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.

In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.

In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: it is the opinion of some that a spiritual salvation and security is promised under these expressions, but the most and best interpreters rather understand it of a temporal salvation as primarily intended, though typical of that spiritual and eternal salvation which is often promised to the true Israel of God; as their rest in Canaan typified that rest which remaineth for the people of God. And this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness: our translation of this phrase is something strange, the words in the Hebrew are hl adqy hx wgqa hwxy Pagnine translateth them, and he who shall call it the Lord our righteousness, supplying the verb substantive, is: He who shall call it is the Lord our righteousness. We translate it, this is the name wherewith it shall be called, &c.; that which causes the difficulty is, that the pronoun hz which signifieth he, is applied both to persons and things, and translated he or it, and the relative dva is of all cases, so may be translated who, or which, or with which; those words which our translators have supplied, is the name, are not in the Hebrew. This hath made a great doubt amongst interpreters, whether The Lord our righteousness be the name of Christ, or the name of the city. I do incline to their opinion who think that it is here mentioned as the name of Christ. In that sense there is nothing to be understood but the verb substantive, is, which is ordinarily understood; so the words are thus, and he who shall call it, is, the Lord our righteousness. The context seemeth to favour this, Christ being that Ruler mentioned , as he who shall execute justice and judgment in the land; besides that, there is no such name any where given, either to the Jewish or Christian church, as the Lord our righteousness, but the full import of that name is spoken of Christ, , which text is applied to Christ, ; he is called the just King, , and our righteousness, .

Jeremiah 33:16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this [is the name] wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.Ver. 16. And this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord is our righteousness.] Heb., This is that he shall call her, Jehovah our righteousness; called the Church shall be by Christ’ s own name, which is a very high honour, as being his spouse, and making up one mystical body with him. Hence she is called "Christ," and "the fulness of him who filleth all in all." See Jeremiah 23:6, with Ezekiel 48:35.

(16) This is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.—It will be noticed that, while this reproduces the language of Jer 23:6, it does so with a remarkable difference. There the title, “The Lord our Righteousness,” is given to the future King, and the passage has accordingly been used as a proof of the full divinity of the Christ, who is that King. Here it is given to the city, and, so given, can only mean that that name will be, as it were, the motto and watchword of her being. She will be a city marked by a righteousness which will be the gift of Jehovah; He will inscribe that name on her banners, and. grave it on her portals. It is obvious that this throws light on the meaning of the title as applied to the King.

Verse 16. And this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness.] See what has been said on Jeremiah 23:6, (See Clarke on Jeremiah 23:6,) 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. The pronoun לה lah, which is translated her, is the masculine affix, in the Chaldaic form, which frequently occurs; and Dr. Blayney translates, "And this is He whom Jehovah shall call our righteousness," or Justification. Perhaps there is a sense which these words will bear far more congenial to the scope of the place. I will give the original, as before: וזה אשר יקרא לה יהוה צדקנו vezeh asher yikra lah, Yehovah tsidkenu, "And this one who shall call to her is the Lord our Justification;" that is, the salvation of the Jews shall take place when Jesus Christ is proclaimed to them as their Justifier, and they receive him as such. Instead of לה lah, her or him, Chaldaice, the Vulgate, Chaldee, and Syriac have read לו lo, him, less ambiguously; and this reading is supported by one or two MSS. This emendation renders the passage here more conformable to that in Jeremiah 23:6; but if the translation above be admitted, all embarrassment is gone. One of my own MSS. has לה loh, with the masculine points, and no mappik on the ה he; and for tsidkenu has צדקינו tsidkeynu, the contracted plural form, our righteousness: but this may be a mistake. The passages in this and the twenty-third chapter were not, I am satisfied, intended to express the same thing. I suppose that above refers to the preaching or proclaiming Christ crucified to the Jews, when the time shall arrive in which they shall be incorporated with the Gentile Church. Dahler translates this as he did that in Jeremiah 23:6, which is a perfect oversight: but paraphrastic renderings are too often introduced by this learned foreigner.

14–26. See introd. summary to the section. This portion of the ch. is clearly later than Jeremiah’s time. The expression “Levitical priests” (see on Jeremiah 33:18) is not one which he uses elsewhere. Moreover, there is a considerable amount of repetition in the passage (cp. Jeremiah 33:14-16 with Jeremiah 29:10, Jeremiah 23:5 f., and Jeremiah 33:17 with Jeremiah 35:19, and Jeremiah 33:20-26 with Jeremiah 31:35 f.). Above all, it is lacking in the LXX. It is very improbable that those translators would have designedly omitted such a proclamation of the Messianic hope, of the permanence of David’s line, and of the importance of the priestly office. The generally hopeful character of the passage also would have appealed to them. Gi., though deciding against the genuineness of the passage, considers that the phrase “Levitical priests” is so suitable to Jeremiah’s time, that here it must be considered as an archaism employed by a later writer. Co. summarily rejects the passage, and substitutes Jeremiah 23:7 f., as being most appropriate here, while at least suspicious in 23. in view of its varying position in MT. and LXX.

CHRIST THE BRANCH — THE OF BOTH THE KINGLY AND THE IDEAS, Jeremiah 33:15-18.15, 16. These verses are substantially a repetition of Jer 23:5-6, with several changes, most of which, however, are of no real significance.