Alas, for that day is great, neither is there the like to it; and it Is the time of tribulation to Jacob, but he shall be saved out of it.

Woe! for great is that day, without any like it, Yea, a time of adversity it is to Jacob, Yet out of it he is saved.

Ha! for that day is so great that there is no day like it: it is the time of Jacob's trouble: but he will get salvation from it.

Alas! for that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is a time of trouble unto Jacob, But out of it shall he be saved.

Woe! For that day is great, and there is nothing like it. For it is the time of tribulation for Jacob, but he will be saved from it.

Heus, quia magnus hic dies a non esse sicut ipsum (hoc est, ut non sit similis, ut nunquam fuerit similis) et tempus afflictionis (vel, augustiae), hoc ipsi Jacob. (hoc est, populo Israelitico) et ab ea servabitur.

The Prophet goes on in this verse to describe the grievousness of that punishment for which the people felt no concern, for they disregarded all threatenings, as I have already said, and had now for many years hardened themselves so as to deem as nothing so many dreadful things. This, then, was the reason why he dwelt so much on this denunciation, and exclaimed, Alas! great is that day: "great" is to be taken for dreadful; and he adds, so that there is none like it It was a dreadful spectacle to see the city destroyed, and the Temple partly pulled down and partly consumed by fire: the king, with all the nobility, was driven into exile, his eyes were put out, and his children were slain; and he was afterwards led away in a manner so degraded, that to die a hundred times would have been more desirable than to endure such indignity. Hence the Prophet does not say without reason, that that day would be great, so that none would be like it: and he said this, to shake away the torpidity of the people, for they thought that the holy city, which God had chosen for his habitation, could not fall, nor the Temple perish, he further says, that it would be a time of distress to the people. But at the end of the verse he gives them a hope of God's mercy, even deliverance from this distress. We now, then, see the design of the Prophet in these verses. [1] -- There will be no Lecture tomorrow on account of the Consistory.

Footnotes

1 - "That day" in this verse, and "that day" in the following verse, seem to be the same. Then hvy must not be rendered "Alas," but "Ho!" or "Hark!" according to its most common meaning. The passage from verse the 4th (Jeremiah 30:4,) to the end of this, including the beginning of the 8th (Jeremiah 30:8), may be thus rendered, -- 4. Even these are the words which Jehovah hath said respecting Israel and respecting Judah: 5. Verily thus hath Jehovah said -- (The voice of trembling have we heard, Of fear and not of peace: 6. Ask ye now and see, Does a man travail with child? How is it? I see every man With his hands on his loins like a woman in travail, And turned are all faces to paleness:) 7. Hark! for great shall be that day, none like it; Though a time of distress shall be to Jacob, Yet from it shall he be saved: 8. And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, That I shall break, etc.. etc.. The parenthesis accounts for what is said at the end of the 7th verse (Jeremiah 30:7) and is intended as a contrast with the great day of deliverance that is promised. -- Ed.

That day - i. e., the day of the capture of Babylon.
It is even the time of Jacob's trouble - Rather, and it is a time of trouble to Jacob, i. e., of anxiety to the Jews, for the usages of war were so brutal that they would be in danger when the enemy made their assault.

Alas! for that day is great - When the Medes and Persians with all their forces shall come on the Chaldeans, it will be the day of Jacob's trouble - trial, dismay, and uncertainty; but he shall be delivered out of it - the Chaldean empire shall fall, but the Jews shall be delivered by Cyrus. Jerusalem shall be destroyed by the Romans, but the Israel of God shall be delivered from its ruin. Not one that had embraced Christianity perished in the sackage of that city.

Alas! for that (c) day [is] great, so that none [is] like it: it [is] even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
(c) Meaning that the time of their captivity would be grievous.

Alas! for that day is great,.... For sorrow and distress:
so that none is like it; such were the times of Jerusalem's siege and destruction by the Romans; and which was an emblem of those times of trouble from antichrist in the latter day; see Matthew 24:21;
it is even the time of Jacob's trouble: of the church and people of God, the true Israel of God; when Popery will be the prevailing religion in Christendom; when the outward court shall be given to the Gentiles; the witnesses shall be slain; antichrist will be "in statu quo"; and the whore of Rome in all her glory; though it shall not last long:
but he shall be saved out of it; shall come out of those great tribulations into a very happy and comfortable estate; the spirit of life shall enter into the witnesses, and they shall live and ascend to heaven; the vials of God's wrath will be poured upon the antichristian states; the kings of the earth will hate the whore, and burn her with fire; the Gospel will be preached everywhere; the Jews will be converted, and the fulness of the Gentiles be brought in; and an end be put to all trouble; of which there will be no more, nor any occasion of it: or, "therefore he shall be saved out of it" (r); as the effect of the divine compassion to him in such great trouble.
(r) "ideo ex eo servabitur", Schmidt.

great--marked by great calamities (Joel 2:11, Joel 2:31; Amos 5:18; Zephaniah 1:14).
none like it . . . but he shall be saved-- (Daniel 12:1). The partial deliverance at Babylon's downfall prefigures the final, complete deliverance of Israel, literal and spiritual, at the downfall of the mystical Babylon (Revelation. 18:1-19:21).