NEW TO THIS STUDY? START HERE.

Welcome back! This week I started looking into how Jeremiah and his audience understood the statement “The LORD is our righteousness (v16).” Here’s what I discovered:

Last Week’s Work

LITERAL CONTEXT

From the text immediately before our study passage, I found an indication that this prediction might have come while Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the guard. Interestingly, I also discovered a very similar forecast much earlier in the book. 

WRITING TYPES

Because Jeremiah used phrases like the days are coming, and in those days, along with future tense verbs, I believe the overall writing type for this study text is prophecy: information about events that would happen after the author received the information.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The ESV Global Study Bible Introduction dates the book of Jeremiah at about 597 BC, during the time the Babylonians were invading and conquering the region. According to historical resources, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, installed a puppet king, Zedekiah, over Judah and deported the previous ruler. This might provide background to Jeremiah’s statements about [King] David not lacking a son on the throne of Israel. I also noted Zedekiah was the last king of Judah before Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC. How in the world would these prophecies come true, then?! But I believe they did in the person of Jesus Christ. Here’s one reason why…

INTERLINEAR RESEARCH

I examined the phrase LORD is our righteousness, YHWH (H3068) Tsidqenu (H6664). From the Brown-Driver-Riggs analysis I discovered tsidqenu refers to righteousness as vindicated, justification in controversy with enemies and troubles, deliverance, victory, prosperity specifically in the context of the Messianic king (vindicating people’s cause and giving victory). That sounds like Jesus Christ to me!

Jeremiah is the only biblical author to use this phrase, and he only uses it here and in the previously mentioned text. What a message of hope for people who were enduring some awful circumstances as their city was being attacked and would eventually fall to the Babylonians.

Dig-In Challenges

Here’s my study plan for the coming week if you want to work along with me:

1. PRAY, of course.
2. REFINE: Consult a concordance or online cross-reference study tool [I’ll be going here] to find and read through the available cross-references for your focus verse(s) and log what the Spirit shows you.
   NOTE: for your study, follow the above link, then use the Prev or Next buttons below the verse text to go to your focus verse(s).
3. REFINE: Next, compare at least a few other translations of your focus verse(s) and write about what you find in your study journal. I’m planning to compare the ESV, AMP, NIV, NLT, and GNT versions starting with this biblehub.com page. After following this link, you can navigate to your verse(s) by entering the reference in the Enter Reference or Keyword box at the top of the page and clicking the spyglass icon there.
4. REFINE: Last, I plan to check a few commentaries on my focus verses, Genesis 22:8 and 14. If you already have a favorite study Bible or commentary, feel free to review it, too. If you don’t, try checking the commentary section of StudyLight.org. There, you can access multiple verse-by-verse commentaries on Jeremiah 33:14-26 by clicking the box for your focus verse, then clicking the name of the commentary listed immediately under the text of the verse you chose. I recommend you review more than one commentary and listen to the Spirit’s guidance on them.

I encourage you to do what you can this week to dig deeper into God’s Word. I know you’ll find immense treasure there. And I hope you’ll check in with me again next week!