Jeremiah 30:2

Jer 30:2 Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.

Ver. 2. Write thee all the words that I have spoken to thee in a book.] For the use of posterity, {as Hab 2:2} and that the consolations may not be forgotten. {as Heb 12:5}

“ Vox audita perit: littera scripta manet. ”

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 30:2-3. Thus speaketh the Lord, Write thee all the words that I have spoken, &c. — The following words contain a promise of the restoration of God’s people. These God commands to be committed to writing for the use of posterity, to be a support to the Jews, an encouragement to them to trust in God, and a proof of his prescience and overruling providence when the event foretold should be brought about. I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah — The people that returned from Babylon were only, or at least chiefly, the people of Judah, who had been carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar; but here it is foretold, that not the captivity of Judah only should be restored, but that of Israel also, or of those ten tribes that were carried away before by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria; and who still remain in their several dispersions, having never returned, at least in a national capacity; but the terms of this prophecy entitle us to expect, not an obscure and partial, but a complete and universal, restoration, when God will manifest himself, as formerly, the God and patron of all the families of Israel, not of a few only. The reunion also of Judah and Israel, after their restoration, seems to be here clearly foretold.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Because they should be assured and their posterity confirmed in the hope of this deliverance promised.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 2. Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.] The book here recommended I believe to be the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters; for among the Hebrews any portion of writing, in which the subject was finished, however small, was termed ספר sepher, a BOOK, a treatise or discourse.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He says that God had commanded him to write in a book all the words which he had heard; and the reason follows, For, behold, come shall the days, saith Jehovah, in which I will restore the captivity of my people Israel and Judah There is to be understood a contrast between the restoration mentioned here and that of which the false prophets had prattled when they animated the people with the hope of a return in a short time; for, as I have said, that false expectation, when the Jews sought unseasonably to return to their own country, was a sort of mental inebriety. But when they found that they had been deceived, despair only remained for them. Hence the Prophet recalls them here to a quietness of mind, even that they might know that God would prove faithful after they found out that they had rashly embraced what impostors had of themselves proclaimed We then see that there is here an implied comparison between the sure and certain deliverance which God had promised, and the false and stolid hope with which the people had been inebriated: come, then, shall the days Now it appears that two years had taken away every expectation; for they believed the false prophets who said that God would restore them in two years; after the end of that time all the hope of the people failed. Therefore the Prophet here removes that erroneous impression which had been made on their minds, and he says that the days would come in which God would redeem his people; and thus he indirectly derides the folly of the people, and condemns the impiety of those who had dared to promise so quick a return.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

XXX.

(2) Write thee all the words . . .—The opening words emphasise the fact that what follows was not spoken at first, like Jeremiah 27, 28, in the presence of the people, but was from the first committed to writing. There is no definite point at which we may be certain that the section ends, and there is room for many conjectures as to interpolations here and there, but the opening of Jeremiah 32 suggests the conclusion that it takes in the whole of Jeremiah 30, 31. The general character of the prophecy, probably in part consequent on the acceptance of the prophet’s teaching by the exiles of Babylon, is one of blessing and restoration, and he is thus led on to the great utterance which, from one point of view, makes him more the prophet of the Gospel even than Isaiah. It is here that we find that promise of a New Covenant (Jer_31:31) which both as a word and a fact has been prominent in the history of Christendom.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel,.... Who is their covenant God; has not forgotten them; still has a regard for them; and speaks after the following comfortable manner concerning them:

saying, write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book; being things of consequence, that they might remain to after ages; and be read to the use, comfort, and edification of the Lord's people, in times to come; and be a support to their faith and hope, as well as be a testimony of the truth and faithfulness of God. Some think this charge refers to all the prophecies that go before, as well as follow after, to put them all together in a book or roll, that they might be preserved; though others think it refers only to the present prophecy; and so Kimchi interprets it, write all the words "that I am now speaking unto thee" (o) in a book; which should come to pass in the latter day. So John is bid to write in a book what he saw; the things that are, and shall be hereafter, Rev 1:11.

(o) "quibus alloquor te", Junius & Tremellius; "quae locutus fuero ad te", Piscator.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Write ... in a book - To be read and meditated upon by them in private. This makes it exceedingly probable that the date of these two chapters was also the 10th year of Zedekiah, immediately after the purchase of the field from Hanameel.

All the words - i. e., the scroll was to be a summary of whatever of hope and mercy had been contained in previous predictions.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Book. This was spoken in the reign of Sedecias, for the people’s conviction. The prophet had received orders to write in the 4th year of Joakim, chap. xxxvi. 1. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

It is uncertain whether this was a command from God to Jeremiah to record all the revelations which God had made to him, or only the revelation contained in this and the following chapter, which consists chiefly of promises of the people’s restoration; and so God might command them to be written that they might not be forgotten, but be at hand for the people to read during their captivity, to keep up their faith and hope in God. A book, in the Hebrew dialect, signifieth any parchment or roll; God would have them recorded to testify his truth, and the truth of the prophet, when they should see the things accomplished.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Write… a book — Because these words were for the distant future, and for all God’s people, however widely scattered. He who speaks, addresses those who are present as to time and space: he who writes, takes a wider range in both respects. All the words, etc. — This phrase is limited to this prophecy, and is more fully defined in the next verse.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Write thee all the words... in a book. The form of expression leaves it doubtful whether a summary of all Jeremiah"s previous discourses is intended, or merely of the promises concerning Israel and Judah which he had just received. There are, no doubt, numerous allusions to preceding chapters, but ver. 5 seems rather to favour the latter view. The word rendered "book" will equally suit a short discourse like the present (comp. Jer_51:60) and a large collection of prophecies as in Jer_36:2. Observe, the discourse was to be written down at once, without having been delivered orally; it was to be laid up as a pledge that God would interpose for his people. (comp. Isa_30:8 Hab_2:2, Hab_2:3)

Ver. 2. "Scripture the written Word of God.

Jeremiah was required to write his prophecy in a book. Israel had received the Law first by a voice of thunder, but the voice was followed by the writing on the tables of stone. (Exo_34:1) St. John was commanded to write his vision in a book. (Rev_1:11) Without definite commands of this character, prophets and apostles, historians and evangelists, have committed to writing what they knew and taught. Thus we have a written revelation, a Bible. We may see the great value of this without becoming guilty of bibliolatry, or lowering our spiritual conceptions to slavish subservience to the "letter that killeth.

I CONSIDER THE VALUE OF SCRIPTURE, AS CONTAINING THE WORD OF GOD IN WRITING.

1. Accuracy. Words may be spoken in haste, under excitement; a book is presumably considered and reconsidered, its words weighed and measured. "Writing makes an exact man" (Bacon).

2. Permanence. The spoken word may soon be forgotten, or it may be recollected imperfectly with unconscious embellishments and deficiencies. The written word can be studied carefully and at leisure.

3. Publicity. The spoken word is heard only by one audience, present in one place, at one time. The written word is capable of being spread over a wider area. If but one copy is written, this can be sent about and frequently reread to various hearers, like the circular letters of the New Testament. But the book can be copied, and thus the area of its influence enlarged. Since the invention of printing, and with the facilities for multiplying and cheapening the production of books, this extensive influence of literature beyond that of speech has been immensely increased.

4. Transmission to the future. The spoken word dies with the breath that utters it; the written word can be treasured for ages, and transmitted to distant generations. The orator is peculiarly a man of his own age; the literary genius belongs to all time. If the Divine Word had been handed down only by tradition we know how terribly it must have been corrupted. We in these later days can enjoy its fresh power because it is crystallized in literature, because prophecy has become Scripture.

II CONSIDER THE WAY IN WHICH WE SHOULD DEAL WITH SCRIPTURE THAT CONTAINS THE WORD OF GOD. Several duties and wise courses of action are suggested by the fact that the Word of God is written in a book, viz.:

1. Care to preserve the purity of the text. Correct readings and accurate renderings of this are of first importance, since they guard the thoughts of God from perversion.

2. Reverence for the authority of Scripture. If we believe that it embodies the words and ideas of God, we shall feel that, even when it teaches spiritual principles which we cannot as yet see well established, it has a claim to be listened to with the reverence of the ignorant pupil for his wiser master. As far as it brings before us God"s thoughts, it must be read and examined and estimated by quite a different standard from that by which we decide questions of purely human literature.

3. Diligence in searching the Scriptures. The Bible is to be used. It is not to be treated as many men treat the classics, "without which no gentleman"s library can be complete," but as a text book, a book of daily reference. It must also be inquired into. There are mines of spiritual wealth to dig, things new as well as things old that a well furnished scribe can bring out of it. There is in it "milk for babes, and meat for strong men," and the latter needs to be "read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested," if we would profit by it.

4. Care to extract the spiritual thought from the visible letter. The letter is human, the form of speech is human. It is the spiritual idea that is Divine, and this is the most important thing to us. This is the real and eternal truth, the Word of life and power. We need an inspiration ourselves to help us to peel off the husk of speech, and find the precious kernel of Divine thought beneath.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Write

Three "writings" by Jeremiah are to be distinguished:

(1) This is impersonal--a general prophecy, and probably the earliest. Jer 30:1 to Jer 31:40.

(2) The prophecy destroyed by Jehoiakim. Jer 1:1 to Jer 36:23.

(3) The destroyed writing re-written doubtless the writing preserved to us. Jer 36:27.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.