Bonds - See Jeremiah 27:2 note.

Shall no more serve themselves - i. e., shall no more exact forced labor of him Jeremiah 22:13.

I will break his yoke - That is, the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar.

Of him - Of Jacob, (Jeremiah 30:7), viz., the then captive Jews.

For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts,.... When the time is come for Jacob to be saved out of his trouble:

that I will break his yoke from off thy neck; not the yoke of the king of Babylon, but of antichrist, and of all the antichristian states, by whom the people of God have been oppressed; so the Targum,

"I will break the yoke of the peoples (the antichristian nations) from off your necks.''

Jarchi interprets it of the yoke of the nations of the world from off Israel; and Kimchi of the yoke of Gog and Magog, or of every nation:

and will burst thy bonds; by which they were kept in bondage, both with respect to civil and religious things; but now he that led into captivity shall go into captivity himself, Revelation 13:10;

and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him; this shows that this prophecy cannot be understood of deliverance from the Babylonish captivity; because, after this, strangers did serve themselves of the Jews, and they were servants unto them; as to the Persians, and Grecians, and especially the Romans, by whom they were entirely subdued and ruined; and to this day all nations almost serve themselves of them; but when they shall be called and converted, as they shall be free from the yoke of sin and Satan, and from the yoke of the ceremonial law, and the traditions of their elders, in a religious sense; so from the yoke of the nations of the world, in a civil sense.

{d} For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break {e} his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more {f} bring him into subjection:

(d) When I will visit Babylon.

(e) Of the king of Babylon.

(f) That is, of Jacob.

30:8 In that day - In the day when God should deliver the seed of Jacob out of trouble. His yoke - The yoke of the king of Babylon, that power of his, which for seventy years he exercised over the Jews. Of him - Of the Jews.

8. his yoke . thy neck-his, that is, Jacob's (Jer 30:7), the yoke imposed on him. The transition to the second person is frequent, God speaking of Jacob or Israel, at the same time addressing him directly. So "him" rightly follows; "foreigners shall no more make him their servant" (Jer 25:14). After the deliverance by Cyrus, Persia, Alexander, Antiochus, and Rome made Judah their servant. The full of deliverance meant must, therefore, be still future.

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.