Jeremiah 30:18

"Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on his dwelling-places; and the city shall be builded upon its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited after its own manner. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I shall also glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me; and I will punish all that oppress them, And their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is he that hath had boldness to approach unto me? saith Jehovah. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God."

"I will turn again the captivity of Jacob's tents ..." (Jeremiah 30:18). The mention of tents here does not mean that most of the people were still nomads, dwelling in tents, because the parallelism stresses dwelling-places in the next line. These verses look to the time when Israel's punishment has been completed and a marvelous prosperity will return to them. "The prophet speaks of Judah here as a type of the Church, with Immanuel as her king."[19] The title of all four of the chapters here is "The New Covenant"; and the racial Israel hardly enters the picture at all.

"And the city shall be builded upon its own hill ..." (Jeremiah 30:18). "The Hebrew word here for `hill' means mound (of a ruined city) and corresponds to the Arabic `tell.' Notice how many place-names have this word: Tel Aviv (Ezekiel 3:15), Tel el-Amarna (in Egypt), Tel Assar (2 Kings 19:12), Tel Melah and Tel Harsha (Ezra 2:59)."[20] For ages, in the East, it was customary to build cities upon the ruins (the tels) of cities that had been destroyed in order to decrease the chance of floods and to strengthen fortifications.

"Their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them ..." (Jeremiah 30:21). It is the great prophecy of the Christ given by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15 that explains these clauses. The Anchor Bible renders this whole verses thus:

"Their prince shall be one of their own,

Their ruler shall come from their midst;

And Him I'll permit to approach me.

For who otherwise would be so bold

As thus to approach me? Yahweh's word."

Keil tells us that the very words of this verse were used in Exodus 19:6 to denote the approach of Moses to Jehovah on Mount Sinai,[21] thus indicating the priesthood of the prince or ruler mentioned here. It would be difficult to frame a verse more specifically identifying the character of these verses as "Like unto Moses" than what is given here. Moses was priest and king, so is Jesus Christ. Moses was "from the midst of the brethren" even as he prophesied that Christ also would be from the midst of the brethren.

This picture of a ruler-priest finds its Old Testament type also in the example of Melchizedek in Psalms 110.

For these and other reasons we find here a clear prophecy of the Messiah. As Keil expressed it, "Herein is contained the truth, that the sovereignty of Israel, as restored, culminates in the kingdom of the Messiah."[22]

As Thompson noted, "The passage has a peculiarly Messianic ring to it."[23] One such evidence was pointed out by Henderson who wrote of the question asked by God Himself "Who would be so bold as to approach me? ... Such an approach had never been made before; the question is put as something altogether unique."[24]

Furthermore, both Henderson and Albert Barnes translate Jeremiah 30:21 thus, "And his Glorious One shall spring from himself."[25] Such terminology is exclusively applicable to the Messiah. Matthew Henry also concurred in this rendition.