Jeremiah 31:22
in Jeremiah 31How long will you wander, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land—a woman will shelter a man.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How long wilt thou go hither and thither, O thou backsliding daughter? for Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth: A woman shall encompass a man.
KJV
How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
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This verse in Jeremiah 31
Commentary
8 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.
This site's exposition
a woman will shelter a man
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.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Septem Donis, Collation 6 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
A figure preceded in the woman and the man, because Jeremiah says: "A woman shall encompass a man." All of this was fulfilled in the glorious Virgin. Whence Bernard says: "What was shown to Moses in the bush and fire, to Aaron in the rod …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
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?
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
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
(5) The Hebrew for "woman" implies an individual, as the Virgin Mary, rather than a collection of persons. (6) The restoration of Israel is grounded on God's covenant in Christ, to whom, therefore, allusion is naturally made as the foundation of Israel's hope (compare Isa 7:14).
The words behind it
13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עַד־ | ʾad- | until | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| מָתַי֙ | matai | when? | H4970 → | 43 times |
| תִּתְחַמָּקִ֔ין | titchamakin | will you vacillate ! | H2559 → | |
| הַבַּ֖ת | habat | O daughter | H1323 → | 588 times |
| הַשּֽׁוֹבֵבָ֑ה | hashoevah | <the> apostate | H7728 → | |
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| בָרָ֨א | vara' | he has created | H1254 → | |
| יְהוָ֤ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| חֲדָשָׁה֙ | chadashah | a new [thing] | H2319 → | 53 times |
| בָּאָ֔רֶץ | baaretz | on the earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
| נְקֵבָ֖ה | nekevah | a female | H5347 → | |
| תְּס֥וֹבֵֽב | tesoev | she will surround | H5437 → | 161 times |
| גָּֽבֶר׃ ס | gaver | a man | H1397 → | 65 times |
עַד־until
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
מָתַי֙when?
mataiH4970 →43 times
תִּתְחַמָּקִ֔יןwill you vacillate !
titchamakinH2559 →
הַבַּ֖תO daughter
habatH1323 →588 times
הַשּֽׁוֹבֵבָ֑ה<the> apostate
hashoevahH7728 →
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
בָרָ֨אhe has created
vara'H1254 →
יְהוָ֤הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
חֲדָשָׁה֙a new [thing]
chadashahH2319 →53 times
בָּאָ֔רֶץon the earth
baaretzH776 →2504 times
נְקֵבָ֖הa female
nekevahH5347 →
תְּס֥וֹבֵֽבshe will surround
tesoevH5437 →161 times
גָּֽבֶר׃ סa man
gaverH1397 →65 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
Matthew 1:21She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
it leads to
- Acts 13:23
From the descendants of this man, God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as He promised.
- Acts 4:12
Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
- John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
- 1 John 3:5
But you know that Christ appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.
- Colossians 1:20–23
and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.
- Acts 13:23
Through
Jeremiah 7:24Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
it leads to
- Psalms 81:11–12
But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.
- Jeremiah 7:26
Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers.
- Deuteronomy 29:19
because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This…
- Psalms 81:11–12
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies27
On this verse
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bonaventure, Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 6; 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.