Jeremiah 30:5

5 "This is what the LORD says: "We hear cries of fear, cries of panic, not cries of peace.

Jeremiah 30:5 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 30:5

For thus saith the Lord
Yet what follows are the words of others; wherefore some supply it, "for thus saith the Lord, the nations shall say" ^F16; so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it as what the Gentiles will say in the times of the Messiah; but it might be better supplied, "ye shall say"; that is, Israel and Judah; to whom the words of the Lord are spoken in ( Jeremiah 30:3 ) ; or else the Lord here represents his people, saying: we have heard a voice of trembling, ear, and not of peace;
which is to be understood, of the fear and dread injected into them by the Babylonians when they besieged their city, and burned that, and their temple; nor of the fear and dread which came upon the Babylonians at the taking of their city by Cyrus, upon which followed the deliverance of the Jews. Kimchi interprets this of something yet future, the war of Gog and Magog, which he supposes wilt be when their Messiah comes; and Jarchi sans it is so understood in their Midrash Agadah. This distress, I think, refers to the slaying of the witnesses, and to that hour of temptation which shall come upon all the earth to try the inhabitants of it; and which will be followed with the destruction of antichrist; and that will make way for the call and conversion of the Jews.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F16 "Gentes dicturae sunt", Vatablus.

Jeremiah 30:5 In-Context

3 The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity. I will bring them back to the land that I gave their ancestors, and they will take possession of it."

4 This is the message that the LORD spoke about Israel and Judah:

5 "This is what the LORD says: "We hear cries of fear, cries of panic, not cries of peace.

6 Ask now, and see: Can a man give birth to a child? Why, then, do I see every strong man holding his stomach in pain like a woman giving birth to a child? Why has every face turned pale?

7 How terrible that day will be! There will be no other day like it. It will be a time of calamity for the descendants of Jacob, but they will be rescued from it.