Write ... in a book - To be read and meditated upon by them in private. This makes it exceedingly probable that the date of these two chapters was also the 10th year of Zedekiah, immediately after the purchase of the field from Hanameel.

All the words - i. e., the scroll was to be a summary of whatever of hope and mercy had been contained in previous predictions.

Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book - The book here recommended I believe to be the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters; for among the Hebrews any portion of writing, in which the subject was finished, however small, was termed ספר sepher, a Book, a treatise or discourse.

Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel,.... Who is their covenant God; has not forgotten them; still has a regard for them; and speaks after the following comfortable manner concerning them:

saying, write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book; being things of consequence, that they might remain to after ages; and be read to the use, comfort, and edification of the Lord's people, in times to come; and be a support to their faith and hope, as well as be a testimony of the truth and faithfulness of God. Some think this charge refers to all the prophecies that go before, as well as follow after, to put them all together in a book or roll, that they might be preserved; though others think it refers only to the present prophecy; and so Kimchi interprets it, write all the words "that I am now speaking unto thee" (o) in a book; which should come to pass in the latter day. So John is bid to write in a book what he saw; the things that are, and shall be hereafter, Revelation 1:11.

(o) "quibus alloquor te", Junius & Tremellius; "quae locutus fuero ad te", Piscator.

Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write for thee all the words that I have spoken to thee in a {a} book.

(a) Because they would be assured and their posterity confirmed in the hope of this deliverance promised.

[2] Write

Three "writings" by Jeremiah are to be distinguished:

(1) This is impersonal--a general prophecy, and probably the earliest. Jer 30:1-31:40.

(2) The prophecy destroyed by Jehoiakim. Jer 1:1-36:23.

(3) The destroyed writing re-written doubtless the writing preserved to us. Jer 36:27.

2. Write . in a book-After the destruction of Jerusalem Jeremiah is not ordered as heretofore to speak, but to write the succeeding prophecy (Jer 30:4, &c.), so as thereby it might be read by his countrymen wheresoever they might be in their dispersion.

30:1-11 Jeremiah is to write what God had spoken to him. The very words are such as the Holy Ghost teaches. These are the words God ordered to be written; and promises written by his order, are truly his word. He must write a description of the trouble the people were now in, and were likely to be in. A happy end should be put to these calamities. Though the afflictions of the church may last long, they shall not last always. The Jews shall be restored again. They shall obey, or hearken to the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of David, their King. The deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, is pointed out in the prophecy, but the restoration and happy state of Israel and Judah, when converted to Christ their King, are foretold; also the miseries of the nations before the coming of Christ. All men must honour the Son as they honour the Father, and come into the service and worship of God by him. Our gracious Lord pardons the sins of the believer, and breaks off the yoke of sin and Satan, that he may serve God without fear, in righteousness and true holiness before him all the remainder of his days, as the redeemed subject of Christ our King.