Jeremiah 31:15-22 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

Jeremiah hears Rachel (the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, Genesis 30:24; Genesis 35:16 ff.) weeping at (her grave near) Ramah, for her children, the northern exiles. He bids her refrain, in the certainty of their restoration. Their penitence is described (Jeremiah 31:18 f.). Yahweh expresses wonder (Jeremiah 31:20) at His own enduring love for this very precious son, this child of delight; He is moved to deep emotion, and, in spite of all, cannot abandon him. Let Israel indicate and note the way of return (Jeremiah 31:21), and persist in it (Jeremiah 31:22), for Yahweh will now bring the virgin Israel to cling around Him, offer herself to Him in true marital affection (Hosea 2:16; Isaiah 54:5 f.), as never before.

Jeremiah 31:15. Ramah: 5 m. N. of Jerusalem; cf. 1 Samuel 10:2; Matthew 21:7 f. follows the different tradition as to the site of the grave (vicinity of Bethlehem) given in Genesis 35:19 *, Genesis 48:7.

Jeremiah 31:16. Shall be: emphatic.

Jeremiah 31:17. is: emphatic.

Jeremiah 31:18. turn thou me: better, bring me back.

Jeremiah 31:19. turned: i.e. from thee; for the gesture of grief, see Ezekiel 21:12; the reproach is that springing from earlier sins.

Jeremiah 31:20. dear. pleasant: not strong enough for the Heb. The bowels, in Heb. psychology, are the seat of deep emotion (Jeremiah 4:19).

Jeremiah 31:21. set thine heart: denoting attention, not desire or affection.

Jeremiah 31:22 is difficult and dubious; some commentators emend, after Ewald and Duhm, into A woman shall be turned into a man, i.e. the weak shall be made strong; the interpretation already given follows Driver.

Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 31:15

Jeremiah 31:15-22

15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

16 Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

17 And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.

19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.

21 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.

22 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.