Jeremiah 33:3

3 Call out to me. I will answer you. I will tell you great things you do not know. You will not be able to understand them."

Jeremiah 33:3 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 33:3

Call unto me, and I will answer thee
This is spoken not to Jerusalem, and the inhabitants of it; but to the prophet, encouraging him to seek the Lord by prayer, promising an answer to him. So the Targum,

``pray before me, and I will receive thy prayer:''

and show thee great and mighty things;
or, "fortified ones" ^F16; which are like fortified cities, that cannot easily be come at, unless the gates are opened to enter into; and designs such as are difficult of understanding, which exceed human belief, and which reason cannot comprehend and take in; and such are the great things of the Gospel. Some copies read it, "things reserved" ^F17; as the Targum; and so Jarchi, who interprets it of things future, of things reserved in the heart of God, and which he purposed to do; and very rightly: which thou knowest not;
until revealed; and from hence it appears, that by these great and hidden things are not meant the destruction of Jerusalem, and the seventy years' captivity, and return from that, things which Jeremiah had been made acquainted with time after time, and had prophesied of them; but spiritual blessings hereafter mentioned, some of which the deliverance from Babylon were typical of Ben Melech interprets these of comforts great and strong.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 (twrub) "munita", Vatablus, Paganinus, Montanus; "fortia", Tigurine version.
F17 (twrun) "abstrusa", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "recondita", so some in Vatablus.

Jeremiah 33:3 In-Context

1 I was still being held as a prisoner. I was kept in the courtyard of the guard. Then another message came to me from the Lord. He said,

2 "I made the earth. I formed it. And I set it in place. The LORD is my name.

3 Call out to me. I will answer you. I will tell you great things you do not know. You will not be able to understand them."

4 The LORD is the God of Israel. He speaks about the houses in Jerusalem. He talks about the royal palaces of Judah. The people had torn many of them down. They had used their stones to strengthen the city walls against attack.

5 That was during their fight with the armies of Babylonia. The LORD says, "The houses will be filled with dead bodies. They will be the bodies of the men I will kill when my anger burns against them. I will hide my face from this city. That is because its people have committed so many sins.