Jeremiah 31:21
in Jeremiah 31“Set up the roadmarks, establish the signposts. Keep the highway in mind, the road you have traveled. Return, O Virgin Israel, return to these cities of yours.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy heart toward the highway, even the way by which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
KJV
Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
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This verse in Jeremiah 31
Commentary
7 notes on this verse(Vers. 21, 22.) Set up watchmen for yourself, make for yourself bitternesses: direct your heart to the straight path in which you have walked. Return, O virgin Israel, return to your cities. How long will you indulge in pleasures, wandering daughter? For the Lord has created something new on the earth: a woman will encompass a man. LXX: Set up watchmen for yourself, do penance, put your heart on your shoulders, the way in which you have walked. Return, O virgin Israel, return to your mourning cities. How long will you turn away, despised daughter?
This site's exposition
I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning
on Jeremiah 31:18-22
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 of a father and a returning son. The “new thing in the land” of 31:22, “a woman will shelter a man,” is a famous crux, read in more than one way.
This site's exposition
Set up the roadmarks, establish the signposts
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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.
Note, The way from Babylon to Zion, from the bondage of sin to the glorious liberty of God's children, is a highway; it is right, it is plain, it is safe, it is well-tracked ( Isa. xxxv.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
waymarks--pillars to mark the road for the returning exiles. Caravans set up pillars, or pointed heaps of stones, to mark the way through the desert against their return. So Israel is told by God to mark the way by which they went in leaving their country for exile; for by the same way they shall return. highway-- (Isa 35:8, 10).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
The words behind it
18 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַצִּ֧יבִי | hatzivi | set up | H5324 → | |
| לָ֣ךְ | lakh | for <the> yourself | ||
| צִיֻּנִ֗ים | tziyunim | signposts | H6725 → | |
| שִׂ֤מִי | simi | place | H7760 → | 584 times |
| לָךְ֙ | lokh | for <the> yourself | ||
| תַּמְרוּרִ֔ים | tamrurim | guideposts | H8564 → | |
| שִׁ֣תִי | shiti | set | H7896 → | 83 times |
| לִבֵּ֔ךְ | libekh | heart your | H3820 → | 595 times |
| לַֽמְסִלָּ֖ה | lamsilah | to the highway | H4546 → | |
| דֶּ֣רֶךְ | derekh | [the] way | H1870 → | 707 times |
| הָלָ֑כְתְּ | halakheti | [which] you went | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| שׁ֚וּבִי | shuvi | return | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| בְּתוּלַ֣ת | betulat | O virgin of | H1330 → | 50 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל | yisrael | Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| שֻׁ֖בִי | shuvi | return | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| עָרַ֥יִךְ | ʾarayikh | cities your | H5892 → | 1090 times |
| אֵֽלֶּה׃ | ʾeleh | these | H428 → | 746 times |
הַצִּ֧יבִיset up
hatziviH5324 →
לָ֣ךְfor <the> yourself
lakh
צִיֻּנִ֗יםsignposts
tziyunimH6725 →
שִׂ֤מִיplace
simiH7760 →584 times
לָךְ֙for <the> yourself
lokh
תַּמְרוּרִ֔יםguideposts
tamrurimH8564 →
שִׁ֣תִיset
shitiH7896 →83 times
לִבֵּ֔ךְheart your
libekhH3820 →595 times
לַֽמְסִלָּ֖הto the highway
lamsilahH4546 →
דֶּ֣רֶךְ[the] way
derekhH1870 →707 times
הָלָ֑כְתְּ[which] you went
halakhetiH1980 →1546 times
שׁ֚וּבִיreturn
shuviH7725 →1056 times
בְּתוּלַ֣תO virgin of
betulatH1330 →50 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
שֻׁ֖בִיreturn
shuviH7725 →1056 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
עָרַ֥יִךְcities your
ʾarayikhH5892 →1090 times
אֵֽלֶּה׃these
ʾelehH428 →746 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 62:10Go out, go out through the gates; prepare the way for the people! Build it up, build up the highway; clear away the stones; raise a banner for the nations!
it leads to
- Isaiah 57:14
And it will be said, “Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, take every obstacle out of the way of My people.”
- Isaiah 40:3
A voice of one calling: “Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
- Hebrews 12:13
Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
- Isaiah 49:22
This is what the Lord GOD says: “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms and carry…
- Isaiah 11:10
On that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His place of rest will be glorious.
- Isaiah 57:14
Through
Jeremiah 31:4Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out in joyful dancing.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 33:7
I will restore Judah and Israel from captivity and will rebuild them as in former times.
- Jeremiah 31:13
Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.
- Jeremiah 33:7
Through
Ezekiel 40:4“Son of man,” he said to me, “look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 44:5
The LORD said to me: “Son of man, pay attention; look carefully with your eyes and listen closely with your ears to everything I tell you concerning all the statutes and laws of the…
- Ezekiel 44:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies15
On this verse
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.