Jeremiah 16:14

ISRAEL'S RESTORATION PROPHESIED

"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, that brought 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."

This wonderful promise of the restoration of Israel belongs right here where it stands in the Bible. We reject Ash's statement that, "There is good reason to believe that this oracle was inserted by an editor."[18] The alleged reason for this opinion was given as follows, "It is intrusive in subject matter and flow of thought";[19] but this is no sufficient reason for denying the authorship of Jeremiah in the giving of this prophecy.

As Dummelow pointed out, this device of throwing in a bright and encouraging prophecy right in the middle of very discouraging and gloomy prophecies corresponds exactly with Jeremiah's pattern of writing throughout the prophecy. "See Jeremiah 3:14; 4:27; 5:10; 5:18; 37:22; 30:3; and 32:27."[20]

The thing that confuses some writers is the foolish critical rule that denies the authenticity of this sacred pattern; but the pattern is not only found throughout the Old Testament, but likewise in the New Testament, where Jesus prophesied heaven and hell in the same breath.

As the Dean of Canterbury put it, "There is no reason for regarding these verses as an interpolation."[21]

Harrison likewise declared that it is not necessary to regard these verses as displaced. "All of the pre-exilic prophets interspersed their denunciations with expectations of a brighter future. See Joel 3:18-21; Amos 9:11-15, etc."[22]

"That brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north ..." (Jeremiah 16:15). This implies that the second bringing up of Israel from captivity will outshine God's bringing them up from Egypt. "But just as this promised deliverance will excel the earlier one, so much greater will the affliction of Israel be in the projected second captivity."[23]

That something more than a mere return of captives from Babylon is meant here was discerned by Jamieson: "Although the return from Babylon is primarily meant, the `gathering from all lands' shows that the return from Babylon was the salvation of Israel in only a limited sense."[24] It appears to this writer that there are overtones in the passage of the conversion of the Gentiles. See under Jeremiah 16:20.