The whole of Jeremiah 30:12–17 is a mixture of judgment and lament and the change from distress to deliverance is typical of the lament psalms1. With the Lord the incurable wound of his people (Jeremiah 30:12) now becomes curable.
The disaster that has befallen Judah means that the nations see the Lord’s people as an outcast.
Outcast
refers here to someone who has been rejected and sent away by her husband. Zion is seen as someone for whom no one cares.
The implication here is that the Lord is unable to care for his people and keep them safe from their enemies2. But now the Lord says, For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal.
This promise begins with the word for.
He is at this time going to restore his people by destroying their enemies because he has never really abandoned his people or stopped caring for them. He was in fact working out his covenant plans and purposes for them, which included his disciplining them. The healing he is bringing goes beyond returning them to the land, and is ultimately about their spiritual relationship with him.
17 For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal,declares the LORD, because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’