Jeremiah chapter 16 relates a strange chronology that parallels a passage in Isaiah 11:10-12:
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, Which shall stand for an ensign of the people; To it shall the Gentiles seek: And his rest shall be glorious. 11 And it shall come to pass in that day, That the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Here, as in Jeremiah 16:14-18, God extends knowledge of his name and person first to the Gentiles, while this name and person is being hidden from Israel who are in exile from the land, and from knowledge of the name and presence of the Lord. In Isaiah 11:10-12, the exiles of Israel are being regathered prior to the messianic-age. The "root of Jesse" is the son of David, Messiah, spoken of in the earlier part of Isaiah chapter 11. The text is explicitly clear that after revealing himself to the nations, "
the Lord shall set his hand again, the second time, to recover the remnant of Israel . . . from the four corners of the earth." From "the four corners of the earth" is key since it relates this regathering to the final regathering prior to the start of the messianic age; it's not a return from the Babylonian captivity, or some other regathering of Israel. This is important, and extremely so, where Isaiah 11:10-12 is recognized as a direct parallel to Jeremiah 16:14-21:
14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
This is undeniably setting up the final regathering of Israel since, as in Isaiah chapter 11, they're being regathered not from Babylon, or some other exile, but from lands throughout the world. Secondarily, the narrative points out that after this particular return from exile, the salvation from Egypt won't be remembered anymore since it's a historical precursor of this greatest of all redemptions and returns of Israel to the land and the Lord. The statement below comes directly after establishing that this is the final regathering of Israel for the start of the Messianic age:
16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes. 18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things. 19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. 20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? 21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.
As with most of this examination, the statements in Jeremiah chapter 16 are spit out of the mouths of the Jewish sages as undigestable since they claims that at the final regathering prior to the messianic age, Israel is still an enemy of the Lord, while the Lord has revealed himself, lifted his hand in glorious power, not to Israel (yet), but to the nations (Isaiah 11:10; Jeremiah 16:21).
At the regathering, as narrated in Jeremiah chapter 16 (and Isaiah 11:10), Israel has to be "fished" out of the nations with a hook in their mouths, hunted and gathered from the nations, and brought, kicking and screaming to the holy land. They're not regathered willingly, lovingly, as they suppose in their xenophobic pride and religious legalism; they're regathered under duress, by the nations. Their own revelation of God's presence comes not prior to the regathering, or even prior to the exile (as they suppose) but at the appearance of Messiah in glory. They're in the holy land not because of their love of the Lord, but because of external factors.
Proof of Israel's xenophobic pride and religious legalism comes in the form of the sage's exegesis and commentary on the verses noted in Jeremiah 16:14-21. Although it's explicit that the passage is speaking of the final regathering at the end of the age (and the beginning of the messianic age) Israel's sages refuse to believe that the final regathering is a regathering of stiff-necked rebels, or that they're regathered against their own will. Despite the undeniable fact that Jeremiah is speaking of the final regathering, Israel sages claim its an earlier regathering since otherwise Israel's geographic exile parallels a spiritual exile that they, in their sagely greatness, can't conscience (and are themselves part of and contributing to):
Thus, Rashi, also Redak, explains that the fishers symbolize the killers and the hunters the captors of the survivors. Rabbi Joseph Kara explains that the fishers symbolize Nebuchadnezzar who would capture the Jews in their land and carry them off in captivity, just as the fisher takes the fish out of the water and deposits them on dry land. The hunters are the neighboring peoples who would pursue the Jews wherever they would flee and deliver them to the enemies.
Judaic Press, The Book of the Prophets, Jeremiah 16.
Whereas Jeremiah chapter 16, like Isaiah chapter 11, speaks of the regathering of Israel from exile that immediately precedes the messianic age, the sages attempt to imply that the fishers and hunters are removing Israel from the holy land. Everything the sages say in their exegesis of the actual passage inverts the explicit narrative both in Isaiah 11 and Jeremiah 16 since it's beyond the ken of the xenophobia and religious pride of these exiled Israelite sages to believe what they read in black and white: that they're "the bad guys" while the nations are, for a time ("
. . . behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD") the people of God.
John
It's the hearing, the ears, that must listen anew after they've been circumcised.
