Jeremiah Chapter 31

From The Open Bible Project

31:1 At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

• (a) When this noble governor will come, meaning Christ, not only Judah and Israel, but the rest of the world will be called.

31:2 Thus says Yahweh, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

• (b) Who were delivered from the cruelty of Pharaoh.
• (c) That is, God.

31:3 Yahweh appeared of old to me, [saying], Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.

• (d) The people thus reason as though he were not so beneficial to them now as he had been of old.
• (e) Thus the Lord answers that his love is not changeable.

31:4 Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.

• (f) You will still have opportunity to rejoice which is meant by tabrets and dancing as their custom was after notable victories, (Exodus 15:20; Judges 11:34).

31:5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy [its fruit].

• (g) Because the Israelites who were the ten tribes never returned to Samaria, therefore this must be spiritually understood under the kingdom of Christ, which was the restoration of the true Israel.
• (h) That is, will eat the fruit of it, as in (Leviticus 19:23-25; Deuteronomy 20:6).

31:6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.

• (i) The ministers of the word.
• (k) They will exhort all to the embracing of the gospel, as in (Isaiah 2:3).

31:7 For thus says Yahweh, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

• (l) He shows what will be the concord and love of all under the gospel when none will be refused for their infirmities: and everyone will exhort one another to embrace it.

31:8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, [and] with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.

31:9 They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

• (m) That is, lamenting their sins which had not given ear to the prophets and therefore it follows that God received them to mercy, (Jeremiah 50:4). Some take it that they should weep for joy.
• (n) Where they found no impediments, but abundance of all things.
• (o) That is, my dearly beloved as the first child is to the father.

31:10 Hear the word of Yahweh, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd does his flock.

31:11 For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

• (p) That is, from the Babylonians and other enemies.

31:12 They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

• (q) By these temporal benefits he means the spiritual graces which are in the Church, and of which there would ever be plenty, (Isaiah 58:11,12).

31:13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

• (r) In the company of the faithful, who ever praise God for his benefits.

31:14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Yahweh.

• (s) Meaning, the spirit of wisdom, knowledge and zeal.

31:15 Thus says Yahweh: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.

• (t) To declare the greatness of God’s mercy in delivering the Jews, he shows them that they were like the Benjamites of the Israelites, that is, utterly destroyed and carried away, so much so that if Rachel the mother of Benjamin could have risen again to seek her children she would have found none remaining.

31:16 Thus says Yahweh: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

31:17 There is hope for your latter end, says Yahweh; and [your] children shall come again to their own border.

31:18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.

• (u) That is, the people who were led captive.
• (x) Which was wanton and could not be subject to the yoke.
• (y) He shows how the faithful used to pray, that is, desire God to tame them as they cannot turn of themselves.

31:19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

• (z) In sign of repentance and detestation of my sin.

31:20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh.

• (a) As though he would say no for by his iniquity he did what lay in him to cast me off.

31:21 Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

• (c) Mark by what way you went into captivity and you will turn again by the same.

31:22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man.

• (d) Because their deliverance from Babylon was a figure of their deliverance from sin, he shows how this would be procured that is, by Jesus Christ, whom a woman would conceive and bear in her womb. Which is a strange thing in earth, because he would be born of a virgin without man or he means that Jerusalem which was like a barren woman in her captivity would be fruitful as she that is joined in marriage and whom God blesses with children.

31:23 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.

31:24 Judah and all its cities shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.

31:25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished.

31:26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.

• (e) Having understood this vision of the Messiah to come, in whom the two houses of Israel and Judah would be joined, I rejoiced.

31:27 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal.

• (f) I will multiply and enrich them with people and cattle.

31:28 It shall happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says Yahweh.

31:29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

• (g) The wicked used this proverb when they murmured against God’s judgments pronounced by the prophets, saying that their fathers had committed the fault and that the children were punished, (Ezekiel 18:2,3).

31:30 But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

31:31 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

• (h) Though the covenant of redemption made to the fathers and this which was given later seemed varied, yet they are all one and grounded on Jesus Christ, save that this is called new, because of the manifestation of Christ and the abundant graces of the Holy Spirit given to his Church under the gospel.

31:32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh.

• (i) And so were the opportunity of their own divorcement through their infidelity, (Isaiah 50:1).

31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:

• (k) In the time of Christ, my law will instead of tables of stone be written in their hearts by my Holy Spirit, (Hebrews 8:10).

31:34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

• (l) Under the kingdom of Christ there will be no one blinded with ignorance, but I will give them faith, and acknowledge God for remission of their sins and daily increase the same: so that it will not seem to come so much by the preaching of my ministers as by the instruction of my Holy Spirit, (Isaiah 54:13) but the full accomplishing of it is referred to the kingdom of Christ, when we will be joined with our head.

31:35 Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name:

• (m) If the sun, moon and stars cannot but glue light according to my ordinance, so long as this world lasts, so shall my church never fail, neither shall anything hinder it: and as sure as I will have a people, so certain is it, that I will leave them my word forever to govern them with.

31:36 If these ordinances depart from before me, says Yahweh, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.

31:37 Thus says Yahweh: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Yahweh.

• (n) The one and the other is impossible.

31:38 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that the city shall be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.

• (o) As it was performed, (Nehemiah 3:1). By this description he shows that the city would be as ample and beautiful as it ever was: but he alludes to the spiritual Jerusalem whose beauty would be incomparable.

31:39 The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah.

31:40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.