremiah book hub →
Key verse
In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
It stands in scene B of the chapter, verses 10 to 16.
The chapter
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
Where the chapter sits
Jeremiah 33 falls in Book of consolation (chapters 30–33). The New Covenant (31:31–34); the purchase of the field at Anathoth (32); the Branch of righteousness (33). The book's theological centre.
Restoration promised. ‘In those days shall Judah be saved’; the Branch of righteousness repeated.
Before it: Against kings, prophets, and priests, chapters 21–29. After it: Jerusalem's fall narrated, chapters 34–45.
The whole shape of Jeremiah→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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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
A. Call Unto Me and I Will Show Thee Great and Hidden Things
1. (vv. 1-3)
a.the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time: The second word comes while Jeremiah is still shut up in the prison court, the same location as chapter 32's purchase, hope and revelation both given from confinement rather than from freedom. The Lord identifies himself as the maker and the establisher, the Lord is his name, before issuing the invitation the chapter turns on, call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. Gill reads the offer as addressed to the praying man of chapter 32, God answering the very prayer just prayed with more than the prophet asked.
Jeremiah 33:1, 1 voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Jeremiah 33:1
“Moreover the word of the Lord - This was in the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah, Jeremiah being still shut up in prison: but he was now in the court of the prison, where the elders and the king’s officers, etc., might consult him with the greater ease; for they continued to inquire, foolishly thinking, that if he would but prophesy good things, that these must come, or that he had sufficient power with God to induce him to alter his mind, - destroy the Chaldeans, and deliver the city.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:2, 1 voice
Jeremiah 33:2
“Thus saith the Lord the Maker thereof - עשה osah, the doer of it. That is, he who is to perform that which he is now about to promise. Thus translated by Dahler. - Voici ce que dit l’Eternel, qui fait ce qu’il a dit. - “Thus saith the Lord, who doth that which he hath said.” The word Jehovah, not Lord, should be used in all such places as this.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:3, 3 voices
Jeremiah 33:3
“Call unto me, and I will answer thee,.... This is spoken not to Jerusalem, and the inhabitants of it; but to the prophet, encouraging him to seek the Lord by prayer, promising an answer to him.”
Jeremiah 33:3
“Call unto eve, and I will answer thee - To me alone it belongs to reveal what is future; and the stupendous things which are now coming are known only to myself. These idolaters go to their gods to get information relative to the issue of the present commotions; but there is no light in them. Ask thou, O Jeremiah, and I will tell thee the great and mighty things which even thou knowest not.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:3
“God's promises are not to slacken, but to quicken the prayers of His people (Ps 132:13, 17; Isa 62:6, 7). mighty things--Hebrew, "inaccessible things," that is, incredible, hard to man's understanding [MAURER], namely, the restoration of the Jews, an event despaired of.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2. (vv. 4-9)
a.which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword: The houses thrown down by the siege mounts and the sword are named first, ruin acknowledged before any promise is offered, the dead bodies of men whom I have slain in mine anger a plain statement of whose judgment the siege carries out. Against that admission stands the reversal, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, healing paired with pardon rather than healing alone. The chapter's aim is stated at verse 9, it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, the restoration meant to be seen and not only felt.
Jeremiah 33:5, 1 voice
Jeremiah 33:5
They--the Jews; the defenders of the "houses" (Jer 33:4), "come forward to fight with the Chaldeans," who burst into the city through the "thrown-down houses," but all the effect that they produce "is, to fill them (the houses) with" their own "dead bodies."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 33:6, 3 voices
Jeremiah 33:6
“Behold I will bring it health and, cure - ארכה aruchah, an extensive plaister; or, as we phrase it, a plaister as large as the sore. I will repair the losses of families by numerous births, and bless the land with fertility.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:6
“The answer to Jeremiah's mournful question (Jer 8:22). cure--literally, the long linen bandage employed in dressing wounds. truth--that is, stability; I will bring forth for them abundant and permanent peace, that is, prosperity.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 33:6
“We may apply it more generally, and observe, [1.] That peace and truth are the great subject-matter of divine revelation. These promises here lead us to the gospel of Christ, and in that God has revealed to us peace and truth, the method of true peace--truth to direct us, peace to make us easy. Grace and truth, and abundance of both, come by Jesus Christ.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 33:7, 1 voice
Jeremiah 33:7
“The captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel - This must respect the latter times, for the ten tribes did not return with the Jews at the termination of the seventy years.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:8, 3 voices
Jeremiah 33:8
“And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me,.... Even by the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin, of heart, lip, and life, in allusion to the purifications under the law, 1Jn 1:7; see Eze 36:25; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me; for Christ's sake, and through his stoning sacrifice, and upon the foot of full satisfaction made by him.”
Jeremiah 33:8
“The repetition is in order that the Jews may consider how great is the grace of God in not merely pardoning (as to the punishment), but also cleansing them (as to the pollution of guilt); not merely one iniquity, but all (Mic 7:18).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 33:8
“In allusion to that sprinkling, David prays, Purge me with hyssop. [2.] By sin they have become guilty, and obnoxious to his justice; but he will pardon all their iniquities, will remove the punishment to which for sin they were bound over. All who by sanctifying grace are cleansed from the filth of sin, by pardoning mercy are freed from the guilt of it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
B. The Voice of the Bridegroom Returns; a Branch of Righteousness
1. (vv. 10-13)
a.Again there shall be heard in this place: The desolate streets of Jerusalem are answered sound for sound, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ordinary domestic happiness named as the sign the exile has ended. The sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord ties the wedding sounds back to worship, celebration and temple restored together rather than separately. Verses 12 and 13 add the pastoral picture, shepherds causing their flocks to lie down across every district named, the same towns chapter 32 lists as the land where fields will be bought again.
Jeremiah 33:10, 1 voice
Jeremiah 33:10
“Which ye say shall be desolate - Of which ye say, It is desolate ... The prophet first sees Judaea silent and desolate during the 70 years’ captivity: and then describes the two things, men and cattle, without which land is valueless.”
Jeremiah 33:11, 2 voices
Jeremiah 33:11
“Praise the Lord ... - The customary formula of thanksgiving in many of the later Psalms, and from its occurrence in 2Ch 5:13; 2Ch 7:3, 2Ch 7:6 ff probably a regular part of the liturgical service of the temple. Shall say ... shall bring the sacrifice of praise - Or, say ... as they bring praise, i. e., a thank-offering (see the marginal reference) into the house of the Lord At the first - Before the captivity, and when still unpolluted by the sins which have brought upon it so heavy a chastisement.”
Jeremiah 33:11
“Note, Nothing is more the praise and honour of a people than to have God the glory of it, the glory both of the power and of the goodness by which it is effected; they shall praise him both as the Lord of hosts and as the God who is good and whose mercy endures for ever.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 33:12, 2 voices
Jeremiah 33:12
“An habitation - “A shepherd’s encampment.” The words, “causing their flocks to lie down,” mean gathering them into the fold at night.”
Jeremiah 33:12-13
“The industry of the country, and their return to their original plainness and simplicity, from which, in the corrupt ages, they had sadly degenerated.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 14-16)
Jeremiah 33:14-18
a.that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah: The Branch of righteousness returns from 23:5, now dated, in those days, and at that time, and paired for the first time with the priestly line as well as the royal one. Jerusalem itself receives the name chapter 23 gave the king, the Lord our righteousness, the bench noting that the city bears the name its ruler bears, not a rival naming but the same righteousness resting on both. Verses 17 and 18 promise David a man to sit on Israel's throne and the Levites a man to offer sacrifice continually, king and priest guaranteed in the same breath, which the older writers read as pointing to the one who is both.
Jeremiah 33:14, 2 voices
Jeremiah 33:14
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... Or, "are coming" (t); future times are respected; yet such as would quickly come; five or six hundred years more, and then would be fulfilled what is after promised. This is ushered in with a "behold", as being a matter of importance, and deserving attention, and even as calling for admiration.”
Jeremiah 33:14
“Behold the days come - See Jer 23:5, and Jer 31:31. That good thing which I have promised - By my prophets: for those who have predicted the captivity have also foretold its conclusion, though not in such express terms as Jeremiah did. See Hos 1:10, etc.; Hos 2:15, etc.; Hos 6:11, etc.; Amo 9:14, etc., and Jer 3:12, etc. The end of the captivity has been foretold by Micah, Mic 7:9, etc.; Zephaniah, Zep 3:10, etc.; and by Jeremiah, Jer 16:15; Jer 23:3; Jer 29:10; Jer 32:”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:15, 3 voices
Jeremiah 33:15
“The branch - The kings they had hitherto had of the line of David, were most of them unrighteous men, but God promises that after the captivity, they should have a branch of David who would execute judgment and righteousness in the land, for the protection and government of those that feared him.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:15-16
“That the house of David, the house of Levi, and the house of Israel, shall flourish again, and be established, and all three in the kingdom of Christ; a gospel ministry and the gospel church shall continue while the world stands,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 33:15-16
“Christ is here prophesied of, 1. He is a branch of righteousness, not a usurper, for he grows up unto David, descends from his loins, with whom the covenant of royalty was made, and is that seed with whom that covenant should be established, so that his title is unexceptionable.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 33:16, 4 voices
Jeremiah 33:16
“In those days shall Judah be saved,.... The elect of God among the Jews; and all such who are Jews inwardly, who truly believe in Christ, and confess his name, and praise him, and give him the glory or salvation.”
Jeremiah 33:16
“And this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness - See what has been said on Jer 23:6 (note), which is generally supposed to be a strictly parallel passage: but they are very different, and I doubt whether they mean exactly the same thing. As to our translation here, it is ignorant, and almost impious; it says that Jerusalem, for that is the antecedent, shall be called The Lord our Righteousness.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:16
“Saved - It is the opinion of some that a spiritual salvation and security is promised under these expressions, but by the most and best interpreters, a temporal salvation. This was typical of that spiritual and eternal salvation which is promised to the true Israel of God; as their rest in Canaan typified that rest which remaineth for the people of God.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:16
“16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The L ORD our righteousness. Here is a further prediction of the happy state of Judah and Jerusalem after their glorious return out of captivity, issuing gloriously at length in the kingdom of the Messiah.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. As Sure as My Covenant with Day and Night
1. (vv. 17-18)
Jeremiah 33:17, 3 voices
Jeremiah 33:17
“Read literally, these verses promise the permanent restoration of the Davidic throne and (of the Levitical priesthood. As a matter of fact Zedekiah was the last king of David’s line, and the Levitical priest-hood has long passed away. Both these changes Jeremiah himself foretold Jer 22:30; Jer 3:16. In what way then is this apparent contradiction (compare Isa 66:20-23; Ezek. 40–48) to be explained? The solution is probably as follows. It was necessary that the Bible should be intelligible to the people at the time when it was written, and in some degree to the writer.”
Jeremiah 33:17
“David - That is, apparently a promise relating to Christ, for David's line had failed long since, had it not been continued in Christ, whose kingdom is and shall be an everlasting kingdom.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:17-26
“God speaketh once, yea, twice, for the encouragement of his people. We are not only so disobedient that we have need of precept upon precept to bring us to our duty, but so distrustful that we have need of promise upon promise to bring us to our comfort. This word, as the former, came to Jeremiah when he was in prison.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 33:18, 3 voices
Jeremiah 33:18
“We see the fulfillment of this prophecy as well. When the new covenant was given, in keeping with the divine promise, the priesthood was also given according to the order of Melchizedek, and those to whom it was promised offer the spiritual sacrifice to God …”
Theodoret of Cyrus· written before 458· ON JEREMIAH 7:33.18patristic
Jeremiah 33:18
“A man - That is, a ministry to abide in the church to the end of the world, nor is it unusual for God in the Old Testament to express promises to be fulfilled under the gospel by expressions proper to the Old Testament.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:18
“The covenant of the priesthood is called a covenant of peace ( Num. xxv. 12 ), of life and peace, Mal. ii. Now we are sure that this covenant is not broken, nor in the least weakened, while Jesus Christ is himself our life and our peace.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 19-22)
a.the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying: The promise is countersigned by creation itself, if ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, the fixed order of day and night made the standard against which the dynasty's permanence is measured. The comparison at verse 22 reaches for the two largest images available, the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David and the Levites who serve him. The pairing of David's seed with the Levites' seed under one uncountable promise repeats the double guarantee of the previous unit, king and priest secured together.
Jeremiah 33:20, 2 voices
Jeremiah 33:20-21
“As it is impossible for day to become night, so it is impossible for the Davidic monarchy to be destroyed. The fulfillment of this prophecy is also clear: Christ, who is of David according to the flesh, does not occupy the throne here below. He …”
Theodoret of Cyrus· written before 458· ON JEREMIAH 7:33.18patristic
Jeremiah 33:20
“My covenant - The same with the ordinances mentioned, chap. xxxi, 35. God's law established in the course of natural causes, by virtue of which the day and night, orderly succeed one another. The succession of the gospel ministry in the church of God to abide for ever, shall be as certain as the succession of darkness and light.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:21, 1 voice
Jeremiah 33:21
“This intimates that Christ shall have a church on earth to the world's end; he shall see a seed in which he shall prolong his days till time and day shall be no more. Christ's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; and when the end cometh, and not till then, it shall be delivered up to God, even the Father.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 33:22, 3 voices
Jeremiah 33:22
“This is precisely what he also says about the priests and the Levites, noting that their line will be compared with the host of heaven and the sand of the sea. The facts confirm what is said: the whole land and sea are full of …”
Theodoret of Cyrus· written before 458· ON JEREMIAH 7:33.18patristic
Jeremiah 33:22
“The blessing there promised belonged to all the tribes; here it is restricted to the family of David and the tribe of Levi, because it was on these that the welfare of the whole people rested. When the kingdom and priesthood flourish in the person of Messiah, the whole nation shall temporally and spiritually prosper.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 33:22
“Of David - Christ is himself called David, whose seed and whose Levites are multiplied in the multiplying of Christians and of faithful ministers under the gospel, which are the things here promised.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
3. (vv. 23-26)
a.the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: The final word answers a taunt directly quoted, the two families which the Lord hath chosen, he hath even cast them off, a claim the text names before refuting it. The refutation uses the same cosmic standard as the previous unit, if my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, the permanence of Israel's standing tied to the permanence of the created order itself. The chapter's last verse names the promise to the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, and the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob together, the strongest textual answer in the book to any reading that would count the promise closed against the people it names.
Jeremiah 33:24, 2 voices
Jeremiah 33:24
“The two families which the Lord hath chosen - Some think these refer to the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah; but they never can be considered as two distinct families, being of one and the same race. Others think that the families of Jacob and David are intended; but neither were these distinct. If the two families which had the priesthood be not meant, then the regal family of David, and the sacerdotal family of Jacob through Levi, may be designed. See Jer 33:”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 33:24
“Christ is that seed of David that is to be perpetual dictator to the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and, as this people shall never want such a king, so this king shall never want such a people. Christianity shall continue in the dominion of Christ, and the subjection of Christians to him, till day and night come to an end.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 33:25, 1 voice
Jeremiah 33:25
“The ordinances of heaven and earth - i. e., the whole order of nature Nature is not more firmly established than God’s purposes in grace.”
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 Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826); Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; John Wesley; Matthew Henry and Theodoret of Cyrus, ON JEREMIAH 7:33.18.
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