Jeremiah 31 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Jeremiah 31

The Lord Will Turn Mourning to Joy

31:1 “At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

2   Thus says the LORD:
  “The people who survived the sword
    found grace in the wilderness;
  when Israel sought for rest,
3     the LORD appeared to him¹ from far away.
  I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4   Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
    O virgin Israel!
  Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines
    and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5   Again you shall plant vineyards
    on the mountains of Samaria;
  the planters shall plant
    and shall enjoy the fruit.
6   For there shall be a day when watchmen will call
    in the hill country of Ephraim:
  ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
    to the LORD our God.’”
7   For thus says the LORD:
  “Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
    and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
  proclaim, give praise, and say,
    ‘O LORD, save your people,
    the remnant of Israel.’
8   Behold, I will bring them from the north country
    and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
  among them the blind and the lame,
    the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
    a great company, they shall return here.
9   With weeping they shall come,
    and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
  I will make them walk by brooks of water,
    in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
  for I am a father to Israel,
    and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10   “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
    and declare it in the coastlands far away;
  say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
    and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11   For the LORD has ransomed Jacob
    and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12   They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
    and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
  over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and over the young of the flock and the herd;
  their life shall be like a watered garden,
    and they shall languish no more.
13   Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
    and the young men and the old shall be merry.
  I will turn their mourning into joy;
    I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14   I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
    and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
      declares the LORD.”
15   Thus says the LORD:
  “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    lamentation and bitter weeping.
  Rachel is weeping for her children;
    she refuses to be comforted for her children,
    because they are no more.”
16   Thus says the LORD:
  “Keep your voice from weeping,
    and your eyes from tears,
  for there is a reward for your work,
      declares the LORD,
    and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17   There is hope for your future,
      declares the LORD,
    and your children shall come back to their own country.
18   I have heard Ephraim grieving,
  ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
    like an untrained calf;
  bring me back that I may be restored,
    for you are the LORD my God.
19   For after I had turned away, I relented,
    and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh;
  I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
    because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
20   Is Ephraim my dear son?
    Is he my darling child?
  For as often as I speak against him,
    I do remember him still.
  Therefore my heart² yearns for him;
    I will surely have mercy on him,
      declares the LORD.
21   “Set up road markers for yourself;
    make yourself guideposts;
  consider well the highway,
    the road by which you went.
  Return, O virgin Israel,
    return to these your cities.
22   How long will you waver,
    O faithless daughter?
  For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth:
    a woman encircles a man.”

23 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes:

“‘The LORD bless you, O habitation of righteousness,
O holy hill!’

24 And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. 25 For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

27 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD. 29 In those days they shall no longer say:

“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

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

The New Covenant

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

35   Thus says the LORD,
  who gives the sun for light by day
    and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
  who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the LORD of hosts is his name:
36   “If this fixed order departs
    from before me, declares the LORD,
  then shall the offspring of Israel cease
    from being a nation before me forever.”
37   Thus says the LORD:
  “If the heavens above can be measured,
    and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
  then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
    for all that they have done,
      declares the LORD.”

38 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the LORD. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

Footnotes

[1] 31:3 Septuagint; Hebrew me
[2] 31:20 Hebrew bowels

Commentary

v1: At the time of Jeremiah, many refused to know the Lord; yet there will come a time when all the families of Israel will know the Lord; see Rom 9.6-7; 11.5.

Paul saw that no all who could trace their ancestry back to Abraham lived as his offspring; not all Israel knew God (Rom 9.6-7). In the church age there is a remnant of Jews saved by grace, as other Christians are (Rom 11.5). There will therefore come a day, which is not yet fulfilled, when all families of Israel will know the Lord.

v2: Grace promised to the survivors, as they meet with God in the desert; Ezek 20.35-38.

v3: God’s everlasting love shown to Israel. And this is dependent only upon God, not upon Israel. For He is unchanging, James 1.17, and there is hope because He is faithful. The wording in Hebrew emphasizes this.

v4: The people will be rebuilt and rejoicing, see 30.18-19. And this rebuilding will be permanent, not temporary. Once more, tambourines, a sign of joyful worship, will be used; see Ex 15.20.

v5: Fruitful; plenty and prosperity.

v6: Renewed desire to know God. The reference to Ephraim, the northern kingdom, is another prophecy of a fully restored kingdom.

v7: The new relationship with God. The people of Jacob sing a new song, declaring their love for God.

v8: The people regathered, a great throng, blind and lame, pregnant women, as well as children and men.

v9: Their sorrow of repentance; that they might enter into a deeper relationship with God. God is the Father of Israel, He will lead His own in pleasant paths; He is committed to His own people.

v10: Just as God fulfilled His word to scatter the people, so he will fulfil it to gather them. God is the shepherd, keeping His flock in safety, John 10.9; Jesus is the Door, promising safety and pasture.

Israel sadly did not link the promises of Jeremiah with the coming of Jesus; yet God’s plans will always come to pass.

v11: Redeemed and ransomed; the price paid, salvation accomplished. These words speak of much more than a geographic return, but of a re-establishment of their relationship with God.

v12: Redeemed people rejoice and sing; 30.19. There will be no more sorrow.

v13: Rejoicing, see Is 61.3.

v14: Total satisfaction in God alone, Ps 17.15.

v15: Words fulfilled at the birth of Christ, Matt 2.16-18, and at the fall of Jerusalem, Luke 23.27-28. Lam 1 suggests that there was also a partial fulfilment when Nebuchadnezzar defeated Jerusalem, as Judah suffered at the hands of Gentiles.

The original fulfilment seems to be that the people would weep as they passed through Ramah into exile in Babylon. The NT fulfilment was quite different, and could not have been predicted by the people of Jeremiah’s day.

v16-17: The day will come when mourning will cease, and even now the people should restrain their weeping. The work of the faithful would be rewarded. The children would return from the land of exile to their own land.

v18: Ephraim’s (or Israel’s) repentance; the realisation that God had chastened him; he described himself as an untrained bull, needing to be broken in. he looked for restoration and return, to his God.

v19: Suffering and reproach, repentance and instruction; Ephraim would learn God’s ways, gaining understanding through his experiences.

v20: The result of repentance; a restored relationship.

The Lord remained faithful; although He brought rebuke, He would never forget. He maintained a deep love and concern, “my heart yearns.”

Remembering is not the alternative to forgetting. It is the alternative to forsaking. (Dane Ortlund, Gentle & Lowly)

v21-22: Further encouragement to repent; road signs to guide the people back!

v23-25: Precious promises for the future. Words of blessing to reflect God’s restoration of the nation; the towns will once more be inhabited, farmers will safely pasture their flocks. God will restore the weak and faint.

v26: Those precious promises had made Jeremiah’s sleep sweet to him; he realised that God had great good prepared for His people. No distressing vision here, but truly comforting promises.

v27: The nation will once more be fruitful, in contrast with previous seasons of reduced population, both of humans and livestock.

v28: Compare 1.10; Jeremiah’s ministry. Jeremiah had brought the word of God, to destroy and break down, rebuking sins, announcing judgment. Late would come building and planting; although Jeremiah would not see that, his ministry was preparing the people for their brighter future.

v29-30: Previously judgment fell on succeeding generations; the proverb speaks of passivity and lack of personal responsibility. Now, the prophet declares, things are different: the new way is personal responsibility and accountability. (Ezek 18.1-2 also).

v31: The new covenant with Judah and Israel, quoted in Heb 10.16-17. Christians have entered into such a covenant through the work of Christ (Heb 9.15; 12.24). Previous verses speak of a coming time; here the prophet speaks of a new covenant. Although this covenant will be "new," we can find elements of previous covenants (to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David) which shape the new covenant (v32-37)..

v32: The new covenant is different to the old one. In particular, the people broke the old covenant. Indeed, OT history is, in part, the story of a nation which spent most of its time in disobedience to the God who created and redeemed it!

In contrast, the nature of the new covenant is such that it cannot be broken.

v33: In Christ the law is fulfilled; now it is written on their hearts. Rom 7.22 indicates that this is the experience of the Christian. This guarantees the new relationship between God and His people.

God's intention from before creation was fellowship with His people. Each covenant shared this aim. Only in Christ, ie: the new covenant, would this intention be unbreakably fulfilled. Ultimately, "they will be His peoples and God Himself will be with them and be their God." (Rev 21.3)

v34: No more mixed multitude, nor a faithful remnant; all the people shall know Him. There was frequently an elitism, where only a few chosen ones, claimed to know God. At the time of Jesus, the common people knew "nothing of the law" (John 7.49).

In contrast, the new covenant points towards a multitude from every tribe and nation, more than any man can number. Paul hints that "more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has no husband" (Gal 4.27, quoting Gen 21.10).

The new covenant is powerful, in providing forgiveness of sins along with power to personally (and corporately) break with sins.

v35: The on going existence of sun and moon and stars are proof that God will keep His promises.

v36-37: Impossibilities;

that Israel should cease from being a nation;
that Israel will be utterly cast off for their sins.

The references to the “descendants of Israel” indicate the seed passed on through many generations after Jeremiah; these promises will be kept, as the people remain distinct.

v38-40: Jerusalem rebuilt on the same site, never to be destroyed again.