Jeremiah 23:6

In his days Judah shall be saved,.... In the days of the Messiah, the righteous Branch, and reigning prosperous King, not only the people of the Jews, God's elect among them, but all that truly

In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR . In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely - (cf.

During the reign and kingdom of the Messias (whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom) the people of God, typified by Judah and Israel, the true Israel of God, those that are Jews indeed, shall be saved with a spiritual salvation; for he was therefore called Jesus, because he was to save his people from their sins, , and God will be a special protection to them. The name wherewith this Branch shall be called shall be, The Lord our Righteousness. Some have applied this to the people, as if the people should be so called, or should say, The Lord hath dealt graciously with us; or, In the Lord we have righteousness. But this will appear but the new invention of some who either cannot or will not understand how Christ should be his people’ s righteousness, those who consider not that it is the Branch which was before spoken of, and that the word people is not to be found going before; there is indeed a mention of Judah and Israel, but surely they were not to be other men’ s righteousness, and if that had been the prophet’ s meaning, he would not have said, The Lord our, but the Lord their righteousness. Nor is the only place where Christ is called our righteouness, . This place is an eminent proof of the Godhead of Christ, he is here called Jehovah; and what is proper to God alone, viz. to justify, is here applied to Christ. The prophet saith Christ shall be so called, that is, by his people, who should believe in him and trust in him alone for that righteousness wherein they should at the last day stand before God: thus he was to bring in everlasting righteousness, . He, who knew no sin, was made sin (that is, a sacrifice for sin) for us, that we might be-made the righteousness of God in him.

Jeremiah 23:6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this [is] his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR .Ver. 6. This is the name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.] Jehovah Tsidkenu. This is a most mellifluous and sweet name of our Lord Jesus Christ, importing his Godhead, as the righteous Branch of David did his manhood; and besides assuring us that as he hath for us fulfilled all righteousness, so he is by God made unto us righteousness, and that we are become the righteousness of God in him. This one name of Christ is a strong tower; it is such as will answer all our doubts and objections, were they never so many, had we but skill to spell all the letters in it. Cyprian was wont to comfort his friends thus, Venit Antichristus, sed superveniet Christus; Antichrist will come, but then Christ will be at the heels of him. We may well comfort ourselves against all evils and enemies with this consideration, Christ is "Jehovah our righteousness." God hath "laid help on one that is mighty," and he came to "bring in everlasting righteousness." Why then should we "fear in the days of evil, when the iniquities of our heels shall compass us about." Domine Satan, saith Luther somewhere, nihil me movent minae terrores tui; est enim unus qui vocatur Iehovah iustitia nostra, in quem credo: Is legem abrogavit, peccatum damnavit, mortem abolevit, infernum destruxit, estque O Satan, Satan tuus - that is, You, Sir Satan, your menaces and terrors trouble me not. For why? There is one whose name is called the Lord our righteousness, on whom I believe. He it is who hath abrogated the law, condemned, sin, abolished death, destroyed hell, and is a Satan to thee, O Satan. Surely this brave saying of Luther may well be reckoned among such of his sentences as a man would fetch, rather than be without them, upon his knees from Rome or Jerusalem. Vocat Scriptura nomen Messiae Iehova Tsidkenu, quia erit Mediator Deus, per cuius manus consecuturi sumus iustitiam a Deo ipso, inquit Rabbinus quidam in lib. Ikharim. Luth., tom. iv. fol. 55 A.

(6) Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.—The true King shall reign over a re-united people. The Ten Tribes of the Northern Kingdom, as well as the two of the Southern, should find in Him deliverance and peace. Whereby he shall be called.—Literally, whereby one shall call him, the indefinite, almost impersonal active having the force of the English passive. The Lord our Righteousness.—It is significant that in Jeremiah 33:16 the same name is given to Jerusalem. There it is clearly not, in logical language, the predicate of the city, but that which she takes as her watchword, and blazons, as it were, on her banner; and we cannot consistently press more than that meaning here. So in Ezekiel 48:35 the new name of Jerusalem is “Jehovah-shammah” (= the Lord is there). So in Exodus 17:15 Moses calls the altar which he builds “Jehovah-nissi” (= the Lord is my banner). The interpretation which sees in the words (1) the identification of the Messianic King with Jehovah, the Eternal, and (2) the doctrine of imputed righteousness, must accordingly be regarded as one of the applications of the words rather than their direct meaning. That meaning would seem to be that the King, the righteous Branch, will look to Jehovah as giving and working righteousness. Some commentators, indeed, refer the pronoun “he” to Israel, and not to the righteous Branch. We cannot forget that, at the very time when Jeremiah uttered this prophecy, a king was on the throne whose name (Zedekiah = righteous is Jehovah) implied the same thought. His reign had been a miserable failure, and the prophet looks forward to a time when the ideal, which was then far off, should at last be realised. If with many critics we refer the prediction to the reign of Jehoiakim (see Note on Jeremiah 23:1), we might almost see in Mattaniah’s adoption of the new name a boast that he was about to fulfil it. The Christ, we may say, answered to the name, not as being Himself one with Jehovah, though He was that, but as doing the Father’s will, and so fulfilling all righteousness (comp. Matthew 3:15).

Verse 6. In his days Judah shall be saved] The real Jew is not one who has his circumcision in the flesh, but in the spirit. The real Israel are true believers in Christ Jesus; and the genuine Jerusalem is the Church of the first-born, and made free, with all her children, from the bondage of sin, Satan, death, and hell. All these exist only in the days of the Messiah. All that went before were the types or significators of these glorious Gospel excellencies. And this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.] I shall give the Hebrew text of this important passage: וזה שמו אשר יקראו יהוה צדקנו vezeh shemo asher yikreo Yehovah tsidkenu, which the Septuagint translate as follows, ΚαιτουτοτοονομααυτονὁκαλεσειαυτονΚυριος, Ιωσεδεκ, "And this is his name which the Lord shall call him Josedek." Dahler translates the text thus: - Et voici le nom dont on l'appellera: L'Eternel, Auteur de notre felicite. "And this is the name by which he shall be called; The Lord, the Author of our happiness." Dr. Blayney seems to follow the Septuagint; he translates thus, "And this is the name by which Jehovah shall call him, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." In my old MS. Bible, the first English translation ever made, it is thus: - And this is the name that thei schul clepen him: oure rigtwise Lord. Coverdale's, the first complete English translation of the Scriptures ever printed, (1535,) has given it thus: - And this is the name that they shall call him: even the Lorde oure rightuous Maker. Matthews (1549) and Becke (1549) follow Coverdale literally; but our present translation of the clause is borrowed from Cardmarden, (Rouen, 1566,) "Even the Lord our righteousness." Dr. Blayney thus accounts for his translation: - "Literally, according to the Hebrew idiom, - 'And this is his name by which Jehovah shall call, Our Righteousness;' a phrase exactly the same as, 'And Jehovah shall call him so;' which implies that God would make him such as he called him, that is, our Righteousness, or the author and means of our salvation and acceptance. So that by the same metonymy Christ is said to 'have been made of God unto us wisdom, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,' 1 Corinthians 1:30. "I doubt not that some persons will be offended with me for depriving them, by this translation, of a favourite argument for proving the Divinity of our Saviour from the Old Testament. But I cannot help it; I have done it with no ill design, but purely because I think, and am morally sure, that the text, as it stands, will not properly admit of any other construction.

6. Israel shall dwell safely] Cp. Deuteronomy 33:28. The Northern Tribes as well as Judah shall be restored, and form one kingdom. he shall be called] The Messiah’s work shall be indicated by the name that He is to bear. The Lord is our righteousness] as indicating the ideal righteousness which is then to characterize the nation. Cp. Isaiah 1:26; Isaiah 60:21; Isaiah 61:3. Of that righteousness Jehovah is to be the source. Cp. Ezekiel 48:35 “The Lord is there,” mg. Jehovah-shammah. Cp. also Jeremiah 33:16, where the same name is given to Jerusalem. The A.V. (“The Lord our righteousness”) survives in R.V. mg. but, as we see must be the case from the passage last referred to, the prophet is not identifying the Messiah with Jehovah.

This is his name whereby he shall be called - From remote antiquity the person here spoken of has been understood to be “the righteous germ,” and this alone is in accordance with the grammar and the sense.

6. Judah… Israel — The prophet writes as though Israel had not been destroyed; and this was true in a sense deeper and more spiritual than that in which she had been destroyed.