Jeremiah 30:3

Jer 30:3 For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.

Ver. 3. I will bring again the captivity {a} of Israel and Judah.] This promise, Oecolampadius thinketh, was written in the book in greater letters than the rest; it was fulfilled according to the letter in carnal Israel sent back by Cyrus (upon Daniel’s prayer, who understood by that book here mentioned that the time of deliverance, yea, the set time was come, Dan 9:2), but more fully in those "Jews inwardly," {Rom 2:29} those "Israelites indeed" who are set at liberty by Christ, {Joh 8:36} and shall be much more at the last day.

{a} Convertam conversionem. - Vulg.

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.

30:3 The new messages expand on the theme of 29:10-14 (see 3:18; 16:15; 24:6). The fall of Jerusalem and the Exile did not mark the end of the Lord’s relationship with Israel. The Lord had a wonderful future for the remnant of his people. Descendants of people from the northern kingdom of Israel who were taken into exile by the Assyrians in 722 BC would be restored. Likewise, descendants of the people of Judah who were taken into Babylonian exile in 597 and 586 BC would return to the Promised Land. • I will bring them home: The first major return from exile occurred in 538 BC (Ezra 1:1–6:22), the second in 458 BC (Ezra 7:1–10:44), and the third in 445 BC (Neh 1–13).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

bring again . . . captivity of . . . Israel and Judah--the restoration not merely of the Jews (treated of in this thirtieth chapter), but also of the ten tribes ("Israel"; treated in the thirty-first chapter), together forming the whole nation (Jer 30:18; Jer 32:44; Eze 39:25; Amo 9:14-15). "Israel" is mentioned first because its exile was longer than that of Judah. Some captives of the Israelite ten tribes returned with those of Judah (Luk 2:36; "Aser" is mentioned). But these are only a pledge of the full restoration hereafter (Rom 11:26, "All Israel"). Compare Jer 16:15. This third verse is a brief statement of the subject before the prophecy itself is given.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. The days come] First, After the conclusion of the seventy years. Secondly, Under the Messiah.

That I will bring again the captivity of Israel] The ten tribes, led captive by the king of Assyria, and dispersed among the nations.

And Judah] The people carried into Babylon at two different times; first, under Jeconiah, and, secondly, under Zedekiah, by Nebuchadnezzar.

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

We now, then, see why he says, come shall the days; for every hope after two years would have been extinguished, had not God interposed. Come, then, shall the days in which I wll restore the captivity of Israel and Judah The ten tribes, we know, had been already led into exile; the tribe of Judah and the half tribe of Benjamin only remained. Hence the ten tribes, the whole kingdom of Israel, are mentioned first. The exile of Israel was much longer than that of Judah. It afterwards follows, —

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.

(3) I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah . . .—The oracle of Jer_29:10-14 becomes, as it were, the text of a new utterance, and that with a wider range more distinctly including the ten tribes of Israel as well as the two of Judah and Benjamin. There is no narrow provincialism in the prophet’s heart. He yearns for the exiles who are far off on the Euphrates; he yearns also for those who are yet farther in Assyria and the cities of the Medes (2Ki_17:6).

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

3. turn again the captivity] See on Jer_29:14.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord,.... And they are yet to come; the prophecy is not yet fulfilled. Kimchi says this belongs to the days of the Messiah; but not to his first coming, or to his coming in the flesh, which the Jews vainly expect; but to his spiritual coming in the latter day:

that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah,

saith the Lord; which cannot be understood of their return from the Babylonish captivity; for, as Kimchi rightly observes, only Judah and Benjamin returned from thence; and though there were some few of the other tribes that came with them, especially of the tribe of Levi, yet not sufficient to answer to so great a prophecy as this, which refers to the same time as that in Hos 3:5; as appears by comparing that with Jer 30:9; and when, as the Apostle Paul says, "all Israel shall be saved", Rom 11:25;

and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it; the land of Canaan, given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and which shall be again by the Jews their posterity; for, without that the Jews upon their call and conversion shall return to their own land, in a literal sense, I see not how we can understand this, and many other prophecies.

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

Come. Some in St. Jerome explain this and the following chapter of the end of the world, when all shall confess Christ. Others refer them to the preaching of the gospel alone. (Estius) (Tirinus) --- But the return from captivity is specified, as prefiguring that event. (St. Thomas Aquinas, &c.) (Calmet) --- It is probable that many of the ten tribes returned to Samaria, chap. xxxi., and Ezechiel xxxiii. (Worthington)

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).

The reason why God would have the prophecy written, was for a memorial of God’s truth in his promises. Israel never returned as to the body of the people, but those of the ten tribes which were God’s people did return; we read, Luk 2:36, of one Anna who was of the tribe of Asher, and many more doubtless did return according to the promises, Jer 3:12,14; 23:6; 31:1,6; Eze 37:21,22. It is uncertain whether this promise of returning to their own land was fulfilled in those few of the ten tribes who joined themselves with those of Judah after they were returned from Babylon, or remaineth yet in part to be fulfilled. The former is most probable, and that there shall be no such time when the Jews shall return again to Jerusalem, and possess their own land, for it is hard now to give an account where the posterity of the ten tribes be by whose return the promise should be justified. Besides that the phrase in the beginning of this verse, For, lo, the days come, seem to import a more speedy fulfilling of the promise than after some thousands of years, though it is certain the Jews feed themselves with some such expectations.

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

3. Israel and Judah — The prophet does not restrict himself to the kingdom of Judah, whose fate then hung in the balance, but includes Israel as being a component part of the theocracy. Though the kingdom of Israel had been extinct for generations, yet his faith staggers not at God’s covenant promise. From such allusions as that in Luk_2:36, we are led to infer that some of the tribal remnants of Israel returned with Judah to Palestine.

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

For, behold, days are coming And you shall not say, Why should I write it, since they all will perish, and no one will read it, neither will anyone remember it anymore, for, “behold, days are coming, etc.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.