Jeremiah 32:42

For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:26-44 God's answer discovers the purposes of his wrath against that generation of the Jews, and the purposes of his grace concerning future generations. It is sin, and nothing else, that ruins them. The restoration of Judah and Jerusalem is promised. This people were now at length brought to despair. But God gives hope of mercy which he had in store for them hereafter. Doubtless the promises are sure to all believers. God will own them for his, and he will prove himself theirs. He will give them a heart to fear him. All true Christians shall have a disposition to mutual love. Though they may have different views about lesser things, they shall all be one in the great things of God; in their views of the evil of sin, and the low estate of fallen man, the way of salvation through the Saviour, the nature of true holiness, the vanity of the world, and the importance of eternal things. Whom God loves, he loves to the end. We have no reason to distrust God's faithfulness and constancy, but only our own hearts. He will settle them again in Canaan. These promises shall surely be performed. Jeremiah's purchase was the pledge of many a purchase that should be made after the captivity; and those inheritances are but faint resemblances of the possessions in the heavenly Canaan, which are kept for all who have God's fear in their hearts, and do not depart from him. Let us then bear up under our trials, assured we shall obtain all the good he has promised us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Assuredly - literally, in truth, i. e., in verity, in reality. It refers to God's firm purpose, rather than to the safety and security of the people. The new covenant is one of grace, indicated by God's rejoicing over His people, and "planting them with His whole heart."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

42. (Jer 31:28). The restoration from Babylon was only a slight foretaste of the grace to be expected by Israel at last through Christ.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

You shall find me as true to my promises as you have found me to my threatenings.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For thus saith the Lord, like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people,.... The Chaldean army now besieging them, the famine and pestilence among them, as well as their captivity, which was just at hand and certain:

so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them; in the preceding verses; as being their God, and they his people; giving them one heart, and one way; putting his fear into them; causing them to persevere to the end: rejoicing over them to do them good; and planting them in the land. God is as faithful to his promises as to his threatenings; and those who have seen the fulfilment of the one need not doubt of the accomplishment of the other; for if he has done all the evil things he threatened to do, which are his acts of justice, his strange acts, much more will he do the good things he has promised, which are his acts of grace and mercy, in which he delights.

Geneva Study Bible

For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 42. - Like as I have brought, etc. The prophet still has in his mind the thought expressed in Jeremiah 31:28, that the brighter part of his revelations must as surely be accomplished as the darker. Jeremiah 32:42

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jeremiah 32:38, Jeremiah 32:39 are to be understood like Jeremiah 31:33. They must in very deed become the people of the Lord, for God gives them one heart and one way of life, to fear Him always, i.e., through His Spirit He renews and sanctifies them (Jeremiah 31:33; Jeremiah 24:7; Jeremiah 11:19). "One heart and one way" that they may all with one mind and in one way fear me, no longer wander through many wicked ways (Jeremiah 26:3; Isaiah 53:6). יראה is an infinitive, as often in Deut., e.g., Jeremiah 4:10, from which the whole sentence has been derived, and Jeremiah 6:24, to which the expression לטוב להם points. The everlasting covenant which the Lord wishes to conclude with them, i.e., the covenant-relationship which He desires to grant them, is, in fact, the new covenant, Jeremiah 31:33. Here, however, only the eternal duration of it is made prominent, in order to comfort the pious in the midst of their present sufferings. Consequently, only the idea of the עולם is mainly set forth: "that I shall not turn away from them, to do them good - no more withdraw from them my gracious benefits;" but the uninterrupted bestowal of these implies also faithfulness to the Lord on the part of the people. The Lord desires to establish His redeemed people in this condition by putting His fear in their heart, namely, through His Spirit; see Jeremiah 31:33-34. ושׂשׂתּי, "And I shall rejoice over them, by doing them good," as was formerly the case (Deuteronomy 28:63), and is again to be, in time to come. בּאמת, in truth, properly, "in faithfulness." This expression is strengthened by the addition, "with my whole heart and my whole soul." - So much for the promise of restoration and renewal of the covenant people. This promise is confirmed, Jeremiah 32:42-44, by the assurance that the accomplishment of deliverance shall follow as certainly as the decree of the calamity has done; the change is similar to that in Jeremiah 31:38. Finally, Jeremiah 32:43, Jeremiah 32:44, there is the application made of this to the purchase of the field which the prophet had been commanded to fulfil; and the signification of this purchase is thus far determined, that after the restoration of Judah to their own land, fields shall once more be bought in full legal form: with this, the discourse returns to its starting-point, and finishes. The article is used generically in השׂדה; hence, on the repetition of the thought, Jeremiah 32:44, the plural שׂדות is employed instead. The enumeration of the several regions of the kingdom, as in Jeremiah 17:26, is a rhetorical individualization for strengthening the thought. The land of Benjamin is here made prominent in relation to the field purchased by Jeremiah at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. The final sentence 'כּי אשׁיב also serves for further proof. The Hiphil in this expression does not mean the same as the usual אשׁוּב: "I turn the captivity," i.e., I change the adversity into prosperity. השׁיב expresses restitutio in statum incolumitatis seu integritatis more plainly than שׁוּב - not merely the change of misfortune or misery; but it properly means, to lead back or restore the captivity, i.e., to remove the condition of adversity by restoration of previous prosperity. The expression is analogous to קומם or בּנה חרבות, to build or raise ruins, Isaiah 44:26; Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:4, and קומם שׁממות, to raise up desolate places, Isaiah 61:4, which does not mean to restore ruins or desolate places, but to build them up into inhabitable places (cf. Isaiah 61:4), to remove ruins or desolations by the building and restoration of cities.