An Incurable Wound Is Not the Last Word

The heading opens chapters 30 to 33, often called the Book of Consolation, the book’s longest stretch of promise. Unlike chapter 29 before it and chapter 32 after it, this word carries no date, so it stands apart from the particular crises around it.

“In a book” means on a scroll. Writing a prophecy down was a way of addressing a future audience; Isaiah was told to “note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever” (Isaiah 30:8). This is the first command to Jeremiah to write, before the scroll of chapter 36.

“Possess” is yarash, the verb of the conquest, used in Joshua 1:11 when the people were told to prepare “to possess the land”. The return is described as a second taking of the land, given once again to the heirs of the fathers.

A second heading introduces the poem that follows. The Book of Consolation alternates in form: chapters 30 and 31 are largely verse, chapters 32 and 33 largely prose. The preposition “concerning” is repeated, keeping the two kingdoms distinct even as they are joined.

“We have heard” puts the people’s own voice in God’s mouth, quoting their panic. “Trembling” is charadah, the violent shudder that seized Isaac when he realised Jacob had taken Esau’s blessing (Genesis 27:33). The missing peace is the peace the false prophets kept promising (6:14).

The question is a jolt: men do not give birth, yet every man holds his sides like a woman in labour. “Paleness” is yeraqon, the word for mildew, the blight that turns standing grain a sickly yellow-green (Deuteronomy 28:22; Amos 4:9). Faces have gone the colour of a ruined crop.

“That day is great” is Day of the LORD language: “the day of the LORD is great and very terrible” (Joel 2:11). “Trouble” is tsarah, the word Jacob himself used when he fled Esau and God “answered me in the day of my distress” (Genesis 35:3). The patriarch’s own rescue is the pattern for his descendants.

“Break his yoke from off thy neck” is word for word what Isaac promised Esau: “thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck” (Genesis 27:40). The blessing once given to the brother who lost out is now given to Jacob. The Hebrew shifts between “his” and “thy”, the oppressor’s yoke on Jacob’s neck.

Hosea had already promised that Israel would “seek the LORD their God, and David their king” (Hosea 3:5), and Ezekiel names “my servant David” as the coming shepherd-king (Ezekiel 34:23–24). “Serve” is the verb of chapter 27, redirected: out of Babylon’s service into the LORD’s.

Verses 10 and 11 recur almost verbatim in 46:27–28, where they close the oracle against Egypt. “Fear thou not, O my servant Jacob” is the form of Isaiah’s comfort, “Fear not, O Jacob, my servant” (Isaiah 44:2). “Be quiet” and “in rest” describe the calm of undisturbed land.

“I will not make a full end” repeats a line Jeremiah had used even in his harshest chapters (4:27, 5:10, 5:18). “In measure” is lamishpat, with justice, the plea of 10:24: “O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger.”

“Thy wound is grievous” repeats the words of 10:19, “Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous”, where the lament was spoken by the city or the prophet himself. Now God pronounces the diagnosis over Zion, and it is the same.

“That thou mayest be bound up” is mazor, a dressing pressed on a wound. Hosea 5:13 had said that Judah went to Assyria for help with his wound, but the king “could not heal you, nor cure you of your wound”, using the same word. “Healing medicines” are new flesh forming over a cut, and there is none.

The lovers are the allies Judah courted, Egypt above all, now forgetting her. God calls his own blows “the wound of an enemy” and the discipline of “a cruel one”. Lamentations 2:5 later says the same: “The Lord was as an enemy.”

The last clause of verse 14 is repeated almost word for word, “the multitude of thine iniquity... thy sins were increased”, like a physician restating a diagnosis to a patient who does not want to hear it. The question “Why criest thou?” allows no appeal against the verdict.

“Adversaries” is tsarim, from the same root as the “trouble”, tsarah, of verse 7: those who troubled Jacob will be carried off as he was. Isaiah 33:1 has the same reversal: “when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled.”

“Restore health” is arukhah, the new flesh that grows over a healing wound. It is the word of Jeremiah’s question in 8:22, “why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” The question is finally answered. Isaiah 62:12 gives Zion the reverse of her nickname: “Sought out, A city not forsaken.”

“Her own heap” is her tel, the mound of debris on which ancient cities were rebuilt layer upon layer; Ai was left “an heap for ever” (Joshua 8:28). Jerusalem will rise on its own rubble. “After the manner thereof” means on its proper, rightful site.

“Thanksgiving” is todah, the thank-offering sung in the temple; 33:11 hears it again. “I will multiply them, and they shall not be few” reverses the covenant curse of Deuteronomy 28:62, “ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven”.

“As aforetime” is as in the days of old, the plea of Lamentations 5:21, “renew our days as of old”. “Congregation” is edah, the word for the whole assembly of Israel in the wilderness (Numbers 1:2). The children are counted first.

Deuteronomy 17:15 required that a king come “from among thy brethren”, not a stranger. “Engaged his heart” means pledged his life as surety, since approaching God uninvited could be fatal: King Uzziah was struck with leprosy for burning incense in the temple (2 Chronicles 26:16–21). This ruler is invited to draw near.

The covenant formula, first given in Exodus 6:7 and Leviticus 26:12, runs through the book (7:23, 11:4, 24:7) and returns in 31:33 and 32:38. Here it stands alone as a single verse, with nothing added to it.

The words repeat 23:19 with one change. There the whirlwind was “grievous”; here it is mitgorer, “continuing” or sweeping, a storm that lingers. In chapter 23 it fell on the false prophets; here, after promises to Jacob, “the wicked” are most naturally his oppressors.

“Fierce anger” is literally the burning of the nose. “The intents of his heart” are his settled purposes. Chapter 23 closed the same saying with “ye shall consider it perfectly”; here it is simply “ye shall consider it”, pointing ahead to the promises of the next chapter.