Jeremiah 33:14-16

Jeremiah 33:14-16 (NRSV)
¹⁴ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ¹⁵ In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

The theme of Jeremiah 33:14-16, part of a larger section of Jeremiah 33:14-26, is the sure promises of God. The entire section is an addition to the Book of Consolation as a promise for the institutions of the future.[1] It concerns the sure promises of the Lord. The passage stresses the promises to the Davidic line. Several people, led by Ishmael, of the Davidic line, went to Egypt because of their fear of the Chaldeans. When Evil-Merodach became king, he pardoned Jehoiachin, allowing Jehoiachin to eat at the table of the king. We also discover what happened to Jeremiah. The prophecy is part of a larger message of the Lord’s healing of Judah and Israel, following his punishment of them for their wickedness (32:6–33:18).

Jeremiah 33: 14-18 seem to build upon 23:5-6, delivered in late 589 or early 588, in which the Lord will raise up for David a righteous Branch, which shall reign as king wisely and execute justice and righteousness. The Lord will save Judah and Israel will live in safety. The Branch will have a name, “The Lord is our righteousness.” That prophecy deals with the ideal king or Messiah of the David line under whose just and victorious rule the Lord will actualize all dynastic hopes. ¹⁴ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill (qum)[2] the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ¹⁵ In those days, after the present distress, and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch,[3] “shoot” becoming a technical term for a promising shoot or fresh growth from the stump of a seemingly dead tree, and thus, the expected king as in Zechariah 3:8, 6:12, as well as Jeremiah 11:1. The Lord will cause this righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. See 23:5, but here the promise broadens to include not a single king but a dynasty. Jeremiah affirms the Davidic hope. The promise referred to here is similar to that of Deuteronomy 18:1-8, where the Lord is the inheritance of Levi, and II Samuel 7, where the Lord establishes a covenant with David. To the ordinary Israelite, that promise appeared broken by the exile; Jeremiah prophesied that the promise, in abeyance, remained in force. It plays little role in the rest of Jeremiah's thinking. The name now applies to Judah and Jerusalem. The promise broadens to include a never-ending line of priests who serve the king. ¹⁶ In those days, after the present distress of Israel, the Lord will save Judah and Jerusalem will live in safety. Moreover, this is the name by which people will call it: “The Lord is our righteousness, close to the name of Zedekiah.” Jeremiah applies the name to Judah and Jerusalem rather than the Davidic king. Consistent with virtually the entire corpus of prophetic thought, Jeremiah predicts security and safety when the future king executes justice and righteousness in the land. Because the king was the Lord’s anointed representative on earth, social justice and personal righteousness were the indispensable twins of all legitimate rule in ancient Israel.

In exile, Israel would learn to express profound sadness, rage, and loss. If nihilism is a primary mark of our age, then homelessness may well be the basic condition of a mobile and technological culture.[4] The exile speaks to any society or group of people within society who experience a profound sense of dislocation that touches every aspect of their lives. Old certitudes seem less certain. Old privileges are under challenge. Institutions seem unable to deliver what the challenges of the time seem to demand. Further, the option of going back to the way it was does not seem possible or desirable. The culture does not even seem to have something as basic as language and norms that might help us find remedies for that which ails us.[5] We need to go deeper in order to avoid denial and higher in order to imagine a hope filled future. The people of the Lord will need to recover the promises to Israel and the church in order to offer a future with hope. Whether the culture will listen to the witness they offer in word and deed is another matter. In exile, the people of the Lord need to embrace their true home. 

Regardless of how we analyze our present condition in the culture or among the people of the Lord, we may well carry within us a vision of wholeness that we sense our true hope. It beckons us to a new future. If we find home, we find peace. Finding such a home heightens our care and concern that so many have not found such a home. We then have the responsibility and privilege to share in word and deed with others.[6]

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[1] Such promises could come from another hand than that of Jeremiah. As we shall see, however, if other judgments are correct, I find no reason not to consider the passage in this context.

[2] which in the hiphil stem means here “[to] cause to happen what has been promised, or threatened” (Koehler-Baumgartner Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the OT). The NRSV translates the Lord’s words as “the promise I made.” It is more richly and fully understood in the Hebrew behind the translation: It is “the good word (or thing) [a noun from the root dabar — pronounced dahVAHR] which I spoke [a verb from the same root dabar].” The Hebrew word for good is tob [pronounced tove], which here means just right or fitting, pleasant, beautiful or of excellent practical value. God “dabar-ed” a just right dabar to his people about what he would do for them.

[3] May have referred in its original context to Zerubbabel, whose name means “Branch/shoot of Babylon.” He was one of the leaders of post-exilic Judah and a descendant of David. The similarity of this king's name with Zedekiah's suggest a prophecy early in that reign.

[4] Nietzsche suggested this. - George Grant, Technology and Empire, Toronto: House of Anansi, 1969, p. 17

[5] Inspired by - Walter Brueggemann, "Conversations Among Exiles," The Christian Century, July 2-9, 1997, although I take it a different a direction.

[6] (Frederick Buechner, The Longing for Home: Recollections and Reflections [San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1996].)