Yahweh says: “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.”
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh says: “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.”
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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.
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Thus saith the LORD: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuseth to be comforted for her children, because they are not.
Cross-references (16)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 31:15 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 2:16-18 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out, and killed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the exact time which he had learned from the wise men. Then that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; she wouldn’t be comforted, because they are no more.”
- Psalms 77:2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.
- Jeremiah 40:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon.
- Genesis 35:19 Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem).
- Genesis 37:35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “For I will go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” His father wept for him.
- Isaiah 22:4 Therefore I said, “Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Don’t labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Jeremiah 10:20 My tent has been destroyed, and all my cords are broken. My children have gone away from me, and they are no more. There is no one to spread my tent any more, to set up my curtains.
- Genesis 42:13 They said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is today with our father, and one is no more.”
- Genesis 42:36 Jacob, their father, said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me.”
- Lamentations 5:7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more. We have borne their iniquities.
- Ezekiel 2:10 He spread it before me. It was written within and without; and lamentations, mourning, and woe were written in it.
- Genesis 5:24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.
- Joshua 18:25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,
- 1 Samuel 7:17 His return was to Ramah, for his house was there; and he judged Israel there; and he built an altar to Yahweh there.
- Job 7:21 Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.”
- Psalms 37:36 But he passed away, and behold, he was not. Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Here, in the first place, the Prophet describes the…
Here, in the first place, the Prophet describes the desolation of the land, when deprived of all its inhabitants; and, in the second place, he adds a comfort, — that God would restore the captives from exile, that the land might again be inhabited. But there is here what they call a personification, that is, an imaginary person introduced: for the Prophet raises up Rachel from the grave, and represents her as lamenting. She had been long dead, and her body had been reduced to ashes; but the discourse has more force when lamentation is ascribed to a dead woman than if the Prophet had said, that the land would present a sad and a mournful appearance, because it would be waste and desolate; for rhetoricians mention personification among the highest excellencies, and Cicero, when treating of the highest ornament of an oration, says, that nothing touches an audience so much as when the dead are raised up from below. The Prophet, then, though not taught in the school of rhetoricians, thus adorned his discourse through the impulse ot God’s Spirit, that he might more effectually penetrate into the hearts of the people.
And this personification introduces a scene, for it brings before us the Jews and the other Israelites; nor does it only represent to them the calamity that was at hand, and what had already in part happened, but it also sets before their eyes the vengeance of God which had taken place in the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, when first four tribes were driven into exile, and afterwards the whole kingdom was destroyed, and it also sets forth what the Jews little thought of and did not fear, even the extreme calamity and ruin of the kingdom of Judah, and of the holy city.
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Hence he says, Thus saith Jehovah, A voice on the height is heard, even lamentation, the weeping of bitterness, he introduces God as the speaker; for the Jews, though they had seen the dreadful scattering of their brethren, were yet remaining secure; and hence another Prophet complains, that no one laid to heart the calamity of Joseph. (Amos 6:6) They saw that the whole land was almost consumed by God’s vengeance, as though a fire had raged everywhere; and yet they followed their own gratifications, as Isaiah also accuses them. (Isaiah 22) This is the reason why God is made to speak here: he had to do with men altogether torpid and heedless. That the Prophet then might awaken them from their torpor, he introduces God as making the announcement, A voice then is heard, — whose voice? of Rachel.
Interpreters think that Rachel is mentioned, because she was buried in Bethlehem: but as to Joseph, that is, his posterity, this region had come by lot, it seems to me probable that the Prophet here refers not to the grave of Rachel, but to her offspring; for that part which they who descended from her son Benjamin had obtained, was laid waste; hence he introduces Rachel as the mother of that part of the country; and it is well known that under the tribe of Ephraim is included the other ten tribes: but the reference to her burial is without meaning. Rachel, then, weeping for her children, refused consolation, because they were not; that is, she could not receive consolation, for a reason was wanting, as her posterity were destroyed, and were become extinct in the land.
This passage is quoted by Matthew, (Matthew 2:18) where he gives an account of the infants under two years old, who had been slain by the command of Herod: then he says, that this prophecy was fulfilled, even that Rachel again wept for her children. But the explanation of this is attended with no difficulty; for Matthew meant no other thing than that the same thing happened at the coming of Christ as had taken place before, when the whole country was reduced to desolation; for it was the Evangelist’s object to remove an offense arising from novelty, as we know that men’s minds feel a dread when anything new, unexpected, and never heard of before happens. Hence, the Evangelists often direct their attention to this point, so that what happened in the time of Christ might not terrify or disturb the minds of men as a thing new and unexpected, inasmuch as the fathers formerly had experienced the same. To no purpose then do interpreters torture themselves by explaining this passage allegorically; for Matthew did not intend to lessen the authority of ancient history, for he knew in what sense this had been formerly said; but his only object was to remind the Jews that there was no cause for them to be greatly astonished at that slaughter, for that region had formerly been laid waste and bereaved of all its inhabitants, as though a mother, having had a large family, were to lose all her children.
We now then see how Matthew accommodated to his own purpose this passage. He retains the proper name, “Ramah,” and there was a place so called; but the appellative is preferable here, “A voice is heard on the height,” as we had yesterday, “on the height of Zion.” Then a high place is what Jeremiah has mentioned here, because lamentation was to be heard through all parts of the country, for a voice sent forth from a high place sounds afar off. Now, also, we perceive the meaning of this sentence, — that the country possessed by the sons of Benjamin had been reduced to desolation, so that the mother, as one bereaved of her children, pined away in her lamentation, as nothing could afford her comfort, because her whole offspring had been cut off.
Now follows a promise which moderates the grievousness of the calamity. And the two verses ought to be read as opposite the one to the other, “Though Rachel, weeping for her children, has no ground for consolation for a time, yet God will console her.” And thus the Prophet, in the former verse, exhorts the Jews to repentance, but in the latter to hope: for it was necessary that the Jews should be forewarned of their dreadful calamity, that they might acknowledge God’s judgment; and it was also necessary for them to have their minds inspired with hope. Now, then, the Prophet bids them to be comforted; for Rachel, having long bewailed her children without any consolation, would at length obtain God’s mercy. God then would console Rachel after her long lamentation.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain To declare the greatness of God’s mercy in delivering…
To declare the greatness of God’s mercy in delivering the Jews, he showeth them that they were like to the Benjamites of Israelites, that is, utterly destroyed and carried away, insomuch, that if Rachel the mother of Benjamin could have risen again to seek for her children, she should have found none remaining.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 31:15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was…
Jer 31:15 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.
Ver. 15. A voice was heard in Ramah.] It was once, when the poor captives were carried that way to Babylon, the mothers bitterly bewailing their Luctuosam faeunditatem. It was also another time, when Herod barbarously butchered the babes of Bethlehem. {Mat 2:16-18} But now the case is altered, joy is restored, &c.
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Rachel weeping for her children.] An elegant personification. {See Trapp on "Mat 2:18"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Interpreters are much divided in the sense of these…
Interpreters are much divided in the sense of these words, whether they should refer to the slaughter of the Jews belonging to the ten tribes, upon their being captivated by the Assyrians, or to the slaughter of the Jews, upon the siege and taking of the city by the king of Babylon, or to Herod’s killing the infants in Bethlehem. Certain it is, the evangelist, Mat 2:18, applieth them unto the latter; but whether the evangelist’s application of it be as a literal fulfilling of the prophecy, or by way of allusion, or no, is the question. Those that think that it is primarily to be understood of the slaughter of the infants, urge,
1. That Mat 2:18, so applies it.
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2. That women’s mourning for children seems rather to be for the loss of infants, (as was there,) than expressive of the mourning of all sorts of people, in a general desolation.
3. That the place of the mourning seems to hint it; for Ramah was near to Bethlehem, and contained under the coasts about Bethlehem, mentioned by the evangelist.
4. The words
because they were not they think make for them; for by being carried into captivity, they did not cease to be, though they ceased to be in that happy estate they were in before.
5. Because they think that this is here propounded as a sign of his coming, upon whose coming these promises of felicity to the Jews should be fulfilled. These reasons are not unanswerable; for,
1. Matthew may apply it only by way of allusion, speaking of such a providence, when such a thing should happen as happened before; in which sense particular texts of Scripture are in Scripture often said to be fulfilled, though they had their fulfilling before.
2. Rachel here doth not signify a single person, no, nor a particular sex, but is brought in as a common parent, lamenting the loss of her offspring.
3. Ramah was indeed near Bethlehem, but it was a city in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:25; 1Ki 15:17. Rachel was, buried betwixt it and Bethlehem, Gen 35:19; 1Sa 10:2; and it was also the place where Nebuzaradan, after he had taken Jerusalem, disposed of his prisoners, as we read, Jer 40:1;
4. Though the greater part of the Jews were not slain, but carried into captivity; yet doubtless many were slain, and those left alive were not as to her, being now carried out of Canaan into a strange land.
5. Although the promises in this chapter made to the Jews were more eminently and fully made good under the kingdom of Christ; yet it may be doubted whether any of these promises were primarily and solely fulfilled to them under the kingdom of Christ, but literally before that time, though more fully and largely then. In Ramah therefore a voice was heard, that is, in Canaan, and particularly in Ramah, where Nebuzaradan, Jer 40:1, disposed of the prisoners he had taken, setting some at liberty, (as Jeremiah in particular,) ordering others to death, and carrying the rest away to Babylon, which caused a bitter weeping and lamentation.
Rachel weeping for her children: Rachel is here brought in, having been buried near that place, as if she were risen up from the grave, and lamented the Jewish nation, which came out of her loins, (for so Benjamin did, which was one of the two tribes that made the kingdom of Judah,) all the people of which tribe are properly enough called her children. Rachel here signifieth all the Benjamitish women who descended from Rachel.
Refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not; and, like a passionate woman, she refused all arguments of comfort, because her children either were not absolutely, being slain by the pestilence, the famine, and the sword of the king of Babylon, or were no longer her children, being transplanted and removed into Babylon. So as I take this text literally and primarily to refer to the lamentation for the miseries the people suffered, upon the king of Babylon’s taking the city; to which mourning Matthew alludeth, there being a lamentation like this when Herod caused the infants of two years old to be slain in Bethlehem, and in the coasts about Bethlehem, of which Ramah was one.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in…
Thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah,.... Which signifies a high place; hence the Targum paraphrases it,
"in the high place of the world;''
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and so the Vulgate Latin version,
"in a high place;''
but it is here the proper name of a place, of a city in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:25; and this voice heard was not a voice of joy and gladness as before, but of
lamentation and bitter weeping; signifying great sorrow and distress upon some very extraordinary occasion; and is as follows:
Rachel weeping for her children; not really and in person, but by a figurative way of speaking. Rachel is introduced as representing the Jewish women in those parts mourning for their slaughtered infants, even those that were slaughtered some time after the birth of Christ; for to this barbarous fact are the words applied by the Evangelist Matthew, as a fulfilment of them, Mat 2:16; and with great propriety and pertinence is Rachel brought in as the chief, yea, sole mourner, representing all the sorrowful mothers; since Ramah was in the tribe of Benjamin, a child of hers, as far as which, it seems, the bloody massacre referred to reached, from Bethlehem, where it began; and since Rachel's grave was between these two places, Gen 35:18; she is represented as rising out of her grave to act this part; or it signifies, that could she have been sensible of this inhuman affair, and could have come out of her grave, she would have done what she is here represented to do; and the rather is she mentioned, since she was so affectionately fond and desirous of children, Gen 30:1;
refused to be comforted for her children; by any of her friends, the loss was so great, the affliction so heavy:
because they were not; or, "because he was not" (q); the Messiah was not, but was slain among the rest of the children, as the Jewish mothers, whom Rachel represented, imagined; and this heightened their distress, and filled them with more grief and trouble than the loss of their own children: but as Matthew has the plural number, the Targum, and all the Oriental versions, it is best to understand it of the children who "were not"; that is, they were dead; they were not in the land of the living, as this phrase is used in Gen 37:30; which shows that this is not to be understood of the Babylonish captivity, and of the mourning of the Jewish women on that account; since the cause of this was death, and not captivity; besides, mourning for so general a calamity as captivity would not have been confined to mothers, and to some only, and to one particular place; though so the Jewish writers interpret it; and the Targum, which is,
"a voice was heard in the high place of the world, the house of Israel weeping and mourning after Jeremiah the prophet, whom Nabuzaradan the chief of those that slew, sent from Ramah; lamentation and weeping with bitterness, Jerusalem weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were gone into captivity.''
(q) "quia non ipse", Vatablus; "vel non ille" i.e. "non sit ullus", Schmidt.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain In Ramah - That is, in Canaan, and particularly…
In Ramah - That is, in Canaan, and particularly in Ramah, where Nebuzar-adan, chap. xl, 1, disposed of the prisoners he had taken, setting some at liberty, ordering others to death, and carrying the rest away to Babylon, which caused a bitter weeping and lamentation. Rachel - Rachel is here brought in, having been buried near that place, as if she were risen up from the grave, and lamented the Jewish nation which came out of her loins (for so Benjamin did, which was one of the two tribes that made the kingdom of Judah.) Were not - Because her children either were not absolutely, being slain by the pestilence, the famine, and the sword of the king of Babylon, or were no longer her children, being transplanted into Babylon. And there was a lamentation like this, when Herod caused the infants of two years old to be slain in Bethlehem, and in the coasts round about Bethlehem, of which Ramah was one.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 15. A voice was heard in Ramah] The…
Verse 15. A voice was heard in Ramah] The Ramah mentioned here, (for there were several towns of this name,) was situated in the tribe of Benjamin, about six or seven miles from Jerusalem. Near this place Rachel was buried; who is here, in a beautiful figure of poetry, represented as coming out of her grave, and lamenting bitterly for the loss of her children, none of whom presented themselves to her view, all being slain or gone into exile. St. Matthew, who is ever fond of accommodation, applies these words, Mt 2:17-18, to the massacre of the children at Bethlehem. That is, they were suitable to that occasion, and therefore he so applied them; but they are not a prediction of that event.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 31:15-17. Thus saith the Lord; A voice, &c.…
Jer 31:15-17. Thus saith the Lord; A voice, &c. — Here “the scene of this prophecy changes, and two new personages are successively introduced, in order to diversify the subject, and to impress it more strongly on the mind of the reader. The first is Rachel, who in these verses is represented as just rising from the grave, and bitterly bewailing the loss of her children, for whom she looks about in vain, but none are to be seen. Her tears are dried up, and she is consoled with the assurance that they are not lost for ever, but shall in time be brought back to their ancient borders.” The passage is strongly figurative, but not difficult of interpretation, as the reader will perceive by what follows: A voice was heard in Ramah — Ramah was a city of Benjamin, (see Jdg 19:13,) near which Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, was buried. She is here, in a beautiful figure of poetry, represented as come forth out of her grave, and, as chief mourner on so sad an occasion, lamenting bitterly for the loss of her children, none of whom presented themselves to her view, being all either slain or gone into exile. In this way the prophet sets forth the lamentations, in and about Jerusalem, at the time of the several captivities mentioned Jer 52:15; Jer 52:28-30. The evangelist indeed applies these words to Herod’s massacre of the infants at Bethlehem and its environs, Mat 2:17-18. But the context here plainly shows, that this massacre could not have been the direct and immediate object of the prophecy, (see the following note,) but the prophet’s words so well suited the occasion that the evangelist, with great propriety, observes their congruity therewith. He must however be understood just as if he had said, The circumstances of this affair were such that the words of Jeremiah, though spoken with a different view, may well be accommodated to this event. And this is as much as can be allowed with respect to several passages of the New Testament, where the words of the Old Testament were said to be fulfilled. See Mat 2:16; Act 1:16-20, &c.; and Blaney. It is observable, that the Vulgate and Chaldee understand the word, רמה, ramah, not as a proper name, but as an appellative, and translate it, in excelso, on high, or, aloud; according to which the sense will be, A voice is heard on high, or aloud, lamentations, weepings; of Rachel bewailing her children, and refusing to be comforted concerning them, because they are not. Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears — Set bounds to thy sorrow, repress and moderate thy inordinate and excessive grief; for thy work shall be rewarded — That is, it will appear thou hast not brought forth children in vain, nor shalt thou be deprived of the satisfaction of seeing the welfare of thy children, which is the parent’s reward for her pain in bringing them into the world, and her care and attention in providing for their support and education; for they shall come again from the land of the enemy. Thus the text interprets itself. But if the massacre at Bethlehem had been primarily designed here, with what propriety could it have been said, how could it have been affirmed, that they should return fromthe land of the enemy, or, as in the next verse, should come again to their own border? The words ישׁ תקוה לאחריתךְ, rendered here, There is hope in thine end, may be translated, There is hope, or expectation, to thy posterity; that is, though these of the present age do not experience a return from captivity, yet their posterity shall enjoy that blessing. This promise was particularly fulfilled with respect to the tribe of Benjamin, as well as that of Judah, in their return under Cyrus. See Ezr 1:5.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The religious character of the restoration of the ten…
The religious character of the restoration of the ten tribes. Chastisement brought repentance, and with it forgiveness; therefore God decrees their restoration.
Jer 31:15
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Ramah, mentioned because of its nearness to Jerusalem, from which it was distant about five miles. As the mother of three tribes, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, Rachel is regarded as the mother of the whole ten. This passage is quoted by Matthew (marginal reference) as a type. In Jeremiah it is a poetical figure representing in a dramatic form the miserable condition of the kingdom of Ephraim devastated by the sword of the Assyrians.
Jer 31:16
Rachel’s work had been that of bearing and bringing up children, and by their death she was deprived of the joy for which she had labored: but by their being restored to her she will receive her wages.
Jer 31:17
In thine end - i. e., for thy time to come (see the Jer 29:11 note).
Jer 31:18
As a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke - literally, like an untaught calf. Compare the Hos 10:11 note. Ephraim, like an untrained steer, had resisted Yahweh’s will.
Jer 31:19
After that I was turned - i. e., after I had turned away from Thee. In Jer 31:18 it has the sense of turning to God.
Instructed - Brought to my senses by suffering. The smiting upon the thigh is a sign of sorrow. Compare Eze 21:17.
The reproach of my youth - i. e., the shame brought upon me by sins of my youth.
Jer 31:20
Moved to compassion by Ephraim’s lamentation, Yahweh shows Himself as tender and ready to forgive as parents are their spoiled (rather, darling) child.
For ... him - Or, “that so often as I speak concerning him,” i. e., his punishment.
My bowels are troubled - The metaphor expresses the most tender internal emotion.
Jer 31:21
Waymarks - See 2Ki 23:17 note.
High heaps - Or, signposts, pillars to point out the way.
Set thine heart - Not set thy affection, but turn thy thoughts and attention (in Hebrew the heart is the seat of the intellect) to the highway, even the way by which thou wentest.
Jer 31:22
Israel instead of setting itself to return hesitates, and goes here and there in a restless mood. To encourage it God gives the sign following.
A woman shall compass a man - i. e., the female shall protect the strong man; the weaker nature that needs help will surround the stronger with loving and fostering care. This expresses a new relation of Israel to the Lord, a new covenant, which the Lord will make with His people (Jer 31:31 following). The fathers saw in these words a prophecy of the miraculous conception of our Lord by the Virgin.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain High. Literally, "high places." Hebrew Rama. (Haydock) --- There…
High. Literally, "high places." Hebrew Rama. (Haydock) --- There was a city of this name near Bethlehem, where Rachel was buried. Benjamin was her son, and was conducted by this road to Babylon. (Chaldean) (Grotius) (Tirinus) --- Ephraim and Manasses were also her grandchildren, and she may bewail their captivity by personification. St. Matthew (ii. 18.) shews that this prediction was more fully accomplished when the innocents were slain. The same passage may allude to different events. (Calmet) --- All the people of God, both of the ten and of the two tribes, bewailed their captivity, and the mothers lamented for those slain near Bethlehem. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 3. The threefold Turn
3. The threefold Turn
Jer_31:15-22
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15 Thus saith Jehovah: A voice is heard in Ramah,
Lamentation and most bitter crying;
Rachel weeps for her children,
Refusing11 to be comforted for her children, for they are no more.12
16 Thus saith Jehovah: Restrain thy voice from weeping,
And thine eyes from tears:
For there is reward for thy work, saith Jehovah;
And they shall return from the land of the enemy.
17 There is also hope for thy future, saith Jehovah;
And children13 shall return to their border.
18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself;
Thou hast chastised me,
And I allowed myself to be chastised like an untrained bullock.
Turn thou me again, that I may turn;
For thou art Jehovah my God.
19 For after my revolt,14 I repent;
And after I have learned to know myself,15 I smite on the thigh:
I blush, I am also ashamed
That I have borne the reproach of my youth.
20 Is then Ephraim a favourite16 son to me or a bosom-child,17
That whenever I speak against him I must still remember him?
Therefore my bowels heave towards him;
I must have pity on him, saith Jehovah.
21 Erect for thyself signals, set up for thyself poles,18
Turn thy mind to the highway, the way thou wentest!
Return, O virgin Israel,
Return to these thy cities.
22 How long wilt thou turn hither and thither,19 thou backsliding daughter?20
For Jehovah has created a new thing on earth:—
The woman shall turn the man.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This strophe causes the return of Israel, set forth before us in prospect, to be seen from another side, viz. as at the same time an inward return to God, or conversion. In a wonderfully touching picture the prophet represents Rachel, the mother of the house of Joseph, as raising a lamentation at Ramah over the tracks of those who are going into exile, as though they were dead (Jer_31:15). Jehovah Himself, however, comforts her; a reward is still to be hoped for her work and comfort for the future, for the return of her children is promised (Jer_31:16-17). But is this possible? Yes, for Israel will turn inwardly to the Lord and thus fulfil that condition, which the outward return as a necessary consequence thereof must have. The prophet does this by introducing Ephraim as speaking and causing him to make an honest and hearty confession (Jer_31:18-19). On this Jehovah gives us to understand in touching words that His love for Ephraim is deeply rooted and invincible (Jer_31:20). Ephraim consequently receives the command to make all the preparations for return. Thus at the same time the (according to Jer_3:1) entirely new and unheard of case is now realized, that a woman, rejected and shared by other men, brings back her first husband (Jer_31:21-22).
Jer_31:15. Thus saith Jehovah … they are no more. With respect to Ramah and the grave of Rachel the greatest obscurity still prevails. My view is as follows: 1. The tomb of Rachel was near Ramah. This definitely follows from this passage and 1Sa_10:2. Delitzschremarks (Comm. on Genesis , 2 te Aufl. ter Theil., S. 53) that Rachel’s weeping is heard in Ramah not because her tomb is in the neighborhood, but because, according to Jer_40:1, the exiles assembled there, but to this it is opposed (a) that according to 1Sa_10:2 the tomb of Rachel was positively near Ramah; and (b) that Rachel’s weeping does not refer to the exiles mentioned in Jer_40:1; for these were Jews, while according to the whole connection of this passage, Rachel bewails the exile of the Ephraimites. 2. Ramah, near which was Rachel’s tomb and where Samuel dwelt (1Sa_10:2) was in Benjamin, in the vicinity of Gibeah, north of Jerusalem. This is seen from Jdg_19:13; Isa_10:29; Hos_5:8. In Jos_18:25 it is expressly said that Ramah was in Benjamin. The original and complete name is Ramathaim Zophim (רָמָתַיִם צוֹפִים), 1Sa_1:1 coll. Jer_31:19. The statement that Ramah was situated on the mountains of Ephraim (Jdg_4:5; 1Sa_1:1) is not in contradiction to this, for the southern slopes of the mountains of Ephraim extended thus far. (Comp. Herzog, R.-Enc. XII. S. 515 [Robinson, Bibl. Researches, II. 315–317; 331–334; Thomson, The Land and the Book, II., 503.—S. R. A.]). It has been objected to the identity of the Ramah of Samuel and the Ramah near Gibeah that Saul in seeking the she-asses took three days in going from Gibeah to Ramah (1Sa_9:20), and that David fleeing from Gibeah took refuge in Ramah (1Sa_19:18). Even Raumer (Paläst. S. 219) lays some weight on these objections. [Comp. also Smith, Bible Dict., s. v. Ramah.—S. R. A.]. As to the first, however, it is clear from 1Sa_9:4-5 that Saul did not follow the direct road, but seeking or pursuing the track of the asses, reached Ramah by a very circuitous route. With respect to the second Ruetschi (Herz. R.-Enc., ut sup.) has replied that David did not seek (temporary) protection from the city of Ramah but from Samuel. 3. There is also a Ramah in Gilead (Ramoth, Ramath Mizpeh, Jos_13:26; Jos_20:8; Jos_21:38, etc.); another south-west from Jerusalem, west of the mountains of Judea (Ramathlebi, Jdg_15:17=Eleutheropolis. Comp. Raumer, Paläst, S. 185, 6); a third in Naphtali (Jos_19:36); a fourth in Asher (Jos_19:29). A fifth place, which sometimes occurs under this name is Ramlah, a city which is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament (unless perhaps in Neh_11:33), of later origin, and very probably identical with Arimathea, and situated to the west of Jerusalem in the plain of Saron near Lydia (Diospolis). Comp. Raumer, Paläst., S. 217, 8, 448. There is then no Ramah in the vicinity of Bethlehem! 4. Bethlehem is doubtless also called Ephrath or Ephratah (Mic_5:1; Rth_1:2; 1Sa_17:12). Now if Rachel’s tomb is in the neighborhood of Ramah it cannot be near Bethlehem, and the Ephratah near which (Gen_36:16; Gen_36:19 coll. Jer_48:7) Rachel bore Benjamin and was buried, cannot be Bethlehem.
Now we read in 2Ch_13:19 of a place in the neighborhood of Bethel, the name of which according to the, Chethibh is עֶפְרוֹן but according to the Keri עִפְרַין. The latter reminds us of Ἐφραῖμ or Ἐφρέμ, a little town, which, according to Jerome, lay 20 m. p. north from Jerusalem, where Christ remained for some time after the resurrection of Lazarus (Joh_11:54). Josephus also relates (B. Jud. VI.9, 9) that Vespasian destroyed Βηθηλᾶ τε καὶ Ἐφραῖμ πολίχνια, and then rode to Jerusalem. In Jos_18:23עָפְרָה is mentioned among the cities of Benjamin. The same name recurs in 1Sa_13:17. Eusebius in his Onomast., s. v. Aphra, says: “est et hodie vicus Effrem in quinio milliario Bethiis ad Orientem respiciens.” The distances given point to the identity of Ephraim (Ephron) and Ophra. (Comp. Robinson, II., S. 333 sqq. [3:124]; Raumer, S. 189 and 216). Now it is remarkable that the Alexandrian translators in 1Sa_13:17 render the name עָפְרָה by Γοφερά, and on the other hand in Jos_18:23 by Ἐφραθά (Cod. Alex. Ἀφρά). From this it seems to follow that even in very ancient times עפרה and אפרת were interchanged, and that hence not only the הוא בית להם, Gen_35:19; Gen_48:7, but also the name אפרתה, Jer_35:16; Jer_35:19; Jer_48:7, is to be regarded as a corruption of the original reading. I had reached this result before Graf’s treatise on the situation of Bethel and Rama (Stud. u. Krit., 1854, 4., S. 86S) became known to me.—The prophet goes back in spirit to the time when the inhabitants of the kingdom of the ten tribes were led away to Assyria into captivity. Since that time, he says, making use of figurative language, may be heard in Ramah, the greater city near Rachel’s tomb (1Sa_20:2), nightly wailing and bitter weeping (Jer_6:26). It is Rachel who is weeping for her children. The inhabitants of the kingdom of the ten tribes may be designated children of Rachel, because at their head stands the tribe of Ephraim, which is frequently mentioned as a representative of the kingdom of Israel, Isa_7:2-5; Isa_7:8-9; Isa_7:17; Isa_11:13; Hos_4:17, etc.; Jer_7:15; Jer_31:9; Jer_31:18; Jer_31:20. The mother of the ruling tribe appears thus as the personification of the kingdom ruled by it. The spirit of Rachel is the genius of the kingdom of the ten tribes, whom the prophet represents by a bold poetical figure as rising from her tomb by night and bewailing the misery of her children.—Are no more. Comp. Isa_17:14; Eze_26:21.
Jer_31:16-17. Thus saith Jehovah . . . their border. The Lord comforts Rachel by promising her a glorious reward for her maternal labor and care, (on restrain thy voice comp. guard thy foot, Jer_2:25. On there is reward comp. 2Ch_15:7) viz. her children shall be redeemed from the land of captivity—and by setting before her the consolatory hope for the future, that the children will also return to their native land. On there is also hope comp. Jer_31:11.
Jer_31:18-19. I have surely . . . of my youth. These verses give the inner reason of that joyful change: Israel will fulfil the condition required of him by the Lord (Jer_3:13 sqq.). First the people express their acknowledgment that the chastisement was necessary for them, for they were like an untamed and untrained bullock (the prophet evidently has in mind Hos_10:11), but they have also let themselves be chastened and accepted the chastening (Jer_5:3). As Jeremiah here generally moves in the same circle of thought as in Jeremiah 3, so especially in what follows, where also as there the idea of turning forms the central point or pivot of his re-presentation.—Turn thou me, etc. The knowledge gained as the result of the chastisement produces a double effect: a positive and a negative. The positive effect consists in the desire to return to Jehovah. Meanwhile the people are well aware that willing is not performing. They therefore pray the Lord that He Himself will turn their hearts to Him, who alone is Israel’s God. (This is the sense of the causal sentence. For thou art, etc.). Then only will they really return. The bodily return is connected with the spiritual in the closest causal relation. Comp. Rems. on שׁוּבי, Jer_31:19, and Lam_5:21.—Lam_3:40; Psa_80:4; Psa_80:8—The negative effect, which on their part forms the psychological condition of the positive, and is therefore introduced by for, is the inner turning and cutting loose from all that which had allured Israel, but had yet only brought him to hurt and shame.—The smiting on the side (יְרֵכַיִם ,יָרֵךְduo femina cum natibus, comp. Eze_21:17) was a sign of mourning. Comp. Winer and Herzog, R.-Enc., s. v. Trauer.—I blush, etc. Comp. Isa_45:16-17.—The connection of this passage is then as follows: Ephraim has taken the chastening to heart. In consequence he addresses the prayer for power to return to Jehovah, for he has now learned to repent of his turning away from Him, and to be ashamed of the consequences.
Jer_31:20-22. Is then Ephraim . . . the man. Jehovah grants the moving petition. Astonished at surprising Himself, as it were, in such tender feelings towards Ephraim, Jehovah asks Himself if then Ephraim is his favorite son, his darling child (enfant gâté), since often as he has been obliged to bring the severe judgment of rejection upon him, he has yet never been able to forget him.—Speak against. We may compare 2Ch_22:10, where it is said of Athaliah that she arose and וַתְּדַבֵּר all the seed royal. But apart from דִּבֵּר being here construed with a single accusative, we have in the parallel passage (2Ki_11:1) וַתְּאַבֵּד so that it is easy to suspect a mistake. Now דִּבֵּר and נִדְבַּר in the sense of “speak,” are frequently connected with בְּ in different meanings: loqui per aliquem (Num_12:2), de aliquo (Deu_6:7; 1Sa_19:3; Psa_119:46 coll. 23), ad aliquem (Num_12:8; Hab_2:1; Zec_1:9, etc., Num_12:2, etc., 1Sa_25:39; Son_8:8). But it also signifies loqui contra aliquem, Num_21:7 coll. Jer_31:5; Psa_50:20; Psa_78:19. This last meaning corresponds perfectly to the connection here:—Often as I (מִדֵי as in 1Sa_18:30; 1Ki_14:28) speak against him, i. e., cast him from me by a sentence of reprobation, yet I cannot forget him. I am always reminded of him again, and then the old feelings of love and pity are excited anew.—Mybowels. Drechsler, correctly remarks on Isa_16:5, that מֵעִים does not like σπλάγχνα, viscera, include the nobler entrails (the heart). The word does not therefore designate the innermost source of the feelings, but only a place of the external organism where these make themselves specially noticeable. Comp. Son_5:4; Job_30:27; Lam_1:20; Lam_2:11; Isa_63:15; Jer_4:19.—The immediate effect of this excitation of love, is that Israel receives directions to make preparations for the journey homewards. Thus persons are to be sent in advance to set up stone pillars as way marks for the coming train, צִיֻןcippus, monumentum; comp. 2Ki_23:17. Eze_39:15.—Israel’s returning by the same road which he came is comforting in two respects, first in itself, second because it is known and easier to retrace.—-The word these, before thy cities, shows unquestionably that the author has his point of view in Palestine, and not in the lands of the captivity. Comp. Graf, S. 387, Anm.
Turn hither and thither. Hitzig finds in this not incorrectly the collateral idea of delay. This accords well with how long? which expresses a certain degree of impatience. Israel does not respond quickly enough to the invitation to return. The Lord has to drive him. The expression backsliding daughter, occurs besides only in a much later passage, of the people of the Ammonites.—It is surprising, that the Lord in the midst of this assurance of His tenderest love, and after Israel in Jer_31:18-19, has manifested such sincere and deep penitence, should utter another word of harsh censure. In this passage there appears to me to be a play upon words. In the section Jer_3:1-4; Jer_3:2 namely, to which this discourse is most closely related in matter as well as in form, the prophet gives as many variations of the theme שׁוּב as possible, sometimes applying the idea to Israel and Judah in a physical, at others in a spiritual sense. A similar variation though in abbreviated measure is found in Jer_8:4-5. In this passage also from Jer_31:19 onwards, the idea of שׁוּב forms the main thought. It is, however, variously modified: in Jer_31:16-17 the word is referred to bodily return, in Jer_31:18 to spiritual and bodily turning, and in Jer_31:19 to spiritual alienation, in Jer_31:21 again to bodily conditioned by spiritual turning. Now when the prophet in Jer_31:22 calls Israel שׁוֹבֵבָה, would he not thus wish to say that Israel is a person, who makes much of turning, who applies the idea of שׁוּב in every possible way? It appears to me that the prophet with the following sentence goes back again to the conceptions of Jeremiah 3. In the beginning of this chapter he designates it as a crime profaning the land that a man return to his rejected wife, who has meanwhile been another’s. Notwithstanding that Israel is such a wife, Jehovah yet calls her back to Himself. This is the repentance of which our passage speaks. For when the Lord does something which, according to His own law, has been hitherto regarded as inadmissible, this is certainly an exception to the rule, therefore something new and extraordinary. If now we ask how the Lord comes to make such an exception?—the answer is given in Jer_31:20. Israel has done this to the Lord, he is His darling child, whom he cannot forget. Israel is like a magnet which irresistibly attracts the Lord. Israel, the woman, here mentioned by the specific name of the sex נְקֵבָה, causes the Lord to turn to herself, who is also antithetically designated by the word נֶבֶר which sets forth the specific distinction of the male sex. Thus the weak is victorious over the strong. It is not only a new thing that the Lord returns to his desecrated wife, but that this power to bring back proceeds from the weak, so that the strong succumbs to the weak. I therefore take תְּסוֹבֵב in the sense of “ to turn round, to cause to turn back.” Although no passage can be shown where סוֹבֵב is really used in this sense (everywhere where it occurs, it means either circuire, Psa_26:6; Psa_55:11; Psa_59:7; Psa_59:15; Son_3:2, or circumdare; Deu_32:10; Psa_7:8; Psa_32:7; Psa_32:10; Jon_2:4; Jon_2:6), this is only accidental, for there is nothing in the radical meaning which excludes this sense. The root סב which is radically related to שׁוּב has the meaning of turning or returning in the widest sense. And that it may also stand for reverti is shown by the passage, Psa_71:20-21, where the verb is interchanged with שׁוּב. It cannot then be denied that תסובב may mean reducit. תִּשׁוֹבֵב would certainly be more suitable, especially as corresponding more exactly to שׁוֹבֵבָח, and it is not indeed impossible that the prophet did originally write תשובב. Neither the שׁובבה, nor in general the importance of the idea שׁוּבּ for the explanation of the whole passage, and particularly the reference to Jer_3:1 being understood, may have occasioned the change into תסובב, unless indeed it is an error of the copyist. It is not, however, at all necessary to alter the reading, since even this, as we have shown, gives the sense required by the connection. It is exceedingly difficult to give the play upon words in the translation, since we have no corresponding word with the same variety of meanings. I know no better rendering now than “thou turn-coat daughter,” though the phrase is not particularly suitable as applied to a nation. This explanation is not a new one. It is essentially that of most of the Rabbins: “Proinde Hebræi hunc locum sic legendum contendunt: femina reducet virum, et hoc est novum in terra, at mulier, quæ passim aliis viris se prostituit, veteris mariti cupida, illum iterum sui amantem obtineat.” Muenster. My explanation of שׁוֹבֵבָה only is new, so far as I know, for all the commentators take the word as simply equivalent to שׁוֹבָבָה. The other explanations of the passage whose number is legion, all do violence either to the language or the connection. To mention only the principal ones—the old orthodox explanation, which refer the words “a woman shall compass,” etc., to the birth of the Saviour from a virgin, must take נקבה in the sense of virgin, a meaning which the word never has nor can have. Abarbanel explains “feminœ viros circumdabunt, i. e., superabunt,” understanding by the women the weak Israelites, by the men their strong enemies. But neither is this a new thing, nor has סובב this meaning. “Femina vertetur in virum” is the translation of Abulmalid, R. Tanchum, who are followed by Luther (in the first editions of his Bible till 1538) and by Ewald among the moderns. The alteration of תְּסוֹבֵב into תְּסוֹבַב, however, or the rendering of the former in a passive sense is forced: the sense also must be such as to agree with the context. The explanation proposed by Schnurrer, which is adopted by many modern commentators, is “the woman will protect the man,”—but neither corresponds to the connection, nor is it satisfactory in itself. When women protect men, either the men are become women and the women men, or there is no need of any protection.—The explanation given by Hitzig, “femina ambibit virum,” which is found also in Castalio and Clericus (Vid. Graf, S. 389) is not inappropriate in meaning, but cannot be justified grammatically. Hengstenberg, to whom Graf attaches himself for want of a better, takes סוֹבֵב in the sense of “to keep one’s self near, to persist in dependence, seeking protection” (Christology, Eng. Tr., II., p. 429). But this rendering is developed from the idea of “surrounding” which cannot be declared of a single person with respect to another. The sense thus obtained is also the reverse of the primary meaning of the words, on which the rendering is based. Radically the explanation of Hengstenberg is no other than that the man will surround the woman with his protection, as Meier also actually renders the words in his translation. Besides the larger commentaries, there are many monographs on this passage. Lists of them are found in Seb. Schmidt, Starke, J. D. Michaelis, Observ. in Jer., p. 248; Rosenmueller; Dietelmair in the Engl. Biblework, Tom. IX., S. 543. I add Andr. Dan. Habichhorst, Diss, de femina circumdante virum, 1670 and 1677.
[Of English and American commentators, Blayney fenders “a woman shall put to the rout a strong man.” Henderson: “Woman shall encompass man,” following however Blayney and Calvin in his explanation, “Jehovah would make the feeblest of them more than a match for the most powerful of their foes.” Wordsworth retains the interpretation of the words, which refers them to the miraculous conception of the Virgin, quoting in favor of this view S. Jerome and Jackson and Pearson on the Creed, with references also to Justin Martyr, Cyprian, Augustine, Luther, Œcolampadius, Chemnitz, Galatinus, Calovius, Huetius, etc. Noyes translates “the woman shall protect the man,” with the note, “there shall be a state of peace and security, so that those who are regarded as feeble and defenceless, and unfit for war, shall be competent to the defence of the country.” Cowles agrees most closely with Naegelsbach, referring “the woman” to the Virgin Israel, the people of God, who “instead of perpetually going about after other lovers, will go about (in the sense of seeking to win the love of) her own divine Lord."—S. R. A.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Joh. Conr. Schaller, pastor at Cautendorf, says in his Gospel Sermons, (Hof. 1742, S. 628), “These chapters are like a sky in which sparkle many brilliant stars of strong and consolatory declarations, a paradise and pleasure-garden in which a believing soul is refreshed with delightsome flowers of instruction, and solaced with sweetly flavored apples of gracious promise.”
2. On Jer_30:1-3. The people of Israel were not then capable of bearing such a prophecy, brimming over with happiness and glory. They would have misused it, hearing to the end what was promised them, and then only the more certainly postponing what was the only thing then necessary—sincere repentance. Hence they are not yet to hear this gloriously consolatory address. It is to be written, that it may in due time be perceived that the Lord, even at the time when He was obliged to threaten most severely, had thoughts of peace concerning the people, and that thus the period of prosperity has not come by chance, nor in consequence of a change of mind, but in consequence of a plan conceived from the beginning and executed accordingly.
3. On Jer_30:7. The great and terrible day of the Lord (Joe_3:4) has not the dimensions of a human day. It has long sent out its heralds in advance. Yea, it has itself already dawned. For since by the total destruction of the external theocracy judgment is begun at the house of God (1Pe_4:17), we stand in the midst of the day of God in the midst of the judgment of the world. Then the time of trouble for Jacob has begun (Jer_30:7), from which he is to be delivered, when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in (Romans 11.)
4. On Jer_30:9. Christ is David in his highest potency, and He is also still more. For if we represent all the typical points in David’s life as a circle, and draw a line from each of these points, the great circle thus formed would comprise only a part of the πλήρωμα given in Christ. Nevertheless Christ is the true David, who was not chosen like Saul for his bodily stature, but only for his inward relation to God (comp. Psa_2:7), whose kingdom also does not cease after a short period of glory, but endures forever; who will not like Saul succumb to his enemies, but will conquer them all, and will give to his kingdom the widest extent promised; all this however not without, like David, having gone through the bitterest trials.
5. On Jer_30:11. “Modus paternæ castigationis accommodatus et quasi appensus ad stateram judicii Dei adeoque non immensus sed dimensus.” “Christus ecclesiam crucis suæ hæredem constituit. Gregor. M.” Förster.
6. On Jer_30:14. “Cum virlutem patientiæ nostræ flagella transeunt, valde metuendum est, ne peccatis nostris exigentibus non jam quasi filii a patre, sed quasi hostes a Domino feriamur. Gregor. M. Moral. XIV. 20, on Job_19:11.” Ghisler.
7. On Jer_30:17. “Providentia Dei mortalibus salutifera, antequam percutiat, pharmaca medendi gratiâ componit, et gladium iræ suæ φιλανθρωπίᾳ acuit. Evagr. Hist. Ecc_4:6.”—“Quando incidis in tentationem, crede, quod nisi cognovisset te posse illam evadere, non permisisset te in illam incidere. Theophyl. in cap. 18 Joh.” Förster.—“Feriam prius et sanabo melius. Theophyl. in Hosea 11.” Ghisler.
8. On Jer_30:21. “This church of God will own a, Prince from its midst—Jesus, of our flesh and blood through the virgin Mary, and He approaches God, as no other can, for He is God’s image, God’s Son, and at the same time the perfect, holy in all His sufferings, only obedient son of man. This king is mediator and reconciler with God; He is also high-priest and fulfilled all righteousness, as was necessary for our propitiation. What glory to have such a king, who brings us nigh unto God, and this is our glory!” Diedrich.
9. On Jer_31:1. “There is no greater promise than this: I will be thy God. For if He is our God we are His creatures, His redeemed, His sanctified, according to all the three articles of the Christian faith.” Cramer.
10. On Jer_31:2. “The rough heap had to be sifted by the sword, but those who survived, though afflicted in the desert of this life, found favor with God, and these, the true Israel, God leads into His rest.” Diedrich.
11. On Jer_31:3. “The love of God towards us comes from love and has no other cause above or beside itself, but, is in God and remains in God, so that Christ who is in God is its centre. For herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us (1Jn_4:10).” Cramer. “Totum gratiæ imputatur, non nostris meritis. Augustine in Psalms 31.” Förster. “Before I had done anything good Thou hadst already moved towards me. Let these words be written on your hearts with the pen of the living God, that they may light you like flames of fire on the day of the marriage. It is your certificate of birth, your testimonial. Let me never lose sight of how much it has cost Thee to redeem me.” Zinzendorf. “God says: My chastisement even was pure love, though then you did not understand it; you shall learn it afterwards.” Diedrich. [“I incline to the construction given in the English version, both because the suffix to the verb is more naturally, ‘I have drawn thee,’ than ‘I have drawn out toward thee,’ and because there seems to be a tacit allusion to Hos_11:4, ‘With loving kindness have I drawn thee.’—-A great moral truth lies in this passage so construed, viz., that the main power which humbles man’s pride, softens his hard heart and makes him recoil in shame and sorrow from sinning, comes through his apprehension of God’s love as manifested in Christ and His cross. It is love that, draws the fearful or stubborn soul to the feet of divine mercy.” Cowles.—S. R. A.]
12. On Jer_31:6. “It is well: the watchmen on Mount Ephraim had to go to Zion. They received however another visit from the Jewish priests, which they could not have expected at the great reformation, introduced by John, and which had its seat among other places on Mount Ephraim. The Samaritans were not far distant, and Mount Ephraim had even this honor that when the Lord came to His temple He took His Seat as a teacher there.” Zinzendorf. [“God’s grace loves to triumph over the most inveterate prejudices… No words could represent a greater and more benign change in national feeling than these: Samaria saying through her spiritual watchmen, ‘Let us go up to Zion to worship, for our God is there.’ ” Cowles. “ ‘Ascendamus in Sion, hoc est in Ecclesiam’ says S. Jerome. According to this view, the watchmen here mentioned are the Preachers of the Gospel.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_31:9. “I will lead them. It is an old sighing couplet, but full of wisdom and solid truth:—
‘Lord Jesus, while I live on earth, O guide me,
Let me not, self-led, wander from beside Thee.’ ”
—Zinzendorf.
14. On Jer_31:10. “He who has scattered Israel will also collect it. Why? lie is the Shepherd. It is no wolf-scattering. He interposes His hand, then they go asunder, and directly come together again more orderly.” Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer_31:12-14. “Gaudebunt electi, quando videbunt supra se, intra se, juxta se, infra se. Augustine.”—“Præmia cœlestia erunt tam magna, ut non possint mensurari, tam multa, ut non possint numerari, tam copiosa, ut non possint terminari, tam pretiosa, ut non possint æstimari. Bernhard.” Förster.
16. On Jer_31:15. “Because at all times there is a similar state of things in the church of God, the lament of Rachel is a common one. For as this lament is over the carrying away captive and oppressions of Babylon, so is it also a lament over the tyranny of Herod in slaughtering the innocent children (Mat_2:1-7.)”Cramer. “Premuntur justi in ecclesia ut clament, clamantes exaudiuntur, exauditi glorificent Deum. Augustin.” Förster.—With respect to this, that Rachel’s lament may be regarded as a type of maternal lamentation over lost children, Förster quotes this sentence of Cyprian: non amisimus, sed præmisimus (2Sa_12:23). [On the application of this verse to the murder of the innocents consult W. L. Alexander, Connexion of the Old and New. Testament, p. 54, and W. H. Mill in Wordsworth’s Note in loc.—S. R. A.]
17. On Jer_31:18. The conversion of man must always be a product of two factors. A conversion which man alone should bring about, without God, would be an empty pretence of conversion; a conversion, which God should produce, without man, would be a compulsory, manufactured affair, without any moral value. The merit and the praise is, however, always on God’s side. He gives the will and the execution. Did He not discipline us, we should never learn discipline. Did He not lead back our thoughts to our Father’s house which we have left (Luke 15) we should never think of returning.
18. On Jer_31:19. “The children of God are ashamed their life long, they cannot raise their heads for humiliation. For their sins always seem great to them, and the grace of God always remains something incomprehensible to them.”Zinzendorf. The farther the Christian advances in his consciousness of sonship and in sanctification, the more brilliantly rises the light of grace, the more distinctly does he perceive in this light, how black is the night of his sins from which God has delivered him. [“It is the ripest and fullest ears of grain which hang their heads the lowest.”—S. R. A.]
19. On Jer_31:19. “The use of the dear cross is to make us blush (Dan_9:8) and not regard ourselves as innocent (Jer_30:11). And as it pleases a father when a child soon blushes, so also is this tincture a flower of virtue well-pleasing to God.” Cramer. “Deus oleum miserationis suæ non nisi in vas contritum et contribulatum infundit. Bernhard.”Förster.
20. On Jer_31:19. The reproach of my youth. “The sins of youth are not easily to be forgotten (Psa_25:7; Job_31:18). Therefore we ought to be careful so to act in our youth as not to have to chew the cud of bitter reflection in our old age. It is a comfort that past sins of youth will not injure the truly penitent. Non nocent peccata præterita, cum non placent præsentia. Augustine. To transgress no more is the best sign of repentance.” Cramer.
21. On Jer_31:20. “Comforting and weighty words, which each one should lay to heart. God loves and caresses us as a mother her good child. He remembers His promise. His heart yearns and breaks, and it is His pleasure to do us good.” Cramer. “lpsius proprium est, misereri semper et parcere.” Augustine.—“Major est Dei misericordia quam omnium hominum miseria.” Idem.
22. On Jer_31:23. The Lord bless thee, thou dwelling-place of righteousness, thou holy mountain. “Certainly no greater honor was ever done to the Jewish mountains than that the woman’s seed prayed and wept on them, was transfigured, killed and ascended above all heaven.” Zinzendorf. “ It cannot be denied that a church sanctifies a whole place …. Members of Jesus are real guardian angels, who do not exist in the imagination, but are founded on God’s promise (Mat_25:40).” Idem.
23. On Jer_31:29-30. “The so-called family curse has no influence on the servants of God; one may sleep calmly nevertheless. This does not mean that we should continue in the track of our predecessors, ex. gr., when our ancestors have gained much wealth by sinful trade, that we should continue this trade with this wealth with the hope of the divine blessing…. If this or that property, house, right, condition be afflicted with a curse, the children of God may soon by prudent separation deliver themselves from these unsafe circumstances. For nothing attaches to their persons, when they have been baptized with the blood of Jesus and are blessed by Him.” Zinzendorf.
24. On Jer_31:29-30. “In testamento novo per sarguinem mediatoris deleto paterno chirographo incipit homo paternis debitis non esse obnoxius renascendo, quibus nascendo fuerat obligatus, ipso Mediatore di cente: Ne vobis patrem dicüis in terra (Mat_23:9). Secundum hoc utique, quod alios natales, quibus non patri succederemus, sed cum patre semper viveremus, invenimus.” Augustine, contra Julian, VI. 12, in Ghisler.
25. On Jer_31:31. “In veteribus libris aut nusquam aut difficile præter hunc propheticum locum legitur facta commemoratio testamenti novi, ut omnino ipso nomine appellaretur. Nam multis locis hoc significalur et prænuntiatur futurum, sed non ita ut etiam nomen lega’ ur expressum.” Augustine, de Spir. et Lit. ad Marcellin, Cap. 19 (where to Cap. 29 there is a detailed discussion of this passage) in Ghisler.—“In the whole of the Old Testament there is no passage, in which the view is so clearly and distinctly expressed as here that the law is only παιδαγαγός. And though some commentators have supposed that the passage contains only a censure of the Israelites and not of the Old Covenant, they only show thus that they have not understood the simple meaning of the words.” Ebrard. Comm. zum Hebräerbr. S. 275.
26. On Jer_31:31, sqq. “Propter veteris hominis noxam, quæ per literam jubentem et minantem minime sanabatur, dicitur illud testamentum vetus; hoc antem novum propter novitatem spiritus, quæ hominem novum sanat a vitio vetustatis.” Augustine, c. Lit. Cap. 19.
27. On Jer_31:33. “Quid sunt ergo leges Dei ab ipso Deo scriptæ in cordibus, nisi ipsa præsentia Spiritus sancti, qui est digitus Dei, quo præsente diffunditur charitas in cordibus nostrio, quæ plenitudo legis est et præcepti finis?” Augustine, l. c. Cap. 20.
28. On Jer_31:34. “Quomodo tempus est novi testamenti, de quo propheta dixit: et non docebit unusquisque civem suum, etc. nisi quia rjusdem testamenti novi æternam mercedem, id est ipsius Dei beatissimam contemplationem promittendo conjunxit?” Augustine, l. c. Cap. 24.
29. On Jer_31:33-34. “This is the blessed difference between law and Gospel, between form and substance. Therefore are the great and small alike, and the youths like the elders, the pupils more learned than their teachers, and the young wiser than the ancients (1Jn_2:20 sqq.). Here is the cause:—For I will forgive their iniquities. This is the occasion of the above; no one can effect this without it. Forgiveness of sins makes the scales fall from people’s eyes, and gives them a cheerful temper, clear conceptions, a clear head.”Zinzendorf.
30. On Jer_31:35-37. “Etsi particulares ecclesiæ intotum deficere possunt, ecclesia tamen catholica nunquam defecit aut deficiet. Obstant enim Dei amplissimæ promissiones, inter quas non ultimum locum sibi vindicut quæ hic habetur Jer_31:37.” Förster.
31. On Jer_31:38-40. “Jerusalem will one day be much greater than it has ever been. This is not to be understood literally but spiritually. Jerusalem will be wherever there are believing souls, its circle will be without end and comprise all that has been hitherto impure and lost. This it is of which the prophet is teaching, and which he presents in figures, which were intelligible to the people in his time. The hill Gareb, probably the residence of the lepers, the emblem of the sinner unmasked and smitten by God, and the cursed valley of Ben-Hinnom will be taken up into the holy city. God’s grace will one day effect all this, and Israel will thus be manifested as much more glorious than ever before.” Diedrich.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_30:5-9. Sermon on one of the last Sundays after Trinity or the second in Advent. The day of the judgment of the world a great day. For it is, (1) a day of anxiety and terror for all the world; (2) a day of deliverance from all distress for the church of the Lord; (3) a day of realization of all the happiness set in prospect before it.
2. On Jer_30:10-12. Consolation of the church in great trial. 1. It has well deserved the trial (Jer_30:12); 2. it is therefore chastised, but with moderation; 3. it will not perish but again enjoy peace.
3. On Jer_30:17. [“The Restorer of mankind. 1. Faith in the Christian Sacrament and its attendant revelation of divine character alone answer the demand of the heart and reason of man for a higher state of moral perfection. 2. Christianity offers to maintain a communication between this world and that eternal world of holiness and truth. 3. It commends itself to our wants in the confirmation and direction of that principle of hope, which even in our daily and worldly life, we are perpetually forced to substitute for happiness, and 4. By the adorable object, which it presents to our affections.” Archer Butler—S. R. A.]
4. On Jer_31:1-2. Gesetz and Zeugniss (Law and Testimony) 1864, Heft. 1. Funeral sermon of Ahlfeld.
5. On Jer_31:2-4. lb. 1865. Heft 1. Funeral sermon of Besser, S. 32 ff.
6. On Jer_31:3. C. Fr. Hartmann (Wedding, School, Catechism and Birth-day sermons, ed. C. Chr. Eberh. Ehemann. Tüb. 1865). Wedding sermon. 1. A grateful revival in the love of God already received. 2. Earnest endeavor after a daily enjoyment of this love. 3. Daily nourishment of hope.
7. On Jer_31:3. Florey. Comfort and warning at graves. I. Bändchen, S. 253. On the attractions of God’s love towards His own children. They are, 1. innumerable and yet so frequently overlooked; 2. powerful and yet so frequently resisted; 3. rich in blessing and yet so frequently; unemployed. [For practical remarks on this text see also Tholuck, Stunden der Andacht, No. 11.—S. R. A.]
8. On Jer_31:9. Confessional sermon by Dekan V. Biarowsky in Erlangen (in Palmer’s Evang. Casual-Reden, 2 te Folge, 1 Band. Stuttgart, 1850.) Every partaking of the Lord’s supper is a return to the Lord in the promised land, and every one who is a guest at the supper rises and comes. 1. How are we to come? (weeping and praying). 2. What shall we find? (Salvation and blessing, power and life, grace and help).
9. On Jer_31:18-20. Comparison of conversion with the course of the earth and the sun. 1. The man who has fallen away is like the planet in its distance from the sun; he flees from God as far as he Song of Solomon 2. Love however does not release him: a. he is chastened (winter, cold, long nights, short days); b. he accepts the chastening and returns to proximity to the sun (summer, warmth, light, life). Comp. Brandt, Altes und Neues in i extemporirbaren Entwürfen. Nüremberg, 1829, II. 5. [The stubborn sinner submitting himself to God. I. A description of the feelings and conduct of an obstinate, impenitent sinner, while smarting under the rod of affliction: He is rebellious—till subdued. II. The new views and feelings produced by affliction through divine grace: (a) convinced of guilt and sinfulness; (b) praying; (c) reflecting on the effects of divine grace in his conversion. III. A correcting but compassionate God, watching the result, etc., (a) as a tender father mindful of his penitent child; (b) listening to his complaints, confessions and petitions; (c) declaring His determination to pardon. Payson.—S. R. A.]
10. On Jer_31:31-34. Sermon on 1 Sunday in Advent by Pastor Diechert in Gröningen, S. Stern aus Jakob. I. Stuttg. 1867.
11. On Jer_31:33-34. Do we belong to the people of God? 1. Have we holiness? 2. Have we knowledge? 3. Have we the peace promised to this people? (Caspari in Predigtbuch von Dittmar, Erlangen, 1845).
12. On Jer_31:33-34. By the new covenant in the bath of holy baptism all becomes new. 1. What was dead becomes alive 2. What was obscure becomes clear. 3. What was cold becomes warm. 4. What was bound becomes free (Florey, 1862).
Footnotes:
[11]Jer_31:15.—מאנה. Comp. Jer_3:3; Jer_5:3; Jer_8:5; Jer_15:18.
[12]Jer_31:15.—כי איננו. As in Jer_11:4 the plural pronoun is referred to a singular, regarded collectively, so here, the case being reversed, the singular pronoun is referred to a plural, regarded as a unity. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 61, 1; Psa_5:9; Job_24:24; כֻּלּה Job_8:6, etc.
[13]Jer_31:17.—The article is wanting before בָּנִים, comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 71,3.
[14]Jer_31:19.—אחרי שׁובי. This שׁובי has been commonly taken in the same sense as in Jer_31:18 [A. V.: Surely after that I was turned], which has given rise to great obscurity and to arbitrary attempts to avoid it, as e.g. by Venema, who takes שׁוּבּי at once for שׁוּב לִי i. e. after I had come again to myself. The only correct rendering is that of Hitzig and Graf. They take שׁוּב in the sense of se avertere a Jove. They are justified in this by מְשׁוָּבה (Jer_3:6; Jer_3:8; Jer_3:11-12, etc.), שׁוֹבַב (Jer_3:14; Jer_3:22), שׁוֹבְבָה ,שׁוֹבֵבָה (Jer_8:6; Jer_31:22), and by the expression שׁוּב מאַהֲרַי י׳ (Jer_3:19), which does not indeed occur without the מאחרי in Jer_8:4, but it does in Jos_23:12. It seems as though the prophet, here also as well an in Jeremiah 3, were endeavoring to bring the idea of שׁוּב into application in as great a variety of meanings as possible.
[15]Jer_31:19.—הורעי. Many commentators take this word in the sense of the passive of הוֹדִיעַ, edocere = to be made wise, to he instructed. But Niph. is only the reflexive or passive of Kal. It means therefore only to be acknowledged or to acknowledge one’s self. The latter signification, in which it moreover appears to be used in no other passage of the Old Testament but this, corresponds perfectly to the connection.
[16]Jer_31:20.—יקיד Hebrew here only; Chald. Ezr_4:10; Dan_2:11. It denotes, like יָקָר (Jer_15:19; Lam_4:2, etc). and יְקָר (Jer_20:5), what is precious, a jewel.
[17]Jer_31:20.—שׁעשׁועים. Comp. נְטַע שֵֽׁעֲשׁוּעָיו, Isa_5:7 coll. Pro_8:30-31.
[18]Jer_31:21.—תַּמְרוּרִים from תָמַר, prominuit, related to תֹּמֵר, palmæ truncus, Jer_10:5, and תְּמָרָה, columna, Joe_3:3, occurs here only. All other preparations are comprised in the brief phrase שָׁתִי לִכֵּך וגוֹ׳, Comp. Exo_7:23; Psa_48:14.
[19]Jer_31:22.—תתּחמקין. The verb is found only in Son_5:6 and connected with עָבַד. The connection requires the meaning of “to turn one’s self away,” with which the only noun derived from it חָמוּק (Son_7:2) accords. This can only signify “winding, rounding” (Delitzsch: the swinging of thy loins). According to the etymology then the Hithp. must have the sense of turning one’s self hither and thither.
[20]Jer_31:22.—הבת השזבבה. Observe that it is שׁוֹבֵבָה, not שׁוֹבָבָה, as in Jer_3:14; Jer_3:22; Isa_57:17. The passive form has doubtless the meaning of “turned away, alienated.” The active form must primarily have an active meaning. The Pilel from שׁוּב is primarily objective causative and signifies to make some one or something return, bring back (Jer_50:19), restore (Psa_60:3; Psa_23:3), to render alienated (Isa_47:10). It may also have a subjective causative meaning: to make a turn, back or away, i. e. to turn one’s self back, to desert. Hiphil has primarily this signification. (Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., § 18, 3; 1Ki_8:47). But the Piel forms also have it (Ew., § 120, c). As now it is decided by the connection in what sense the verb שׁוֹבֵב is to be taken, the meaning of the N. verbate is also thus decided. It may then mean one who brings back, restores, alienates, and also one who turns, deserts. It has the latter meaning in Jer_49:4 and Mic_2:4.—The Pilel of hollow roots includes also the significance of the Piel (Ewald, § 121 a, coll. § 120). Especially does this word seem to me to involve the idea of שׁוּב in the causative sense, which corresponds to the following תְּסוֹבֵב, i.e., in the sense of reducens (comp. מְשׁוֹבֵב, Isa_58:12; Olsh., S. 552).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Joh. Conr. Schaller, pastor at Cautendorf, says in his Gospel Sermons, (Hof. 1742, S. 628), “These chapters are like a sky in which sparkle many brilliant stars of strong and consolatory declarations, a paradise and pleasure-garden in which a believing soul is refreshed with delightsome flowers of instruction, and solaced with sweetly flavored apples of gracious promise.”
2. On Jer_30:1-3. The people of Israel were not then capable of bearing such a prophecy, brimming over with happiness and glory. They would have misused it, hearing to the end what was promised them, and then only the more certainly postponing what was the only thing then necessary—sincere repentance. Hence they are not yet to hear this gloriously consolatory address. It is to be written, that it may in due time be perceived that the Lord, even at the time when He was obliged to threaten most severely, had thoughts of peace concerning the people, and that thus the period of prosperity has not come by chance, nor in consequence of a change of mind, but in consequence of a plan conceived from the beginning and executed accordingly.
3. On Jer_30:7. The great and terrible day of the Lord (Joe_3:4) has not the dimensions of a human day. It has long sent out its heralds in advance. Yea, it has itself already dawned. For since by the total destruction of the external theocracy judgment is begun at the house of God (1Pe_4:17), we stand in the midst of the day of God in the midst of the judgment of the world. Then the time of trouble for Jacob has begun (Jer_30:7), from which he is to be delivered, when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in (Romans 11.)
4. On Jer_30:9. Christ is David in his highest potency, and He is also still more. For if we represent all the typical points in David’s life as a circle, and draw a line from each of these points, the great circle thus formed would comprise only a part of the πλήρωμα given in Christ. Nevertheless Christ is the true David, who was not chosen like Saul for his bodily stature, but only for his inward relation to God (comp. Psa_2:7), whose kingdom also does not cease after a short period of glory, but endures forever; who will not like Saul succumb to his enemies, but will conquer them all, and will give to his kingdom the widest extent promised; all this however not without, like David, having gone through the bitterest trials.
5. On Jer_30:11. “Modus paternæ castigationis accommodatus et quasi appensus ad stateram judicii Dei adeoque non immensus sed dimensus.” “Christus ecclesiam crucis suæ hæredem constituit. Gregor. M.” Förster.
6. On Jer_30:14. “Cum virlutem patientiæ nostræ flagella transeunt, valde metuendum est, ne peccatis nostris exigentibus non jam quasi filii a patre, sed quasi hostes a Domino feriamur. Gregor. M. Moral. XIV. 20, on Job_19:11.” Ghisler.
7. On Jer_30:17. “Providentia Dei mortalibus salutifera, antequam percutiat, pharmaca medendi gratiâ componit, et gladium iræ suæ φιλανθρωπίᾳ acuit. Evagr. Hist. Ecc_4:6.”—“Quando incidis in tentationem, crede, quod nisi cognovisset te posse illam evadere, non permisisset te in illam incidere. Theophyl. in cap. 18 Joh.” Förster.—“Feriam prius et sanabo melius. Theophyl. in Hosea 11.” Ghisler.
8. On Jer_30:21. “This church of God will own a, Prince from its midst—Jesus, of our flesh and blood through the virgin Mary, and He approaches God, as no other can, for He is God’s image, God’s Son, and at the same time the perfect, holy in all His sufferings, only obedient son of man. This king is mediator and reconciler with God; He is also high-priest and fulfilled all righteousness, as was necessary for our propitiation. What glory to have such a king, who brings us nigh unto God, and this is our glory!” Diedrich.
9. On Jer_31:1. “There is no greater promise than this: I will be thy God. For if He is our God we are His creatures, His redeemed, His sanctified, according to all the three articles of the Christian faith.” Cramer.
10. On Jer_31:2. “The rough heap had to be sifted by the sword, but those who survived, though afflicted in the desert of this life, found favor with God, and these, the true Israel, God leads into His rest.” Diedrich.
11. On Jer_31:3. “The love of God towards us comes from love and has no other cause above or beside itself, but, is in God and remains in God, so that Christ who is in God is its centre. For herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us (1Jn_4:10).” Cramer. “Totum gratiæ imputatur, non nostris meritis. Augustine in Psalms 31.” Förster. “Before I had done anything good Thou hadst already moved towards me. Let these words be written on your hearts with the pen of the living God, that they may light you like flames of fire on the day of the marriage. It is your certificate of birth, your testimonial. Let me never lose sight of how much it has cost Thee to redeem me.” Zinzendorf. “God says: My chastisement even was pure love, though then you did not understand it; you shall learn it afterwards.” Diedrich. [“I incline to the construction given in the English version, both because the suffix to the verb is more naturally, ‘I have drawn thee,’ than ‘I have drawn out toward thee,’ and because there seems to be a tacit allusion to Hos_11:4, ‘With loving kindness have I drawn thee.’—-A great moral truth lies in this passage so construed, viz., that the main power which humbles man’s pride, softens his hard heart and makes him recoil in shame and sorrow from sinning, comes through his apprehension of God’s love as manifested in Christ and His cross. It is love that, draws the fearful or stubborn soul to the feet of divine mercy.” Cowles.—S. R. A.]
12. On Jer_31:6. “It is well: the watchmen on Mount Ephraim had to go to Zion. They received however another visit from the Jewish priests, which they could not have expected at the great reformation, introduced by John, and which had its seat among other places on Mount Ephraim. The Samaritans were not far distant, and Mount Ephraim had even this honor that when the Lord came to His temple He took His Seat as a teacher there.” Zinzendorf. [“God’s grace loves to triumph over the most inveterate prejudices… No words could represent a greater and more benign change in national feeling than these: Samaria saying through her spiritual watchmen, ‘Let us go up to Zion to worship, for our God is there.’ ” Cowles. “ ‘Ascendamus in Sion, hoc est in Ecclesiam’ says S. Jerome. According to this view, the watchmen here mentioned are the Preachers of the Gospel.” Wordsworth.—S. R. A.]
13. On Jer_31:9. “I will lead them. It is an old sighing couplet, but full of wisdom and solid truth:—
‘Lord Jesus, while I live on earth, O guide me,
Let me not, self-led, wander from beside Thee.’ ”
—Zinzendorf.
14. On Jer_31:10. “He who has scattered Israel will also collect it. Why? lie is the Shepherd. It is no wolf-scattering. He interposes His hand, then they go asunder, and directly come together again more orderly.” Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer_31:12-14. “Gaudebunt electi, quando videbunt supra se, intra se, juxta se, infra se. Augustine.”—“Præmia cœlestia erunt tam magna, ut non possint mensurari, tam multa, ut non possint numerari, tam copiosa, ut non possint terminari, tam pretiosa, ut non possint æstimari. Bernhard.” Förster.
16. On Jer_31:15. “Because at all times there is a similar state of things in the church of God, the lament of Rachel is a common one. For as this lament is over the carrying away captive and oppressions of Babylon, so is it also a lament over the tyranny of Herod in slaughtering the innocent children (Mat_2:1-7.)”Cramer. “Premuntur justi in ecclesia ut clament, clamantes exaudiuntur, exauditi glorificent Deum. Augustin.” Förster.—With respect to this, that Rachel’s lament may be regarded as a type of maternal lamentation over lost children, Förster quotes this sentence of Cyprian: non amisimus, sed præmisimus (2Sa_12:23). [On the application of this verse to the murder of the innocents consult W. L. Alexander, Connexion of the Old and New. Testament, p. 54, and W. H. Mill in Wordsworth’s Note in loc.—S. R. A.]
17. On Jer_31:18. The conversion of man must always be a product of two factors. A conversion which man alone should bring about, without God, would be an empty pretence of conversion; a conversion, which God should produce, without man, would be a compulsory, manufactured affair, without any moral value. The merit and the praise is, however, always on God’s side. He gives the will and the execution. Did He not discipline us, we should never learn discipline. Did He not lead back our thoughts to our Father’s house which we have left (Luke 15) we should never think of returning.
18. On Jer_31:19. “The children of God are ashamed their life long, they cannot raise their heads for humiliation. For their sins always seem great to them, and the grace of God always remains something incomprehensible to them.”Zinzendorf. The farther the Christian advances in his consciousness of sonship and in sanctification, the more brilliantly rises the light of grace, the more distinctly does he perceive in this light, how black is the night of his sins from which God has delivered him. [“It is the ripest and fullest ears of grain which hang their heads the lowest.”—S. R. A.]
19. On Jer_31:19. “The use of the dear cross is to make us blush (Dan_9:8) and not regard ourselves as innocent (Jer_30:11). And as it pleases a father when a child soon blushes, so also is this tincture a flower of virtue well-pleasing to God.” Cramer. “Deus oleum miserationis suæ non nisi in vas contritum et contribulatum infundit. Bernhard.”Förster.
20. On Jer_31:19. The reproach of my youth. “The sins of youth are not easily to be forgotten (Psa_25:7; Job_31:18). Therefore we ought to be careful so to act in our youth as not to have to chew the cud of bitter reflection in our old age. It is a comfort that past sins of youth will not injure the truly penitent. Non nocent peccata præterita, cum non placent præsentia. Augustine. To transgress no more is the best sign of repentance.” Cramer.
21. On Jer_31:20. “Comforting and weighty words, which each one should lay to heart. God loves and caresses us as a mother her good child. He remembers His promise. His heart yearns and breaks, and it is His pleasure to do us good.” Cramer. “lpsius proprium est, misereri semper et parcere.” Augustine.—“Major est Dei misericordia quam omnium hominum miseria.” Idem.
22. On Jer_31:23. The Lord bless thee, thou dwelling-place of righteousness, thou holy mountain. “Certainly no greater honor was ever done to the Jewish mountains than that the woman’s seed prayed and wept on them, was transfigured, killed and ascended above all heaven.” Zinzendorf. “ It cannot be denied that a church sanctifies a whole place …. Members of Jesus are real guardian angels, who do not exist in the imagination, but are founded on God’s promise (Mat_25:40).” Idem.
23. On Jer_31:29-30. “The so-called family curse has no influence on the servants of God; one may sleep calmly nevertheless. This does not mean that we should continue in the track of our predecessors, ex. gr., when our ancestors have gained much wealth by sinful trade, that we should continue this trade with this wealth with the hope of the divine blessing…. If this or that property, house, right, condition be afflicted with a curse, the children of God may soon by prudent separation deliver themselves from these unsafe circumstances. For nothing attaches to their persons, when they have been baptized with the blood of Jesus and are blessed by Him.” Zinzendorf.
24. On Jer_31:29-30. “In testamento novo per sarguinem mediatoris deleto paterno chirographo incipit homo paternis debitis non esse obnoxius renascendo, quibus nascendo fuerat obligatus, ipso Mediatore di cente: Ne vobis patrem dicüis in terra (Mat_23:9). Secundum hoc utique, quod alios natales, quibus non patri succederemus, sed cum patre semper viveremus, invenimus.” Augustine, contra Julian, VI. 12, in Ghisler.
25. On Jer_31:31. “In veteribus libris aut nusquam aut difficile præter hunc propheticum locum legitur facta commemoratio testamenti novi, ut omnino ipso nomine appellaretur. Nam multis locis hoc significalur et prænuntiatur futurum, sed non ita ut etiam nomen lega’ ur expressum.” Augustine, de Spir. et Lit. ad Marcellin, Cap. 19 (where to Cap. 29 there is a detailed discussion of this passage) in Ghisler.—“In the whole of the Old Testament there is no passage, in which the view is so clearly and distinctly expressed as here that the law is only παιδαγαγός. And though some commentators have supposed that the passage contains only a censure of the Israelites and not of the Old Covenant, they only show thus that they have not understood the simple meaning of the words.” Ebrard. Comm. zum Hebräerbr. S. 275.
26. On Jer_31:31, sqq. “Propter veteris hominis noxam, quæ per literam jubentem et minantem minime sanabatur, dicitur illud testamentum vetus; hoc antem novum propter novitatem spiritus, quæ hominem novum sanat a vitio vetustatis.” Augustine, c. Lit. Cap. 19.
27. On Jer_31:33. “Quid sunt ergo leges Dei ab ipso Deo scriptæ in cordibus, nisi ipsa præsentia Spiritus sancti, qui est digitus Dei, quo præsente diffunditur charitas in cordibus nostrio, quæ plenitudo legis est et præcepti finis?” Augustine, l. c. Cap. 20.
28. On Jer_31:34. “Quomodo tempus est novi testamenti, de quo propheta dixit: et non docebit unusquisque civem suum, etc. nisi quia rjusdem testamenti novi æternam mercedem, id est ipsius Dei beatissimam contemplationem promittendo conjunxit?” Augustine, l. c. Cap. 24.
29. On Jer_31:33-34. “This is the blessed difference between law and Gospel, between form and substance. Therefore are the great and small alike, and the youths like the elders, the pupils more learned than their teachers, and the young wiser than the ancients (1Jn_2:20 sqq.). Here is the cause:—For I will forgive their iniquities. This is the occasion of the above; no one can effect this without it. Forgiveness of sins makes the scales fall from people’s eyes, and gives them a cheerful temper, clear conceptions, a clear head.”Zinzendorf.
30. On Jer_31:35-37. “Etsi particulares ecclesiæ intotum deficere possunt, ecclesia tamen catholica nunquam defecit aut deficiet. Obstant enim Dei amplissimæ promissiones, inter quas non ultimum locum sibi vindicut quæ hic habetur Jer_31:37.” Förster.
31. On Jer_31:38-40. “Jerusalem will one day be much greater than it has ever been. This is not to be understood literally but spiritually. Jerusalem will be wherever there are believing souls, its circle will be without end and comprise all that has been hitherto impure and lost. This it is of which the prophet is teaching, and which he presents in figures, which were intelligible to the people in his time. The hill Gareb, probably the residence of the lepers, the emblem of the sinner unmasked and smitten by God, and the cursed valley of Ben-Hinnom will be taken up into the holy city. God’s grace will one day effect all this, and Israel will thus be manifested as much more glorious than ever before.” Diedrich.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_30:5-9. Sermon on one of the last Sundays after Trinity or the second in Advent. The day of the judgment of the world a great day. For it is, (1) a day of anxiety and terror for all the world; (2) a day of deliverance from all distress for the church of the Lord; (3) a day of realization of all the happiness set in prospect before it.
2. On Jer_30:10-12. Consolation of the church in great trial. 1. It has well deserved the trial (Jer_30:12); 2. it is therefore chastised, but with moderation; 3. it will not perish but again enjoy peace.
3. On Jer_30:17. [“The Restorer of mankind. 1. Faith in the Christian Sacrament and its attendant revelation of divine character alone answer the demand of the heart and reason of man for a higher state of moral perfection. 2. Christianity offers to maintain a communication between this world and that eternal world of holiness and truth. 3. It commends itself to our wants in the confirmation and direction of that principle of hope, which even in our daily and worldly life, we are perpetually forced to substitute for happiness, and 4. By the adorable object, which it presents to our affections.” Archer Butler—S. R. A.]
4. On Jer_31:1-2. Gesetz and Zeugniss (Law and Testimony) 1864, Heft. 1. Funeral sermon of Ahlfeld.
5. On Jer_31:2-4. lb. 1865. Heft 1. Funeral sermon of Besser, S. 32 ff.
6. On Jer_31:3. C. Fr. Hartmann (Wedding, School, Catechism and Birth-day sermons, ed. C. Chr. Eberh. Ehemann. Tüb. 1865). Wedding sermon. 1. A grateful revival in the love of God already received. 2. Earnest endeavor after a daily enjoyment of this love. 3. Daily nourishment of hope.
7. On Jer_31:3. Florey. Comfort and warning at graves. I. Bändchen, S. 253. On the attractions of God’s love towards His own children. They are, 1. innumerable and yet so frequently overlooked; 2. powerful and yet so frequently resisted; 3. rich in blessing and yet so frequently; unemployed. [For practical remarks on this text see also Tholuck, Stunden der Andacht, No. 11.—S. R. A.]
8. On Jer_31:9. Confessional sermon by Dekan V. Biarowsky in Erlangen (in Palmer’s Evang. Casual-Reden, 2 te Folge, 1 Band. Stuttgart, 1850.) Every partaking of the Lord’s supper is a return to the Lord in the promised land, and every one who is a guest at the supper rises and comes. 1. How are we to come? (weeping and praying). 2. What shall we find? (Salvation and blessing, power and life, grace and help).
9. On Jer_31:18-20. Comparison of conversion with the course of the earth and the sun. 1. The man who has fallen away is like the planet in its distance from the sun; he flees from God as far as he Song of Solomon 2. Love however does not release him: a. he is chastened (winter, cold, long nights, short days); b. he accepts the chastening and returns to proximity to the sun (summer, warmth, light, life). Comp. Brandt, Altes und Neues in i extemporirbaren Entwürfen. Nüremberg, 1829, II. 5. [The stubborn sinner submitting himself to God. I. A description of the feelings and conduct of an obstinate, impenitent sinner, while smarting under the rod of affliction: He is rebellious—till subdued. II. The new views and feelings produced by affliction through divine grace: (a) convinced of guilt and sinfulness; (b) praying; (c) reflecting on the effects of divine grace in his conversion. III. A correcting but compassionate God, watching the result, etc., (a) as a tender father mindful of his penitent child; (b) listening to his complaints, confessions and petitions; (c) declaring His determination to pardon. Payson.—S. R. A.]
10. On Jer_31:31-34. Sermon on 1 Sunday in Advent by Pastor Diechert in Gröningen, S. Stern aus Jakob. I. Stuttg. 1867.
11. On Jer_31:33-34. Do we belong to the people of God? 1. Have we holiness? 2. Have we knowledge? 3. Have we the peace promised to this people? (Caspari in Predigtbuch von Dittmar, Erlangen, 1845).
12. On Jer_31:33-34. By the new covenant in the bath of holy baptism all becomes new. 1. What was dead becomes alive 2. What was obscure becomes clear. 3. What was cold becomes warm. 4. What was bound becomes free (Florey, 1862).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Ramah--In Benjamin, east of the great northern road, two…
Ramah--In Benjamin, east of the great northern road, two hours' journey from Jerusalem. Rachel, who all her life had pined for children (Gen 30:1), and who died with "sorrow" in giving birth to Benjamin (Gen 35:18-19, Margin; Sa1 10:2), and was buried at Ramah, near Beth-lehem, is represented as raising her head from the tomb, and as breaking forth into "weeping" at seeing the whole land depopulated of her sons, the Ephraimites. Ramah was the place where Nebuzara-dan collected all the Jews in chains, previous to their removal to Babylon (Jer 40:1). God therefore consoles her with the promise of their restoration. Mat 2:17-18 quotes this as fulfilled in the massacre of the innocents under Herod. "A lesser and a greater event, of different times, may answer to the single sense of one passage of Scripture, until the prophecy is exhausted" [BENGEL]. Besides the temporary reference to the exiles in Babylon, the Holy Spirit foreshadowed ultimately Messiah's exile in Egypt, and the desolation caused in the neighborhood of Rachel's tomb by Herod's massacre of the children, whose mothers had "sons of sorrow" (Ben-oni), just as Rachel had. The return of Messiah (the representative of Israel) from Egypt, and the future restoration of Israel, both the literal and the spiritual (including the innocents), at the Lord's second advent, are antitypical of the restoration of Israel from Babylon, which is the ground of consolation held out here by Jeremiah. The clause, "They were not," that is, were dead (Gen 42:13), does not apply so strictly to the exiles in Babylon as it does to the history of Messiah and His people--past, present, and future. So the words, "There is hope in thine end," are to be fulfilled ultimately, when Rachel shall meet her murdered children at the resurrection, at the same time that literal Israel is to be restored. "They were not," in Hebrew, is singular; each was not: each mother at the Beth-lehem massacre had but one child to lament, as the limitation of age in Herod's order, "two years and under," implies; this use of the singular distributively (the mothers weeping severally, each for her own child), is a coincidence between the prophecy of the Beth-lehem massacre and the event, the more remarkable as not being obvious: the singular, too, is appropriate as to Messiah in His Egyptian exile, who was to be a leading object of Rachel's lamentation.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 15. A voice was heard — This strophe (Jer_31:15-22)…
15. A voice was heard — This strophe (Jer_31:15-22) brings to view another side of Israel’s restoration. It was to be not merely political and external, but internal and spiritual. This is set forth in a passage of peculiar tenderness. Rachel, their common mother, is represented as lamenting the loss of her children who have gone into exile; and Ephraim, of these very children, bemoans his sins. In view of these the promise is given from the Almighty that they should come again from the land of the enemy.
Ramah — Probably, as even the Seventy understood, the town of Ramah, which was situated about five English miles to the north of Jerusalem. Why was the lamentation of Rachel heard at Ramah?
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1) Most say, because Rachel was buried there, and 1Sa_10:2, is quoted in proof of this. But this passage is manifestly inconclusive; for not Ramah, but “Zelzar, in the border of Benjamin,” is mentioned as the locality of Rachel’s sepulchre, and the assumption that this was at Samuel’s native home, and hence Ramah, is most gratuitous. From Gen_35:16; Gen_35:19, we learn that Rachel died “on the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem,” and that “there was but a little way to come to Bethlehem,” hence very plainly her tomb was near Bethlehem, which is six miles south of Jerusalem, and not Ramah, nearly as far north. This, too, falls in well with Mat_2:18.
2) Others say that Ramah is mentioned because here the exiles were assembled preparatory to being carried away. (See Jer_40:1.) But this is weeping, not over those who are to go into captivity, but those who have already gone. Yet the fact that this was the place of rendezvous gives, it must be confessed, special interest to the language.
3) Some have conjectured another Ramah, which was situated to the south of Jerusalem, and so at or near Rachel’s tomb. This conjecture is entirely unsupported, and yet not impossible. The name Ramah (height) is certainly one that would apply to many localities. But the fact of no other Ramah in this general region, which is well identified, stands strongly, if not conclusively, against this conjecture.
4) Others, as Keil, say that the lamentation was heard in Ramah “as the most loftily situated border town of the two kingdoms, whence the wailing that had arisen sounded far and near, and could be heard in Judah.” Rachel is named as the representative of that parental love shown by Israel in the pain felt when the people were lost. This explanation is, on the whole, to be preferred. We ought not, however, to leave out of account the fact, that this height was situated near Jerusalem, and so a voice in Ramah would be heard in the city and country alike.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 15. This v. is specially familiar to us through…
15. This v. is specially familiar to us through St Matt. (Jer_2:17 f.), who quotes it after relating the slaughter of the Innocents at Bethlehem. The prophecy is quoted as an illustration or type. The mourning at Ramah is a forecast of that bitter wailing which shall be raised by the mothers of the slaughtered babes. The geographical connexion of Ramah and Bethlehem cannot be maintained, and depends upon a statement which is probably a gloss in Gen_35:19; Gen_48:7, “Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem).” Ramah is mentioned first in Jos_18:25, between Gibeon and Beeroth, five miles north of Jerusalem, and is very possibly identical with the birth-place, home, and place of burial of Samuel (1Sa_1:19; 1Sa_25:1). It was much too far from Bethlehem to be in any way immediately connected with the subject in illustration of which St Matt. quotes the passage. It was at Ramah that the exiles were assembled before departing for Babylon, as described ch. Jer_40:1. The appropriateness of calling upon Rachel to weep in Ramah consists in this, that her tomb (1Sa_10:2 f.) was on the N. border of Benjamin, not far from Bethel which was ten miles N. of Jerusalem, and thus apparently in the neighbourhood of Ramah as well. See the whole question discussed, with views of the probable site, in Pal. Explor. Fund Quart. Statement, April 1912, pp. 74 ff. (Clermont-Ganneau and R. A. S. Macalister).
15–17. Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, is heard weeping for her lost sons. She is bidden to dry her tears, for there is hope.
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15–22. See introd. summary to the section. These striking vv. may be confidently considered as stamped with Jeremiah’s personality.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (15) A voice was heard in Ramah.—The sharp contrast…
(15) A voice was heard in Ramah.—The sharp contrast between this and the exulting joy of the previous verse shows that we are entering on a new section which repeats in altered form the substance of the foregoing, presenting in succession the same pictures of present woe and future gladness. The prophet sees first the desolation of the captivity. Rachel, as the mother of Joseph, and therefore of Ephraim, becomes the ideal representative of the northern kingdom. Her voice is heard in Ramah (possibly, as in 1Sa_22:6, Eze_16:24, and in the Vulgate here, not as the name of a locality, but in its general meaning, from a mountain height) weeping for the children who have been slain or carried into exile. When used elsewhere as a proper name, the noun always has the article. Here it stands without it. If Ramah be definitely one of the places of that name, known fully as Ramathaim-zophim (1Sa_1:1; 1Sa_1:19), it is probably that within the borders of Benjamin (Jos_18:25), not far from Rachel’s sepulchre (1Sa_10:2). She, even in her grave, weeps for her children. The mention of Ramah in Isa_10:29 seems to indicate that it was the scene of some special massacre in the progress of the Assyrian invader, in the reign of Hezekiah; and Jeremiah may possibly refer to it, as well as to some later atrocity, in connection with that of the Chaldæans (comp. Jer_40:1), over which Rachel, in her sepulchre near Bethlehem, is supposed to weep. Possibly also the meaning of the name Rachel (= ewe) may have added something to the force of the prophet’s description. He hears the cry of the ewe on the hill-top bleating for her lambs. The passage has gained a special significance as being cited by St. Matthew (Mat_2:18), as fulfilled in Herod’s massacre of the infants of Bethlehem. On the nature of this fulfilment see Note on Mat_2:18.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 15-22. From this glorious prospect Jeremiah"s eye turns…
Vers. 15-22. From this glorious prospect Jeremiah"s eye turns to the melancholy present. The land of Ephraim is orphaned and desolate. The prophet seems to hear Rachel weeping for her banished children, and comforts her with the assurance that they shall yet be restored. For Ephraim has come to repentance, and longs for reconciliation with his God, and God, who has overheard his soliloquy, relents, and comes to meet him with gracious promises. Then another voice is heard summoning Ephraim to prepare for his journey home. This verse is quoted by St. Matthew (Mat_2:17) with reference to the massacre of the innocents, with tote eplhrwyh prefixed. The latter formula of itself suggests that there was a previous fulfilment of the prophecy, but that the analogy of the circumstances of the innocents justifies nay, requires the admission of a second fulfilment. In fact, the promise of the Messianic age seemed in as much danger of being rendered void when Herod wreaked his fury on the children of Bethlehem, as when the tribes of Israel were scattered in exile. Dean Stanley finds a geographical inconsistency in the two passages. "The context of Jer_31:15 implies that the Ramah of the prophet was in the northern kingdom, probably Ramah of Benjamin. The context of Mat_2:18, on the other hand, implies that the Ramah of the evangelist was within sight of Bethlehem" ("Sinai and Palestine," p. 225). But this remark involves the assumption that the quotation was not intended merely as an application.
A voice was heard; rather, is heard. It is a participle, indicating the continuance of the action. In Ramah. In the neighbourhood of which town Rachel was buried, according to 1Sa_10:2 ("the city" where Samuel and Saul were 1Sa_9:25 appears to have been Ramah). Rachel weeping for her children. Rachel ("Rahel" is only a Germanizing way of writing the name), being the ancestress of the three tribes, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, is represented as feeling like a mother for all the tribes connected with those three. Her "weeping" is no mere figure of speech. Jeremiah believes that the patriarchs and holy men of old continue to feel an interest in the fortunes of their descendants. (Isa_63:16)
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Vers. 15-17. Rachel weeping for her children.
I RACHEL HAS NATURAL CAUSE NOR HER GRIEF. Sword, pestilence, and famine ravage the land. The invasion by Nebuchadnezzar desolates the old home of the family of Rachel, bringing death to those who cling to it and scattering the survivors in exile. Such a calamity was in itself most mournful; but the disappointment it brought to the cherished hopes of Israel in a golden future deepened the distress to despair. It looked as though it were the shipwreck of all the Messianic dreams of ancient prophecy. So also the "massacre of the innocents," with reference to which these words of Jeremiah are quoted in the New Testament, was more than an ordinary disaster. It threatened Christ and his redemption. If earthly trouble is great, how far greater would be the destruction of the higher spiritual hopes of God"s people! We may be thankful that we have no such cause of distress as that of Rachel at Ramah and at Bethlehem.
Though the Christian"s earthly fortunes may be tempest tossed, his highest hopes are founded on a Rock. No worldly trouble can touch these. It is noteworthy that Rachel, and not Jacob, is here represented as weeping for her children. It is the mother"s heart that breaks first when her children are taken from her. Even the savage tigress knows this natural grief. It is so bitter that no earthly consolation can assuage it.
II RACHEL GIVES NATURAL VENT TO HER GRIEF. She weeps. She may thank God for tears; they are nature"s relief to a burdened heart. It is best not to hide a sorrow till it eats out the heart like a canker. "Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak Whispers the o"er fraught heart and bids it break.
Christ does not inflict harsh and unnatural restraints upon mourners, like those of Stoicism. At the grave of Lazarus "Jesus wept." St. Paul invites sympathetic Christians to "weep with them that weep." Yet it is well to convert our tears into prayers. If the bruised spirit cannot speak, cannot think, can but moan, yet it may make its inarticulate cry an utterance to heaven that the all-pitiful God will hear. The mistake of the mourner is not that she "refuseth to be comforted scorned of devils" may be but a mockery but that while she weeps she forgets to bring her burden to him who has promised to sustain. It is natural to express sorrow; it is Christian to carry the sorrow to Christ.
III RACHEL HAS DIVINE CONSOLATIONS FOR HER GRIEF. Human comfort is vain in such anguish as hers. Our little platitudes with which we would quiet the mourner are plasters that only irritate the wound they cannot heal. But God has his higher consolations. He does not bid the tears to stay without good reason. Rachel is to refrain her voice from weeping because there is hope for her in time to come. Jesus bade the widow of Nain not to weep because he was about to restore her son. God will wipe away all tears from his children"s eyes by giving them a real harvest of joy for their sowing in tears. The Christian is comforted by hope. He should not sorrow as those without hope. Israel was to be restored to Canaan. The Christian families shall be reunited in the home above.
Vers. 15-17. "Rahel weeping for her children
The great mother of Israel and Judah is represented by a figure as mourning over the desolation of the land. God comforts the sorrow thus occasioned by a promise greater than could be fulfilled in the return of the Babylonian captivity. Rahel was an ancestress of the Old Testament Church whose spirit she might be said to personify The Church of Christ may still be said to weep for her children, and to be comforted by the promises of God. Matthew"s reference to this passage is only accommodative a spiritual and not a literal parallel. We may understand the passage, therefore, as representative of
I THE SORROW OF THE CHURCH.
1. Its occasion. The loss of her sons and daughters through sin, alienation, or death. Especially might this apply in times of spiritual sterility and worldly influence. The Church cannot look upon the indifference or hostility of her legitimate children without grief.
2. Its intensity. Loud and bitter, as of one not to be consoled. The blessing of which she is bereft promised to be so great; the consequences to the "banished ones" themselves may be so serious. Are Christ"s people sufficiently alive to the losses which are continually inflicted upon his communion through worldliness or particular sins?
3. Its character. Ver. 16, "Thy work." Energy has been put forth. All her resources have been exhausted in vain efforts for the recovery of the exiles. In the first instance our concern for the "banished ones" should lead us to persistent and manifold effort for their restoration; and when that fails, we must cast ourselves in lamentation and prayer before God. In this way our sorrow shall prove to be a "work" in a double sense.
II HER CONSOLATION.
1. The restoration of the lost ones is promised. This would be the only adequate comfort for those who mourn over dear ones as spiritually dead. God"s scheme of redemption is greater than our utmost hopes or preparations.
2. This will in a sense be the reward of her work. When direct and immediate efforts have failed, a further Divine grace will prove effectual. The children of the Church are beneath the eye of God, who will lead them back again from the captivity of sin, and even from the sepulchres of spiritual death. The labours and prayers of the faithful shall not be in vain in the Lord. The unity of spiritual labour in the past, present, and future. (cf. Joh_4:37, Joh_4:38)
3. God himself comforts her even now. In his "exceeding great and precious promises." By the Spirit of hope. By the gradual realization of the fruits of salvation. The end is made very real and bright through faith. M.
Vers. 15-17. Strong consolation.
In this touching passage let us note
I THE SCENE. The exiles, with bowed heads and many tears, are being hurried away from their beloved land. Fierce soldiery urge them on. The smoking ruins of their towns, cities, homes, and, above all, of the greatly beloved city of God, Jerusalem, are behind them. A wail of distress goes up from these broken-hearted captives as they stand on the frontier Mils of their land, and have to say farewell to it forever. The whole scene rose up vividly before the prophet, and he seems to see the spirit of Rachel, the genius of their nation, the mother of the tribes on whose border land the exiles are now standing. She hovers over the sad-hearted company, her face wet with uncontrollable tears, and her lamentations for her poor lost children hoard incessantly. She has arisen from her tomb, which was hard by Ramah, and is bewailing the misery of her children.
II THE SORROW. It is that of parents for their children. How intense this sorrow is! Rachel refuses to be comforted, because her children are not. It is greater than the sorrow of the children. In God"s blessed ordering of things, children rarely grieve deeply. They soon forget, as they ought to do. It is not they that grieve, but their parents for them. And if the parents" grief be greater than that of the children, it is greater still than that which the parents feel for themselves. It matters little what becomes of them: it is the children for whom they care. What a holy thing this love of parents is! It is by means of this, appealing to it, that "out of the mouths of babes," etc. And how frequent, in this weary world of ours! We know how the deep distress of those mothers whose little ones Herod slew recalled the sorrow told of here. The words of the prophet find plentiful application. Not on one ground alone, but on many, parents often have to mourn for their children. But for the people of God there is ever
III RICH CONSOLATION.
1. Is the sorrow, as here, that which is caused by the sight of sore calamity coming upon our children which we cannot ward off? Oh, how many a father, as he looks around the circle of his children, seems to see a black spectre of care hovering over every one of those curly heads! and the vision sends a chill into his very soul. Their mother is to die, the means of their support is failing, disease has already fastened on some of them; trouble manifold is appointed for them. Their foes are many, their friends few. Now, to all such parents this word of consolation is sent. It tells us how God will care for them if we cannot. His love will never fail, and there is hope for them. Life, after all, will not be to them what we think. O anxious fathers and mothers and what a crowd of you there are! trust the God of Israel for your children.
2. Or is it the sorrow that conies from having prodigal children? This is a sorrow worse still. But art thou, O parent, a believer in God? dost thou seek him evermore in fervent prayer? Then be assured that he who caused that the prodigal of whom our Saviour tells should "come to himself," will do the like for thine. Never believe that the seed of the godly, for whom earnest prayer is offered, can be ultimately lost.
3. Or is it that you have been bereaved of your children? So was it with the mothers at Bethlehem, to whose sorrow St. Matthew applies these words. The salvation of children is as certain as the existence of God himself. To think otherwise would be to render impossible all hope, trust, and love towards God. "Of such is the kingdom of heaven;" "Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven;" "It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." True, heartless because childless priests have taught that there is a limbus iafantum a children"s hell. Good God! that any should believe it! And yet in many districts still the children who die unbaptized are refused Christian burial. But we turn from theologians to God"s Word, and clasp the precious promise of these verses to our hearts, as, thank God, we are altogether warranted in doing. Let, then, all to whom God has given children trust him for them for their bodies" and their souls" welfare, for their well being in the life that now is and in that which is to come, whilst you continue to bow your knees to "the God and Father... in whom every family in heaven and earth is named. C.
Vers. 15-17. Sorrowing mothers and their consolation.
I THE GRIEFS OF BEREAVED MOTHERS. There is an innumerable company of women who have seen the children die in whom they themselves had given birth, and Rachel is their great representative. She stands before us here as the mother of a nation; for surely it only spoils a grand poetical idea to attach her to some tribes rather than others. She sees the nation which sprang from her husband Jacob going from the land of promise into captivity, and straightway she reckons it as a dead nation. Bear in mind distinctly that the mourning is not over dead individuals, but over a dead nation. The individuals went on living, but the nation in its pride and privilege was gone. So one might think of some representative spirit bewailing dead Greece and dead Rome. The figure, moreover, derives its strength from what must have been very frequent in the land of Israel, as in every land before or since, namely, the sad sight presented by a mother weeping over her dead child. The mother"s sorrow is unique; its elements can only be imperfectly apprehended by others. The object of so much hope, solicitude, and pleasure is gone. The proper order of things is reversed. The mother should see the child grow to manhood or womanhood, and then go first into the unseen world. Death, coming in this way, seems to furnish a plausible ground of complaint, and if anything can be said to lessen the mystery and the sorrow and make hope rise in the heart, it should be said.
II CONSOLATION IN SUCH TIME OF GRIEF. The real Rachel needed no such consolation. But bereaved mothers both need it and can have it. They have worked for something else than death and the breaking off of their purposes, and their work shall not be in vain. Death is a great deceiver in making his power seem greater than it is. When children are taken from this world into the next, opportunities are not lost, they are only changed. God will assuredly not allow the highest joys belonging to human nature to suffer from a cause so purely external as the duration of temporal existence. When Herod slew the children at Bethlehem, this prophecy had a sort of fulfillment, and surely so far as it was fulfilled it was fulfilled altogether. To every, one of those weeping mothers it might have been said, "Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears." The weeping and the tears are natural enough, but after all they have no sufficient ground in reason. As a general rule, life must be taken with all its risks and casualties, seeing that risk and casualty, as we call them, are after all, according to a law. Sometimes there are extraordinary preservations of infant life, and when some life so delivered has afterwards unfolded into eminence and usefulness, there is a talk of something specially providential in the preservation. Some such preserved lives, however, turn out a great curse, and then where is the providence. The great thing every mother should seek is such faithfulness, such wisdom, such right dealing in all ways as will enable her to be a true mother to her children, however long they live. Then, whatever happens, there is the certainty that her work will be rewarded. The work of individual obedience can never come to anything but reward in the end. The mischief is that very often we want the reward to come in our way and not in God"s. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter…
Jer_31:15-17
A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children.
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Innocents day
Undoubtedly it seems strange, that one of the earliest consequences of the incarnation of Him, who afterwards declared that He came not to destroy mens lives, but to save them, should thus have been the murder of so many unoffending little ones. A few days ago we assembled around the cradle of the newborn King, and now the ground round about us is strewed with the bodies of the young ones, slaughtered, as it were, in His stead. Well might He afterwards declare, that He came not to send peace, but a sword upon the earth; seeing that, while yet a nursling in His mothers arms, He is the occasion of the sword being fleshed in numbers who least deserved to die. And the thing most remarkable in this transaction appears to us to be, that the permission of the slaughter was in no sense requisite to the safety of Christ. Joseph, and Mary, and the Child had departed for Egypt, before the fury of Herod was allowed to break out. How easy does it seem that Herod should have been informed of the flight, and thus taught the utter uselessness of his cruel decree. Let us see whether there be really anything in the facts now commemorated at variance with the known mercy of God. If, indeed, we were unable to discover that the slaughter of the innocents was a means to ensure wise ends, we shall be confident, from the known attributes of God, that there was such an end, though not to be ascertained by our limited faculties. This, however, is not the ease. And they who think at all carefully will find enough to remove all surprise that Herod was not withheld from the slaughter. Let it be first observed, that prophecy had fixed Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Christ, and had determined, with considerable precision, the time of the nativity. It were easy, therefore, to prove that no one could be the Messiah who had not been born at Bethlehem, and about the period when the Virgin became a mother. How wonderfully, then, did the slaughter of the innocents corroborate the pretensions of Jesus. If no one could be Messiah unless born at Bethlehem, and at a certain time, why, the sword of Herod did almost demonstrate that Jesus was the Christ; for removing, perhaps, every other who could have answered to the test of time and place of birth, there seems only Jesus remaining in whom the prophecy could be fulfilled. Besides, it should be carefully marked, that Jesus was to live in comparative obscurity, until thirty years of age; He was then to burst suddenly upon the world, and to amaze it by displays of omnipotence. But, brought up as He had been at Nazareth, it was very natural that when He emerged from long seclusion, He should have been regarded as a Nazarene. Accordingly we find so completely had His birthplace been forgotten, that many objected His being of Nazareth, against the possibility of His being the Messiah. They argued rightly, that no one could be the Christ who had not been born at Bethlehem; but then they rashly concluded, that Jesus wanted this sign of Messiahship, because they knew Him to have been brought up in Galilee. And what made them inexcusable? Why, the slaughter of the innocents. They could not have been uninformed of this event; bereaved parents were still living who would be sure to tell the story of their wrongs; and this event marked as with a line of blood the period at which the Christ was supposed to have been born. A moments inquiry would have proved to them that Jesus was this Child, and removed the doubt which attached to Him as a supposed Galilean. And, therefore, not in vain was the mother stirred from her sepulchre by the cry of her infant offspring; the echo of her lament might still be heard in the land, and those who listened not to the witness of the birthplace of Jesus stood self-condemned, while rejecting Him on the plea, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? There are yet more obvious reasons why God should have allowed this act of cruelty. We may believe that God was leaving Herod to fill up the measure of his guilt. Add to all this, that God was unquestionably disciplining the parents by the slaughter of the children. There was at this time a great and general expectation of the Messiah, and the Jewish mothers must have more than ever hoped for the honour of giving birth to the Deliverer: but of course such a hope must have been stronger in Bethlehem than in any other town, seeing that prophecy was supposed to mark it as the birthplace. Hence we may readily believe that the infants of Bethlehem were objects of extraordinary interest to their parents--objects in which their ambition centred, as well as their affection. And, if so, we can understand that these fathers and mothers stood in special need of that discipline which God administers to parents through the death of their children; so that there was a suitableness in the dispensation as allotted to Bethlehem, which might not have been discoverable had another town been its subject. Now all this reasoning would be shaken, if it could be shown that a real and everlasting injury were done to the innocents themselves. Let us now, then, consider the consequences of the massacre, so far as the innocents themselves were concerned. There is much here to require and repay your careful examination. We have an unhesitating belief in respect of all children, admitted into Gods Church, and dying before they know evil from good, that they are saved by the virtues of Christs propitiation. We never hesitate to tell parents sorrowing for their dead children, who had been old enough to endear themselves by the smile and the prattle, but not old enough to know moral good from moral evil, that they have a right to feel such assurance of the salvation of their offspring, as the best tokens could scarcely have afforded had they died in riper years. And however melancholy the thought, that so many of our fellow-men live without God, and therefore die without hope, it is cheering to believe, that perhaps a yet greater number are saved through the sacrifice of Christ. For as a large proportion of our population die before old enough for moral accountableness; how many of the Christian community are safely housed ere exposed to the blight and tumult of the world! Oh, the magnificent possession would not want inhabitants if all, who could choose for themselves, chose death, and not life; heaven would still gather within its capacious bosom, a shining multitude, who just descended to earth that they might there be grafted into the body of Christ, and then flew back to enjoy all the privileges of membership. And we may believe of this multitude that it would be headed by the slaughtered little ones of Bethlehem--those who, dying, we might almost say, for the Saviour, won something like the martyrs crown, which shall, through eternity, sparkle on their foreheads. Who, then, shall say that Herod was permitted to do a real injury to those innocents, and that thus their death is an impeachment either of the justice or the mercy of God? We may be assured that they escaped many cares, difficulties, and troubles, with which a long life must have been charged; for, had the sword of Herod not hewn them down, they might have remained on earth till Judahs desolation began, and have shared in the worst woes which ever fell on a land. The innocents of Bethlehem have always been reckoned by the Church amongst the martyrs; for, though incapable of making choice, God, we may believe, supplied the defect of their will by His own entertainment of their death. And it is beautiful to think, that as the spirits of the martyred little ones soared toward heaven, they may have been taught to look on the Infant in whose stead they had died; to feel that He for whom they had been sacrificed was about to be sacrificed for them; and that they were mounting to glory on the merits of that defenceless Babe (as He seemed then), hurrying as an outcast into Egypt. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Rachel weeping for her children
The death of young children is among the saddest bereavements of life. The sight of a suffering, dying child is painful. The mystery distresses us. Affection yearns in vain. The death of a young child is a sore disappointment. The fond parents cling round it through life, like bees about a flowers wine-cup. What dreams of long life, and rich fortune, and untold happiness beguile their days! Their cherished hopes are blighted, and the future is a scene of clouded prospects and changed plans. The death of young children is often one of the hardest things to endure. Like the weeping Rachel, the bereaved parents are inconsolable. What bitter words of rebellion are sometimes spoken, instead of words of sweet resignation! Never is the weakness of all earthly props more manifest than under such circumstances. No considerations save such as the Bible supplies can give to the soul strength and peace. Still you remember your dead. Your experience ripens into that of Vaughan--
They are all gone into a world of light,
And I alone sit lingering here;
Their very memory is fair and bright,
And my sad thoughts doth clear.
Although the death of young children is such a sore loss, there are sources of comfort--considerations which constrain us to say, Thy will be done.
I. In the early removal of children God acts as a Father. In one of our English churchyards there is this inscription on a childs tombstone: Who plucked that flower? cried the gardener, as he walked through the garden. His fellow-servant answered, The Master, and the gardener held his peace. There is an Eastern story of a rabbi, who, having been absent all day, returned home in the evening, and was met by his wife at the door. With her first greeting she told him how she had been perplexed during the day, because a friend, who years ago had entrusted some rare jewels to her care, had that day come for them from her long possession of them they seemed almost her own, and she felt loth to give them back. They were only lent, replied her husband; be thankful that you have had the use of them so long. Your words are good, said she; may we now and always follow them! Then, leading him into an inner chamber, she showed him, stretched upon one bed, their two children who had that day died. Forthwith he knew the jewels which God had lent him, and now resumed, and his heart said, The Lord gave, &c.
II. Children who die young are removed from all possible sorrow and harm to live the perfect life above. Their sufferings, perhaps, were great, and you would fain have suffered in their stead; but their day of suffering was short. There was mercy in their death. Had they lived, some wild and withering anguish might have sered their summers earliest leaf; the sickness of hope deferred might have given them a disgust of life. They have escaped these and all other woes--escaped them for ever. They are, moreover, taken away from all possible sin. They might have lived to be a curse to their parents and to the world. We know little of their future life; but we know as much as this--that all which can make life worth living is theirs. Your fondest love could not wish more for them than they enjoy. Selfishness might desire their return; love never can. All that was imperfect in them is left behind; and they are as the angels of God for ever.
III. The death of young children is often a ministry of blessing to the bereaved parents. Just as we make idols of other objects that we regard with undue affection, so we are in danger of making idols of our children. If we allow them to estrange our affections from God, to interfere with our religious duties--to withdraw our sympathies from the poor and suffering around us, then our love is of the nature of idolatry; and it is a proof of Gods love that He removes the idols. In one of his letters, Dr. Judson writes thus: Our only darling boy was, three days ago, laid in the silent grave. Eight months we enjoyed the precious little gift, in which time he had so completely entwined himself around his parents hearts, that his existence seemed necessary to their own. But God has taught us by afflictions what we would not learn by mercies, that our hearts are His exclusive property, and whatever rival intrudes He will tear it away. Edward Irving exclaimed, after his childs death, Glorious exchange! God took my son to His own more fatherly bosom; and revealed in my bosom the sure expectation and faith of His own eternal Son. Dr. Bushnell once said, I have learned more of experimental religion since my little boy died than in all my life before. The shepherd of the Alps who cannot get his sheep to climb the higher ascents of the mountains, will take the lambs and throw them up to the shelving rocks, when their dams soon spring up after them. By somewhat similar methods the Shepherd of Israel gathers His flocks on the hills of glory. He removes your children to heaven, that you may follow them thither.
IV. Consider, further, the joy your children gave you while they lived. Of course, the memory is touched with sadness; but there is room for gratitude. Be thankful that they were yours so long. You were rich in their possession; and you are all the richer for them, even though God has taken them away. Your heart has been enlarged. A fount of feeling has been opened in your nature that never can be dry any more. You are richer in sympathy and in hope; richer towards society and God. In a deep and true sense, your dead children are with you still (W. Walters.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Sorrow Turned into Joy
Sorrow Turned into Joy
v. 15. Thus saith the Lord, A voice was heard in Ba-mah, a city some nine or ten miles north of Jerusalem, on the boundary between the former kingdoms of Israel and Judah, lamentation and bitter weeping: Bahel, the beloved wife of Jacob, as the ancestress of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, weeping for her children, the members of the northern kingdom, refused to be comforted for her children because they were not. This verse is quoted by Mat 2:18, with reference to the slaughter of the innocents of Bethlehem, because the extermination of Israel through the Assyrian power was a type of the murder of the children at Bethlehem, and because Rachel was regarded as the mother of Bethlehem and its environs.
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v. 16. Thus saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears, bidding all sorrow be far removed; for thy work shall be rewarded, namely, that of bearing and bringing up her children, saith the Lord, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy, those whom the Lord had chosen as His own being assembled once more, namely, in His congregation, in the communion of His saints.
v. 17. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that is, for the future, that thy children shall come again to their own border, on the basis of a sincere repentance.
v. 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, so the Lord now declares: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, being obliged to accept the Lord’s punishment, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, unused to the restraint of the yoke and of harness; Cf Hos 10:11. Turn Thou me, back from the path of wickedness and sin, and I shall be turned, the change of repentance in the heart of any man being possible only through the merciful power of God; for Thou art the Lord, my God, and it is the confidence in His grace as the God of the covenant that brings His blessings to the repentant heart.
v. 19. Surely after that I was turned, I repented, or, "For after my apostasy I felt sorrow," since God wrought repentance in the heart of the true Israelites among the children of Ephraim; and after that I was instructed, coming to a right understanding through the Lord’s chastisement, I smote upon my thigh, in token of deep grief; I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, fully conscious of the disgrace attaching to the former behavior, because I did bear the reproach of my youth, that attending the idolatry which had been practiced in the northern kingdom since the time when Jeroboam set up the golden calves at Bethel and Daniel Upon this cry the Lord answers in a strain of coaxing appeal.
v. 20. Is Ephraim My dear son? literally, "a son of My favor. " Is he a pleasant child? literally, "a child of delights. " The question implies a decided negative answer if the actual condition of Ephraim’s mind is taken into consideration, but an equally decided positive statement when one takes note of Jehovah’s mercy. For since I spake against him, in words of stern reproof, I do earnestly remember him still, the Lord being astonished at Himself, as it were, on account of such tender feelings toward this reprobate child; therefore My bowels are troubled for him, His inmost feelings being touched. I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord, like a father who still regards his wayward son with tender love.
v. 21. Set thee up way-marks, finger-posts directing him back to his Father’s home; make thee high heaps, wooden posts or pillars of stone showing the way; set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest, the road which would lead him back home. Turn again, O virgin of Israel, for the believers of Ephraim and the congregation of the Lord are identical, turn again to these thy cities, returning to the Lord in true repentance.
v. 22. How long wilt thou go about, turning first one way and then the other, like a dissolute and wanton woman, O thou backsliding daughter? the congregation which had so often proved apostate. For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man, the weak and tender woman clinging to the stronger with yielding affection, the repentant congregation once more turning to the Lord in the relation of love which should characterize the believers at all times.
v. 23. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, whose majesty and power are here emphasized, As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof when I shall bring again their captivity, when His Church would once more be established, The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, where true righteousness would once more find its dwelling-place, and mountain of holiness, Mount Zion, of course, representing the Church of Jehovah.
v. 24. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, such as till the ground, and they that go forth with flocks, this picture being descriptive of the blessings which the Lord would pour out upon His people.
v. 25. For I have satiated the weary soul, refreshing the soul which panted after relief, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul, satisfying the soul that was languishing for relief. Cf Mat 11:28. The prophet closes this section with the remark:
v. 26. Upon this I awaked, namely, from the vision, or ecstasy, in which he had received the revelation of the Lord, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me. The glance into the future which had been vouchsafed him was so glorious that he kept it in his memory as a pleasant picture. To all true ministers of the Word it is a source of great satisfaction to find the Church returning to a condition of repentance and zeal for the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 A voice is heard in Ramah
A voice is heard in Ramah
This can be translated in active form. AT: "I hear a voice in Ramah" (See: Active or Passive)
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It is Rachel weeping for her children
Rachel was the wife of Jacob/Israel and was the mother of the tribes of Joseph and Benjamin. Her name is a metonym for the women of Israel who are crying because the Babylonians have killed their children or taken them away. (See: Metonymy)
She refuses to be comforted over them, for they live no longer
This can be translated in active form. AT: "She will not let anyone comfort her, for her children are dead" (See: Active or Passive and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
voice
Ramah
Rachel
children
comfort
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 31:15-40 The Lord expanded on his future project of…
31:15-40 The Lord expanded on his future project of rebuilding a new nation out of a people who had suffered greatly during their lengthy captivity.
31:15 Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife, was the mother of Joseph (father of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh in the northern kingdom) and Benjamin (whose descendants were in the southern kingdom). She represented the mothers in all Israel whose children were taken into exile. • Matthew 2:18 quotes this verse in relation to the slaughter of the young boys in Bethlehem.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.