Jeremiah31chapter 31

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.”

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.”

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].”

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.”

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.”

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).”

Jeremiah 31:19

“After that I was turned - Converted from my sin, folly, and idolatry. I repented - To conviction of sin, I now added contrition for sin. Conviction, in this sense of the word, must precede contrition or repentance. As soon as a man sees himself lost and undone, he is convicted of sin; when convicted, he begins to mourn. Thus contrition follows conviction. I smote upon my thigh - My sorrow grew deeper and deeper; I smote upon my thigh through the extremity of my distress. This was a usual sign of deep affliction. See Eze 21:”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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?”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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."

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.”

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.”

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.”

Jeremiah 31:27-30

“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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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."

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 31:36

“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.”

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.”

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.”

Jeremiah 31:39

“Over ... Gareb - Or, straight along the hill Gareb. Probably the hill of lepers, outside the old walls, toward the southwest. Goath - 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].”

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.”