Jeremiah 50:4

4 In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the sons of Israel shall come, they and the sons of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall haste, and seek their Lord God in Zion, (In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the Israelites shall come, they and the people of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall make haste, and shall seek the Lord their God,)

Jeremiah 50:4 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 50:4

In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord
When Babylon shall be taken and destroyed, then what follows shall be accomplished; which, as it respects the conversion of the Jews, shows that this prophecy is not to be restrained to literal Babylon: the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah
together:
upon the taking of Babylon, in a literal sense, by Cyrus, the children of Israel, or the ten tribes, carried away by the Assyrians, did not return; only the children of Judah, or the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites, and a few of the other tribes, that might be mixed among them: but when mystical Babylon is fallen, then the whole body of the Jews will be converted, and return to their own land, Israel and Judah; which is foretold in other prophecies, as here, which speak of their general conversion; see ( Jeremiah 30:3 Jeremiah 30:9 ) ( Ezekiel 37:16-25 ) ( Hosea 1:11 ) ; going and weeping;
which is another circumstance, which shows that this does not respect the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity; for that was attended with joy, and not with tears; see ( Psalms 126:1 Psalms 126:2 ) ; unless it is to be understood of weeping for joy, and of tears of joy, as Kimchi interprets it; but it is better to understand it of that godly sorrow and mourning for sin, which will appear in the Jews at the time of their conversion; particularly for their fathers' ill treatment of the Messiah, their unbelief and rejection of him, and their continued obstinacy and perverseness, and other sins; see ( Jeremiah 31:9 ) ( Zechariah 12:10 ) ; they shall go and seem the Lord their God;
even David their King, the true Messiah, who is Lord and God; to him they shall seek for peace, pardon, righteousness, and eternal life; and acknowledge him to be the Messiah, their Lord, and their God; embrace his Gospel, and submit to his ordinances; see ( Jeremiah 30:9 ) ( Hosea 3:5 ) . The Targum is,

``when they were carried captive, they went weeping; but when they return from the land of their captivity, they shall seek the worship of the Lord their God.''

Jeremiah 50:4 In-Context

2 Tell ye among heathen men, and make ye heard; raise ye [up] a sign; preach ye, and do not ye hold still; say ye, Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed, Merodach is overcome; the graven images thereof be shamed, the idols of them be overcome. (Tell ye out among the heathen, and make ye it heard; raise ye up a sign; preach ye, and do not ye hold back; say ye, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is overcome with despair; its carved idols be put to shame, yea, its idols be broken in pieces.)

3 For a folk shall ascend from the north against it, which folk shall set the land thereof into wilderness; and none shall be that shall dwell therein, from man unto beast; and they be moved, and went away. (For a nation shall come from the north against it, which nation shall make its land into a wilderness; and there shall be no one who shall live there, from man unto beast; yea, they shall remove themselves, and shall go far away.)

4 In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the sons of Israel shall come, they and the sons of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall haste, and seek their Lord God in Zion, (In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the Israelites shall come, they and the people of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall make haste, and shall seek the Lord their God,)

5 and they shall ask the way. Hither the faces of them shall come, and they shall be set to the Lord with bond of peace everlasting, which shall not be done away by any forgetting. (and they shall ask the way to Zion. They shall come here, and they shall be joined to the Lord with an everlasting covenant, which shall not be done away with by any forgetting.)

6 My people is made a lost flock, the shepherds of them deceived them, and made them to go unstably in (the) hills; they passed from (a) mountain into a little hill (they passed from mountain to little hill), they forgot their bed.