Ver. 25. "Thus saith the Lord: If not my covenant daily and nightly, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;"--
Compare ver. 20. The covenant daily and nightly, i.e., the covenant which refers to the constant and regular alternation of day and night. The ordinances of heaven and earth denote the whole course of nature,--especially the relations of sun, moon, and stars, to the earth, comp. chap. xxxi. 35--in so far as it is regulated by God's ordinance, and is, therefore, a lasting one.
Ver. 26. "So will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David, my servant, that I do not take farther from his seed rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will turn to their captivity, and have mercy upon them."
The casting away of the seed of Jacob, and that of the seed of David, are inseparably connected. For since, by the promise to David, the kingdom had been for ever bound together with his race, Israel was no more the people of God, and no more a people at all, if David was no more the servant of God. The Plural משלים is easily accounted for, from the circumstance that it was not the number, but only the fact that was here concerned (comp. remarks on chap. xxiii. 4, and, at the same time, those on ver. 18); but it is beyond any doubt, that the Prophet has here in view the revival of the dominion of David in the Messiah,--has it, at least, chiefly in view. The enumeration of the three Patriarchs recalls to mind the whole series of the promises granted to them. The words: "I will turn to their captivity" (not: "I will turn their captivity," compare remarks on Ps. xiv. 7; captivity is an image of misery), rest on Deut. xxx. 3.
[ [1]] They have been joined by Movers (de utriusque recens. Jerem. indole), who declares ver. 18 and 21–24 to be a later interpolation (comp. against this view Küper, S. 173, and Wichelhaus, de Jerem. Vers. Alex., p. 170), and Hitzig, according to whom the whole portion, vers. 14–26, consists of "a series of single additions from a later period."
[ [2]] Compare the discussions on this passage in my Commentary on Rev. i. 6.