The close relationship between the restoration of Israel and the judgment of Babylon is once again explained in the next section of Jeremiah’s oracle (Jeremiah 50:17–20) as the history of Israel and her neighbours is reviewed.
Israel is a hunted sheep, driven away by lions.
This is a succinct and poetic description of how the Lord’s people had a long history of aggression from their neighbours. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.
Assyria had invaded and destroyed the northern tribes in 722 BC and Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed what was left of Israel by invading Judah and Jerusalem in 587 BC. The Lord will not sit idly by and watch the destruction of his people. He sent judgment against Assyria when the Babylonians and Medes invaded Nineveh in 612-609 BC (see the book of Nahum). Now he is bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land.
This judgment of Israel’s enemies will lead to the restoration of the Lord’s people. The language of restoration, that used to describe the new covenant in Jeremiah 30:1–24 and Jeremiah 31:1–40, echoes. The Lord will restore Israel to the land. In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found, for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.
The heart of Israel’s restoration is spiritual. The Lord will restore his relationship with his people by pardoning their sin and giving them new hearts to obey him. The restored people are described as those whom I leave as a remnant.
The word remnant
here is from the permissive form of the Hebrew verb saar,
which means that it is the Lord who caused the remnant to be formed. They exist not just because they survived, but because the Lord graciously and actively rescued them and forgave them.1 This gracious rescue and forgiveness of his people is closely intertwined with the judgment of his people’s enemies.
17 “Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.