Jeremias 33:11

The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness... — The words gain greater emphasis as being those which the prophet had himself used (Jeremias 7:34; Jeremias 16:9; Jeremias 25:10) in foretelling the desolation of the city. He points, as it were, by implication to the fulfilment of the one prediction, as a guarantee that the other also will, in due season, have its fulfilment.

Praise the Lord of hosts... — The words were used as the ever-recurring doxology of the Temple-services (Esdras 3:11; 2 Crônicas 7:6; 2 Crônicas 20:21; Salmos 136:2; 1Ma. 4:24). The Courts of the Temple, now hushed in silence, should once again re-echo with the Hallelujahs of the Priests and Levites. The “sacrifice of praise” (the same phrase as in Jeremias 17:26; Salmos 56:12) may be either “the sacrifice which consists in praise,” or the “sacrifices of thanksgiving” of Levítico 7:12, which were offered in acknowledgment of special blessings. The ground of the thanksgiving in either case would be that the Lord had “turned again the captivity” of Jacob. The phrase was a familiar one, as in Salmos 14:7; Salmos 53:6; Deuteronômio 30:3. The words “as at the first” (literally, as at the beginning) do not refer to any previous restoration, like that of the Exodus from Egypt, but to the state before the exile.