The section of the oracle that runs from Jeremiah 50:4–20 describes the connection between the judgment of Babylon and the restoration of the Lord’s people. This is done through a series of contrasts regarding their present and future states.1
In those days and in that time,
in other words, at the time of Babylon’s judgment, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come weeping as they come, and they shall seek the Lord their God.
Weeping here is a sign of repentance. The same language is used by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:9 to describe the role that repentance plays in the restoration of the relationship between the exiled Israelites and the Lord. The people will ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it,
says the Lord. The name Zion focuses on Jerusalem as the place where the Lord’s people worship him. The returning people will come willingly, with a restored desire to worship the Lord and to commit themselves to an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
This is the same language used to describe the new covenant the Lord is making with his people in Jeremiah 31:31–34. The restoration of Israel as his covenant people involves both the judgment of Babylon and the repentance of his people.
4 En ces jours, en ce temps-là, dit l'Eternel, Les enfants d'Israël et les enfants de Juda reviendront ensemble; Ils marcheront en pleurant, Et ils chercheront l'Eternel, leur Dieu.