The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written: ‘After this I will return and rebuild the fallen tent of David. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does these things that have been known for ages.’
But after I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.
Significance
The composite quotation James cites in Acts 15:16-18 — primarily from Amos 9:11-12 — appears in a form that incorporates additional OT echoes, one of which is Jer 12:15's "I will return and have compassion on them" (shub we-rihamtim). The LXX of Jer 12:15 reads epistrepsō kai eleēsō autous, and the Acts 15:16 phrase meta tauta anastrepsō ("After this I will return") reflects this verbal pattern. Jeremiah 12:14-17 is a prophecy of judgment on Israel's neighbors followed by restoration — "I will again have compassion on them and bring each one back to his inheritance and each to his land," including foreigners who learn the ways of Israel. The Jeremiah passage thus contributes to the theological argument of Acts 15: the Gentile inclusion at the Jerusalem council is not an innovation but the fulfillment of multiple OT restoration promises, of which Jer 12:15 is one strand.
Found via
G.K. Beale & D.A. Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007)