Jeremiah 16:14-21·~1 min

God Will Restore Israel

The days are coming when Israel's defining confession will no longer center on the LORD who brought them out of Egypt, but on the LORD who brought them back from the north and every land of banishment. He will return them to the land given to their fathers.

Y¹⁴et behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt.’ ¹⁵Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ For I will return them to their land that I gave to their forefathers.

Before that restoration, the LORD will send many fishermen and hunters to track the people down from every hiding place, because their ways and guilt are fully visible to Him. He will repay them double for defiling His land with detestable idols and abominations.

¹⁶But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes. ¹⁸And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”

Jeremiah confesses the LORD as strength, fortress, and refuge and foresees the nations coming from the ends of the earth to admit that their fathers inherited lies and worthless gods. The LORD will therefore make His power and name known so that they truly recognize who He is.

¹⁹O LORD, my strength and my fortress, ²⁰Can man make gods for himself? ²¹“Therefore behold, I will inform them,

Section summaryThe second movement reaches beyond exile and declares that a coming act of restoration will become the defining memory of Israel, surpassing even the Exodus. Yet before that return, the LORD will thoroughly search out and repay the people's defiling idolatry, and the chapter ends with a confession that the nations themselves will come to renounce their inherited false gods and learn the power of the LORD's name.

Role in the chapterThis section keeps judgment from being the final word while refusing to bypass its thorough execution. It joins regathering, recompense, and international recognition of the LORD into one forward-looking vision.