Jeremiahchapter 31
40 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
This chapter continues the Book of Consolation that Jeremiah wrote down in the last years before Jerusalem fell. It speaks to the northern tribes, gone for more than a century, as well as to Judah. Its first hearers had seen every reform in their lifetime fade within a few years. The chapter is poetry for most of its length, and it closes with a promise about the city's own streets. Listen for the voices of mothers and children, and for the covenant it calls new. The New Testament quotes that promise at length, so read it as a turning point for the whole Bible.
Context
- Who
- Exiles from both the northern tribes and Judah, told they were going home
- What
- Promises of return for all Israel, with Rachel's weeping answered and a new covenant written on the heart.
- Where
- The hills of Ephraim and Samaria, the camp at Ramah north of Jerusalem, and a rebuilt Jerusalem.
- When
- The last years of the kingdom, about 588 to 586 BC.
- Why
- To assure both the northern tribes and Judah that God's love for them was everlasting and that He would make them His people from within.
Historical context
Ramah, where Rachel is heard weeping, was a real assembly point. Chapter 40 records that prisoners bound for Babylon were collected and chained at Ramah, a few miles north of Jerusalem, before the column moved out. Rachel was buried in that area and was the mother of Benjamin, whose territory this was. The picture is of a mother at the roadside watching the transports leave.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The restoration is described in farm terms. Vineyards will be planted again on the hills of Samaria, and the planters will enjoy the fruit, a reference to the law that new vines were not harvested for several years, so planting a vineyard is what people do when they expect to stay. Watchmen on the hills of Ephraim will call people up to Zion, meaning the northern tribes rejoining the pilgrim festivals after centuries away.
The proverb about the fathers eating sour grapes and the children's teeth being set on edge was current in that generation, it is quoted in Ezekiel too. People were saying they were being punished for Manasseh's sins. The answer is that each will die for his own sin.
At the centre is the new covenant: the law written on hearts instead of tablets, God's people knowing him from the least to the greatest, and sins remembered no more. The chapter closes with a surveyor's walk around a rebuilt city, naming the corner tower, the hill of Gareb, Goah, the valley of the dead bodies and the Horse Gate, the sacred boundary drawn around ground that was still smoking.
Significance
For the first hearers the astonishing part is who is included. The northern tribes had been gone for over a century and were widely written off. This chapter has them singing on the height of Zion.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The new covenant answered the failure the whole book had been documenting. Every reform had been external, a scroll read, altars torn down, a fast proclaimed, and every one had worn off. The promise is a covenant written where habits actually live.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the seventeenth verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 29. Under the twentieth verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 57.
How it is read
Rashi and Metzudat David carry English on this chapter in the corpus. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY, and the version of each other commentator is named where he is first quoted. Every quotation on this card is held to fifty words or fewer because each translation is modern, and no headword carrying the verse in a translation's wording is quoted.
Rashi reads the opening of this chapter as a memory of the wilderness. "The generation of the wilderness found favor in My eyes", and the love from long ago is love "In the merit of the Patriarchs" (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:2:1 and 31:3:1). At the rebuilding of the fourth verse he counts the Temples. "You had two buildings made by men. Therefore, they were destroyed." The third God builds Himself, "and you shall be built forever" (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:4:1). The vineyards of the fifth verse he reads by the law of the fourth year, when the fruit is redeemed with money (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:5:1).
The watchmen of the sixth verse get two readings. They are lookouts on the towers, or they are those "who kept the Torah", which is how Targum Jonathan renders the line (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:6:1). The blind and the lame of the eighth verse show that "Even the staggering ones among them I will not reject" (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:8:1). The weeping of the ninth verse is weeping "Through prayer and repentance" (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:9:1).
The voice in Ramah in the fifteenth verse Rashi reads within the book itself. It is "the voice of the house of Israel weeping over Jeremiah the prophet when Nebuzaradan sent him from Ramah", the event the fortieth chapter tells (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:15:1). A Christian reader knows the verse from Matthew 2:18, which sets it at Bethlehem. Rashi's reading sets it at Ramah with Jeremiah, and the card records his reading as his.
At Ephraim's lament Rashi says "I regret my abominations" is the meaning of the turning (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:19:1). The question of the twentieth verse he gives to God: "These are the words of the Shechinah" (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:20:1). The new thing of the twenty-second verse he reads two ways. By the first, a woman will seek a man to marry her. By the second, heard in the name of Rabbi Judah the Preacher, "A woman shall turn around to become a man". Israel, given like a daughter "seven nations out of seventy", will at last inherit everything as a son does (Rashi on Jeremiah 31:22:1).
Metzudat David is quoted from the translation Sefaria titles Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology, which it reports as CC-BY. At the twenty-third verse he names the dwelling of righteousness as the city, the blessing spoken "which refers to Jerusalem" (Metzudat David on Jeremiah 31:23:2). The corpus's notes on this chapter run to the twenty-fourth verse, so the card carries no classical note on the new covenant of the thirty-first verse.
The corpus carries six further notes on this chapter without an English text. Each is marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, so each is cited here and none is quoted. The notes of Metzudat David are cited at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 31:1:1 and 31:11:1. The notes of Radak are cited at Radak on Jeremiah 31:13:1, 31:16:1, 31:17:1 and 31:24:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 29:3 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Kiddushin 4:6. On the second verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 31:3 and Aggadat Bereshit 68:2. On the third verse it holds Berakhot 11b:9 and Ein Yaakov, Sotah 1:39. On the fifth verse it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:52 and Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 3:2:1. On the sixth verse it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 33:12:1 and Midrash Tehillim 33:1.
On the seventh verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:12 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 2:12. On the eighth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 93:12. On the ninth verse it holds Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 16:30:12. On the tenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 44:22. On the eleventh verse it holds Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 25:47:1.
On the twelfth verse it holds Berakhot 55b:8. On the thirteenth verse it holds Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 30:15:12. On the fourteenth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 52:3. On the fifteenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 70:10. On the sixteenth verse it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 34.
On the seventeenth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 29. On the eighteenth verse it holds Vayikra Rabbah 3:7. On the nineteenth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 5:1. On the twentieth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 57. On the twenty-first verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yevamot 6:6.
On the twenty-second verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 82:2. On the twenty-third verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Appendix to Re'eh 1:1. On the twenty-sixth verse it holds Chullin 5b:6. On the twenty-seventh verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Chullin 1:2. On the twenty-eighth verse it holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:29.
On the twenty-ninth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 35:1. On the thirtieth verse it holds Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 26:9:1. On the thirty-second verse it holds Kohelet Rabbah 2:1:1. On the thirty-third verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Re'eh 12:2. On the thirty-fourth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 8.
On the thirty-fifth verse it holds Esther Rabbah 7:11. On the thirty-sixth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 76:1. On the thirty-seventh verse it holds Nedarim 37b:9. On the thirty-eighth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Nedarim 4:4. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 31:2:1 to 31:22:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 31:23:2, Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 31:1:1 and 31:11:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 31:13:1, 31:16:1, 31:17:1 and 31:24:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/31.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Loved with an Everlasting Love: Dancing, and Watchmen on Ephraim
Jeremiah 31:1-6
the God of all the families of Israel: The promise widens to “all the families of Israel,” and rests on an old fact: “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Favor “in the wilderness” reaches back to the exodus, love given before performance. Watchmen on the hills of Ephraim call, “Arise, let us go up to Zion.”
Jeremiah 31:1
“At the same time - This discourse was delivered at the same time with the former; and, with that, constitutes the Book which God ordered the prophet to write. Will I be the God of all the families of Israel - I shall bring back the ten tribes, as well as their brethren the Jews. The restoration of the Israelites is the principal subject of this chapter.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
found favor in the wilderness: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hear the exodus here: the grace shown in the wilderness then is the ground for grace in exile now. Adam Clarke reads the wilderness as the place of exile itself, where those who survived the sword of Assyria found favor. Either way, past grace promises more.
Jeremiah 31:2
“Upon the grace manifested to Israel "in the wilderness" God grounds His argument for renewing His favors to them now in their exile; because His covenant is "everlasting" (Jer 31:3), and changes not.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Barnes renders the opening as from afar, the Lord's love reaching the exiles from His throne in distant Zion. Everlasting love explains the drawing. John Bunyan tells how this verse came back to him in his distress, and he went to bed in quiet.
Jeremiah 31:3
“I had no sooner said it, but with sweetness this returned upon me, as an echo, or sounding again, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Now I went to bed in quiet.”
John Bunyan · Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666)English Puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 31:3
“Of old - From afar (margin). See Jer 30:10. To the Jew God was enthroned in Zion, and thus when His mercy was shown unto the exiles in Assyria it came from a distant region 2Ch 6:20, 2Ch 6:38. With lovingkindness ... - Rather, I have continued lovingkindness unto thee.”
Jeremiah 31:3
“From the context it is clear that this passage primarily refers to God's ancient people, the natural descendants of Abraham. He chose them from of old and separated them from the nations of the world. Their election fills a large chapter in history and it shines with resplendent luster in prophecy. There is an interval during which they have experienced strange vicissitudes, been visited with heavy chastisements and acquired an evil reputation for the perverseness of their mind and the obstinacy of their heart.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3561: “The Drawings of Love” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Again I will build you: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note the pairing of build and be rebuilt, which marks the outcome as certain. Tambourines and joyful dancing belong to victory, as in 1 Samuel 18:6. Virgin Israel is restored to her first purity, as Adam Clarke reads the name.
Jeremiah 31:4
“O virgin of Israel - Israelites in general; now called virgin, because restored to their ancient purity. With thy tabrets - Women in general played on these; they were used in times of rejoicing, and accompanied with dancing. To these customs, still preserved, the prophet alludes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:4
“I will build . . . thou shalt be built--The combination of the active and passive to express the same fact implies the infallible certainty of its accomplishment. "Build," that is, establish in prosperity (Jer 33:7). adorned with . . . tabrets-- (1Sa 18:6).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria: Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom, so this promise to plant vineyards is for the ten tribes. Barnes explains the enjoying of the fruit by Leviticus 19:23 to 25, where a new tree's fruit was held back four years. The farmers will live to eat.
Jeremiah 31:5
“Shall eat them as common things - Rather, shall eat the fruit. Literally, as in the margin. For three years the fruit of a newly-planted tree was not to be touched, that of the fourth year was consecrated to God, but on the fifth year it was profane, i. e., unconsecrated, and so might be applied to the owner’s use Lev 19:23-25.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:5
“Note, God can make those who have been enemies to religion and the true worship of God to become encouragers of them and leaders in them. This promise was to have its full accomplishment in the days of the Messiah, when the gospel should be preached to all these countries, and a general invitation thereby given into the church of Christ, of which Zion was a type.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
on the hills of Ephraim: Ephraim's hills had held the rival shrines Jeroboam set up to keep the north away from Jerusalem. Now its watchmen call the people up to Zion. Adam Clarke reads this as Israel and Judah joining in one worship of the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:6
“For there shall be a day - Literally, for this is the day, or the day is come. The watchmen - the prophets. Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion - Let both Israelites and Jews join together in the worship of the Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 31:7-14
For this is what the LORD: The company is named by its weakest members, “the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor.” “For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn” restores the north to the firstborn's place. Life becomes “like a well-watered garden.”
Jeremiah 31:7
“Among - Or, because of. Israel is the chief or, first of the nations Deu 26:19, and Yahweh summons mankind to rejoice, because the remnant of Israel is about to be restored to its old position.”
the blind and the lame: The company is made up of those least able to walk. Adam Clarke takes the north as Babylon, and the farthest parts of the earth as Assyria and Media, where the ten tribes were taken. None is left behind for weakness.
Jeremiah 31:8
“I will bring them from the north country - From Babylon. From the coasts of the earth - The ten tribes were carried away partly into Assyria by Tiglath-pileser, and partly into Mesopotamia and Media by Shalmaneser, 2Ki 15:29; 2Ki 17:6. Assyria and Media, being very distant from Palestine, might have been called, in prophetic language, the coasts of the earth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Barnes reads the weeping as tears of joy, and the prayers as the fruit of knowing that God guides them. Jacob himself once set Ephraim first, in Genesis 48. Barnes sees the house of Joseph restored here to its old first place.
Jeremiah 31:9
“Weeping - For joy, not for sorrow. Supplications - The conviction that God is guiding them, encourages them to pray. Ephraim is My firstborn - The house of Joseph is thus to be restored to its old preeminence.”
Hear, O nations, the word of the LORD: Distant coastlands are called to hear this news. Barnes takes the coastlands as the lands along the Mediterranean, showing that the farthest peoples will marvel at Israel's return. The same hand that scattered is the hand that gathers, as a shepherd keeps his flock.
Jeremiah 31:10
“The isles - The coast land of the Mediterranean, used here to show that the most distant countries are to hear and marvel at Israel’s wonderful restoration.”
the LORD has ransomed Jacob: The captor was stronger than Jacob. Matthew Henry says the Lord bought Jacob back by power, as He had from Egypt, from a hand stronger than his own. Jerome reads the verse of Christ, who redeemed His people at the price of His own blood.
Jeremiah 31:11
“Though the enemy that had got possession of him was stronger than he, yet the Lord, who is stronger than all. has redeemed and ransomed him, not by price, but by power, as of old out of the Egyptians' hands.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
like a well-watered garden: Grain, wine and oil mark a land at peace. Matthew Henry points to Ezra 3, where the returned exiles sang praise as the temple's foundation was laid. Adam Clarke links the people's coming to Zion with the three great feasts.
Jeremiah 31:12
“And shall flow together - Perhaps this may refer to their assembling at the three great national feasts, the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles. Their soul shall be as a watered garden - Full of the light, life, and power of God; so that they shall rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in every thing.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:12
“When they shall have returned to their own land they shall come and sing in the high place of Zion; on the top of that holy mountain they shall sing to the praise and glory of God. We read that they did so when the foundation of the temple was laid there; they sang together, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, Ezra iii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will turn their mourning into joy: Barnes notes that dancing was the women's part, save at a religious feast, so the men here rejoice beside the dancing maidens. Matthew Henry quotes a Latin proverb: when the state prospers, the old man dances. He ties the turn from mourning to joy to Psalm 126.
Jeremiah 31:13
“Both gives the idea of the men dancing, which is incorrect. Except at a religious solemnity 2Sa 6:14, dancing was confined to women. Render and young men and old rejoice together.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 31:13
“Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together,.... Not any particular virgin, but all virgins, as Kimchi interprets it.”
Jeremiah 31:13
“Salva res est, saltat senex--The state prospers, and the aged dance. God will turn their mourning into joy, their fasts into solemn feasts, Zech. viii. It was in the return out of Babylon that those who sowed in tears were made to reap in joy, Ps. cxxvi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
fill the souls of the priests abundantly: The priests are filled when worship resumes, for they lived on their share of the offerings, as Adam Clarke explains. The people are filled with the Lord's goodness. Jerome widens the priests to all who know God and seek His law.
Jeremiah 31:14
“And I will satiate the soul of the priests - The worship of God being restored, they shall have their proper share of the victims brought to the temple.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Rachel Weeping, and a Woman Shall Encompass a Man
Jeremiah 31:15-17
This is what the LORD says: Rachel is heard in Ramah “weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Matthew 2:18 quotes the verse over the children of Bethlehem. In Jeremiah the answer comes at once, “your children will return from the land of the enemy.”
Jeremiah 31:15
“The religious character of the restoration of the ten tribes. Chastisement brought repentance, and with it forgiveness; therefore God decrees their restoration. Jer 31:15 Ramah, mentioned because of its nearness to Jerusalem, from which it was distant about five miles. As the mother of three tribes, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, Rachel is regarded as the mother of the whole ten. This passage is quoted by Matthew (marginal reference) as a type. In Jeremiah it is a poetical figure representing in a dramatic form the miserable condition of the kingdom of Ephraim devastated by the sword of the Assyrians.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 31:15
“Why then need I watch the rising and setting of the stars, at whose rising the fallows should be ploughed up and pierced by the hard plough-shares, and at whose setting the fruitful crop should be cut down by the sickle? One star suffices for me in the place of all others, the bright and morning Star, at Whose rising was sown the seed not of corn but of martyrs; when Rachel wept for her children, and offered in the stead of Christ her children washed in her own tears.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Letter 44.11patristic
Jeremiah 31:15
“God therefore consoles her with the promise of their restoration. Mt 2:17, 18 quotes this as fulfilled in the massacre of the innocents under Herod. "A lesser and a greater event, of different times, may answer to the single sense of one passage of Scripture, until the prophecy is exhausted" [BENGEL].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
Jeremiah 31:15
- Quoted inMatthew 2:17“Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:”
tote eplerothe to rhethen (aorist indic. ho: 'THEN was fulfilled'), Matthew varies the frame from hina-subjunctive to tote-indicative for the Bethlehem slaughter
- Quoted inMatthew 2:18“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
'Rahel weeping for her children', Matthew fulfillment formula (LXX Jer 38:15 = MT 31:15)
Rachel is told to stop weeping, for her children will return. Adam Clarke notes that this could never be said of the infants of Bethlehem, who never came back, and Barnes calls Matthew's use a type. The exiles did come home from the land of the enemy.
Jeremiah 31:16
“They shall come again from the land of the enemy - This could not be said of the murdered innocents at Bethlehem; they never came again; but the Jews, who had gone into captivity, did come again from the land of their enemy to their own border.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
there is hope for your future: The hope answers Rachel's refusal of comfort in verse 15. The same pairing of future and hope ends the promise of 29:11 in the letter to the exiles. Barnes reads Rachel as the mother of Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh, so her children are the northern tribes.
Jeremiah 31:18-22
I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: Overheard, Ephraim asks for his return as a gift: “Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God.” The Father answers at verse 20, “Therefore My heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” the same picture Luke 15 gives.
Jeremiah 31:18
“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself - The exiled Israelites are in a state of deep repentance. Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised - I was at first like an unbroken and untoward steer, the more I was chastised the more I rebelled; but now I have benefited by thy correction. Turn thou me - I am now willing to take thy yoke upon me, but I have no power. I can only will and pray. Take the matter into thy own hand, and fully convert my soul.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:18
“Compare Ac 9:5, where the same figure is used of Saul while unconverted. Israel has had a longer chastisement than Judah, not having been restored even at the Jews' return from Babylon. Hereafter, at its restoration, it shall confess the sore discipline was all needed to "accustom" it to God's "easy yoke" (Mt 11:29, 30). turn thou me--by Thy converting Spirit (La 5:21).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
I struck my thigh in grief: Ephraim describes repentance in order: turning, then sorrow, then shame. Adam Clarke explains striking the thigh as a sign of deep grief, pointing to Ezekiel 21. Matthew Henry compares it to the tax collector who beat his breast, and he sees the disgrace of youth as old sins still remembered.
Jeremiah 31:19
“It is applicable to particular persons. Note, The sin of our youth was the reproach of our youth, and we ought often to remember it against ourselves and to bear it in a penitential sorrow and shame. He is here brought in angry at himself, having a holy indignation at himself for his sin and folly: He smote upon his thigh, as the publican upon his breast.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Therefore My heart yearns for him: Ephraim's confession in verses 18 and 19 is met by a father's answer. Adam Clarke calls it the most tender speech he can conceive, the reply to a son who first resisted discipline and then turned. The Lord's words against Ephraim never erased His memory of him.
Jeremiah 31:20
“Is Ephraim my dear son? - It is impossible to conceive any thing more tenderly affectionate than this. Let us consider the whole account. The ten tribes, called here Ephraim, for the reason before alleged, are represented as acknowledging their sins. I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself; and in his lamentation he says, 1. Thou hast chastised me. 2. Though he at first rebelled against the chastisement, yet at last he submitted and acknowledged his offenses. 3. He turned from all his offenses; he was converted.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The roadmarks are heaps of stones set up by travelers in the desert to find the way back, as Adam Clarke explains. They will walk that road home again. John Gill takes the signposts as pillars of stone standing upright like palm trees.
Jeremiah 31:21
“Set thee up way marks, make thee high heaps,.... Of stones, raised up as pillars, or like pyramids; or upright, as palm trees, which signification the word (z) has; to be marks and signs, to know the way again upon a return. The Targum is, "O congregation of Israel, remember the right works of thy fathers; pour out supplications; in bitterness set thy heart.'' And so the Vulgate Latin version interprets the last clause, "put on bitternesses", without any sense; so Cocceius.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:21
“Set thee up waymarks - Alluding to stones, or heaps of stones, which travelers in the desert set up to ascertain the way, that they may know how to return. Mark the way to Babylon: thither ye shall certainly go; but from it ye shall as certainly return.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The closing line is one of the hardest in the book. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, with many older writers, read it of the Virgin Mary conceiving Christ, while Adam Clarke rejects that reading. Clarke hears a proverb of reversal instead: a weak woman will surround a strong man.
Jeremiah 31:22
“How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter?.... From place to, place, from country to country, from one kingdom to another, as the Jews do to this day; and not return unto the Lord, and David their king, and to their own country?”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:22
“A woman shall compass a man - נקבה תסובב גבר nekebah tesobeb gaber, “A weak woman shall compass or circumvent a strong man.” This place has given much trouble to Biblical critics. By many Christian writers it is considered a prophecy of the miraculous conception of the holy virgin; but as I am sure no such meaning is in the words, nor in the context, so I am satisfied no such meaning can be fairly brought out of them. Houbigant thinks there is a small error in the text, i.e., תשובב teshobeb, shall return, and not תסובב tesobeb, shall compass.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Every Man Shall Die for His Own Iniquity
Jeremiah 31:23-30
This is what the LORD of: The prophet's one comment on the vision is his own: “My sleep had been most pleasant to me.” The watching of 1:12 returns reversed, “so I will watch over them to build and to plant.” The sour-grape proverb is repealed: “each will die for his own iniquity.”
Jeremiah 31:23
“As yet - Or, Again, once move. The prophet now turns to Judah. By the mountain of holiness is meant not the temple only, but all Jerusalem, of which the temple was the most sacred spot, and that by which all the rest was made holy.”
those who move with the flocks: Town and field will be settled together again. Barnes pictures Judah with fixed homes while the shepherds roam wherever there is pasture. Both ways of life have room in the land once more.
Jeremiah 31:24
“Go forth - “Go about.” Judah shall have its settled population and fixed abodes; and shepherds shall move about with their flocks, wherever pasture is to be found.”
I will refresh the weary soul: Adam Clarke reads this line as the end of the vision that began at 30:2, received in a dream. The weary include the blind, the lame and the mothers of verse 8. Their strength is restored by the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:25
“Because I have made the weary soul drunk (or because I have made every thirsty soul drunk) and I have satisfied (or filled) every hungry soul: therefore I am awake and I have seen, and my sleep has been sweet to me. The change of persons makes the understanding of the Prophets obscure. The Lord had said, 'Yet they will say this word in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I turn their captivity.' But what will they say?”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Jeremiahpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:25
“THE subject of this morning [Sermon #1549, Volume 26—GOOD NEWS FOR THIRSTY SOULS] was spiritual'thirst, and the promises made thereto. I tried to encourage those who are not at rest concerning the state of their souls—those who have strong and ardent desires to escape from the wrath to come—I tried to encourage them to partake of Christ, by faith, that they might find peace of heart and so might be perfectly satisfied. I believe that some did find peace this morning.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2726: “Fourfold Satisfaction” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
At this I awoke and looked around: Jeremiah awoke from the vision of chapters 30 and 31, and his sleep had been pleasant. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the sleep as a prophetic dream, and Adam Clarke agrees that the whole message came in a dream. For a prophet so often weeping, this one sleep was sweet.
Jeremiah 31:26
For you should not be surprised if the Prophet says that his soul is disturbed, since the Lord Jesus himself said: "Now my soul is troubled." For he who took on our weaknesses also took on our emotions, in which he was sad even unto death, not because of death; for voluntary death could not have sorrow, in which the joy and refreshment of all was to come. Of this he also said elsewhere: "And I arose, and saw, and a sweet sleep came to me."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Interrogation of Job and David 2.3.11patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 31:26
“The words of Jeremiah: Upon this (or, By reason of this) announcement of a happy restoration, "I awaked" from the prophetic dream vouchsafed to me (Jer 23:25) with the "sweet" impression thereof remaining on my mind. "Sleep" here means dream, as in Ps 90:5.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 31:26
“Upon this I awaked - It appears that the prophecy, commencing with Jer 30:2 and ending with Jer 31:25 of this chapter, was delivered to the prophet in a dream. Dahler supposes it to be a wish; that the prophet, though he could not hope to live to that time, might be permitted to awake up from his tomb; and, having seen this prosperity, would be content to return to his grave.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
I will sow the house of Israel: The empty land will be sown like a field. Barnes says the growth will be so fast that children and young cattle seem to spring up from the ground. Jerome notes that the Hebrew names both houses, where the Greek has only Israel and Judah.
Jeremiah 31:27
“The prophet shows that the happiness of Israel and Judah, united in one prosperous nation, will rest upon the consciousness that their chastisement has been the result of sins which they have themselves committed, and that God’s covenant depends not upon external sanctions, but upon a renewed heart. Jer 31:27 So rapid shall be the increase that it shall seem as if children and young cattle sprang up out of the ground. Jer 31:29, Jer 31:30 A sour grape - Better, sour grapes.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:27
“Mountains are convenient for vineyards, being free from shades and exposed to the sun. Shall plant - God promises them a liberty to plant, and that they should enjoy their plantations, eating them as common things, which they could not do 'till the fifth year. Arise - This was fulfilled under the gospel; for both Galilee and Samaria received the gospel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The verbs of judgment and of building come from Jeremiah's call in 1:10. Jerome draws the link: the Lord watched to carry out His threats, and He will watch as closely to build. The watching of 1:12 now works for good.
Jeremiah 31:28
“The same God who, as it were (in human language), was on the watch for all means to destroy, shall be as much on the watch for the means of their restoration.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The proverb blamed the fathers for the children's pain. Adam Clarke explains it as a complaint that children suffer for their fathers' sins. The next verse answers that each will die for his own iniquity, and Ezekiel 18 quotes the same saying.
Jeremiah 31:29
“The fathers have eaten a sour grape - A proverbial expression for, “The children suffer for the offenses of their parents.” This is explained in the next verse: “Every one shall die for his own iniquity.” No child shall suffer Divine punition for the sin of his father; only so far as he acts in the same way can he be said to bear the sins of his parents.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
each will die for his own iniquity: Under the new order each person answers for his own sin. Adam Clarke, on the verse before, adds that a child bears a parent's guilt only by walking in the same ways. The new covenant that follows is personal in the same way, with each one knowing the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:30
“But everyone shall die for his own iniquity,.... His own personal iniquity; and not a corporeal death only, but an eternal one, which is the just wages of sin. It seems to intimate, that, after the Babylonish captivity, no public calamity should come upon them for the sins of their fathers and their own jointly, but for their own iniquities singly; so their last destruction by the Romans was for their personal disbelief and rejection of the Messiah; see Joh 8:24; and the calamities upon them ever since have been for the same reason.”
A New Covenant Written on the Heart
Jeremiah 31:31-34
I will make a new covenant: “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” is the only use in the Old Testament. The terms are inward, “I will put My law in their minds.” Hebrews 8:8-12 quotes the passage, the longest Old Testament quotation in the New.
Jeremiah 31:31
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... This refers to Gospel times, as is clear from the quotation and application by the apostle, Heb 8:8; and it is owned by a modern Jew (l) to belong to the times of the Messiah.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 31:31
“All things therefore are of one and the same substance, that is, from one and the same God; as also the Lord says to the disciples "Therefore every scribe, which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." He did not teach that he who brought forth the old was one, and he that brought forth the new, another; but that they were one and the same.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies 4:9.1patristic
Jeremiah 31:31
“Behold - And not only with the Jews, but all those who should be ingrafted into that Olive. It is not called the new covenant, because it was as to the substance new, for it was made with Abraham, Gen. xvii, 7, and with the Jews, Deut. xxvi, 17, 18, but because it was revealed after a new manner, more fully and particularly, plainly and clearly.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Cross references
Jeremiah 31:31
- Quoted inHebrews 8:8“But God found fault with the people and said: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
'Behold, the days come... I will make a new covenant' (the longest OT quotation in the NT)
ConnectionsHebrews 8:8, Luke 22:20
The old covenant is the one made at the exodus, as John Gill notes, with the generation brought out of Egypt. Wesley describes it as God's law with its promises, and the people's pledge to obey. Israel broke the pledge despite a husband's care.
Jeremiah 31:32
“Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers,.... Meaning not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but the ancestors of the Jews that came out of Egypt, as appears by what follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:32
“Not according - The covenant which God made with the Jews when they came out of the land of Egypt, was on God's part the law which he gave them, with the promises annexed; on their part (which made it a formal covenant) their promise of obedience to it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
inscribe it on their hearts: The law stays the same, but its place moves from tablets of stone to the heart. Wesley explains that the first covenant showed duty, while this one brings the grace that changes the heart. Hebrews 8 quotes these verses whole.
Jeremiah 31:33
“After those days - When vision and prophecy shall be sealed up, and Jesus have assumed that body which was prepared for him, and have laid down his life for the redemption of a lost world, and, having ascended on high, shall have obtained the gift of the Holy Spirit to purify the heart; then God’s law shall, by it, be put in their inward parts, and written on their hearts; so that all within and all without shall be holiness to the Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:33
“The first shews duty, the latter brings the grace of regeneration, by which the heart is changed, and enabled for duty. All under the time of the law that came to salvation, were saved by this new covenant; but this was not evidently exhibited; neither was the regenerating grace of God so common under the time of the law, as it hath been under the gospel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Cross references
Jeremiah 31:33
- Quoted inHebrews 10:16“This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.”
'I will put my laws into their hearts' (new-covenant reprise, 'the Holy Ghost is a witness')
ConnectionsEzekiel 36:26, Hebrews 10:16
from the least of them to the greatest: Knowing the Lord here is personal, and it rests on forgiveness, the last clause giving the ground for the rest. Spurgeon calls this knowledge a blessing of the covenant of grace. Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17 quote the promise to remember sins no more.
Jeremiah 31:34
In Jeremiah, we read concerning the future kingdom …, "They shall all know me, from the least to the greatest of them." The context of this passage clearly shows that the prophet is describing the future kingdom. But how can there possibly be in it a least or greatest, if all are to be equal? The secret is disclosed in the Gospel: "Whoever shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever shall teach and not do shall be least."
Jerome · written before 420 · Against Jovinianus 2.27patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 31:34
“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,.... Which is not to be understood of the outward ministry of the word; in heaven indeed there will be no need of it, nor in the New Jerusalem state; but in every period of time before it.”
Jeremiah 31:34
“TRUE knowledge of God is a Covenant blessing. To know Jehovah as the only living and true God, to know Him personally and intimately, so as to say with David, "You are my God"—this is one of the choice blessings of the Covenant of Grace which grace bestows upon all the chosen. In this prophecy Jehovah declares that He will yet give this knowledge to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. And this is our hope for the long-wandering seed of Abraham, whom He will yet restore and save.”
Jeremiah 31:35-37
Thus says the LORD, who gives: The LORD who “gives the sun for light by day” ties Israel to the fixed order. Israel’s descendants cease to be “a nation before Me” only if “this fixed order departed from My presence.” The text attaches this guarantee to the named people, after the terms of the new covenant.
Jeremiah 31:35
“Remember God's reputation is on the line if Jewish people become extinct. He promised in Jer. 31:35-37, as long as there will be a sun, moon, stars, and waves, the Jewish people will survive as a distinct people.”
Sid Roth · Messianic Vision Newsletter, February 2026 (2026)Messianic Jewish
this fixed order departed from My presence: The fixed order is the sun, moon, stars and sea of verse 35. Israel's life as a nation is tied to that order. Adam Clarke wrote that the Jews had remained a distinct people in his day, against every attempt to absorb them.
Jeremiah 31:36
“If those ordinances - As sure as the sun shall give light to the day, and the moon to the night, so surely shall the Jews continue to be a distinct people. The same thing is expressed in other words in the next verse. Hitherto this prophecy has been literally fulfilled; the Jews are still a distinct people from all the dwellers upon earth. Every attempt that has been made in any country to naturalize and unite them with the people of that country, has proved abortive.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
if the heavens above could be measured: No one can measure the heavens, so Israel stands. Jerome notes that the Greek text turns the verse into a different image of heaven and earth, and he follows the Hebrew. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the LORD looks to His own covenant promise over all Israel has done.
Jeremiah 31:37
“All the seed - Unworthy members of Israel may be cast away, but the race shall never entirely cease to exist.”
Jeremiah 31:38-40
The chapter ends with a surveyor's walk. Its climax is the valley “of the dead bodies and ashes,” which Gill and Henry identify as Hinnom, “holy to the LORD.” The chapter that opened with the LORD's love ends with cursed ground consecrated: “It will never again be uprooted or demolished.”
Jeremiah 31:38
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... The word come is not in the text; it is read, but not written. The vowel points are in the text, but not the letters; which those, who are against the antiquity of the points, would do well to consider; since the Jews never suffered any additions to the Bible.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 31:38
“The city shall be built to the Lord - This cannot mean the city built after the return from Babylon, for two reasons: 1. This is to be much greater in extent; 2. It is to be permanent, never to be thrown down, Jer 31:40. It must therefore mean, if taken literally at all, the city that is to be built by them when they are brought in with the fullness of the Gentiles.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
to the hill of Gareb: The line runs past the old walls to take in unclean ground. Barnes takes Gareb as the hill of lepers, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown agree it lay outside the city, where lepers were sent. Barnes calls Goah unknown.
Jeremiah 31:39
“Gareb--from a Hebrew root, "to scrape"; Syriac, "leprosy"; the locality outside of the city, to which lepers were removed. Goath--from a root, "to toil," referring to the toilsome ascent there: outside of the city of David, towards the southwest, as Gareb was northwest [JUNIUS].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
valley of the dead bodies and ashes: Wesley names the valley for the slain of Sennacherib's army and the ashes of the sacrifices carried there. Even that ground will be holy to the Lord. The rebuilt city will never again be torn down.
Jeremiah 31:40
“The valley - A valley, so called from the multitude of Sennacherib's army slain there. Of the ashes - So called from the ashes of the sacrifices carried thither. Holy - All these places shall be parts of the holy city, and God's name shall be sanctified, and he shall be worshipped in them all.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Keep studying
Studies28
- The Major Prophets
- Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism
- Ephraim and Manasseh, the two tribes of Joseph
- Generational Curses
- Theological Words
- God Is Love
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- The Mosaic Covenant
- Pentecost
- Rachel and Leah
- Rachel's Tomb on the Bethlehem Road
- Born Again
- The Tabernacle
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Words12
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
C. F. Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah and John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2006; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.