19. after that I was turned, I repented--Repentance in the full sense follows, not precedes, our being turned to God by God ([Zec 12:10]). The Jews' "looking to Him whom they pierced" shall result in their "mourning for Him." Repentance is the tear that flows from the eye of faith turned to Jesus. He Himself gives it: we give it not of ourselves, but must come to Him for it ([Ac 5:31]).
instructed--made to learn by chastisement. God's Spirit often works through the corrections of His providence.
smote upon ... thigh--([Eze 21:12]). A token of indignant remorse, shame, and grief, because of his past sin.
bear ... reproach of ... youth--"because the calamities which I bore were the just punishment of my scandalous wantonness against God in my youth"; alluding to the idols set up at Dan and Beth-el immediately after the ten tribes revolted from Judah. His sense of shame shows that he no longer delights in his sin.
20. Is Ephraim my dear son? &c.--The question implies that a negative answer was to be expected. Who would have thought that one so undutiful to His heavenly Father as Ephraim had been should still be regarded by God as a "pleasant child?" Certainly he was not so in respect to his sin. But by virtue of God's "everlasting love" ([Jr 31:3]) on Ephraim's being "turned" to God, he was immediately welcomed as God's "dear son." This verse sets forth God's readiness to welcome the penitent ([Jr 31:18], ), anticipating his return with prevenient grace and love. Compare [Lu 15:20]: "When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion," &c.
spake against--threatened him for his idolatry.
remember--with favor and concern, as in [Ge 8:1]; .
bowels ... troubled for him--([De 32:36]; [Is 63:15]; [Ho 11:8])--namely, with the yearnings of compassionate love. The "bowels" include the region of the heart, the seat of the affections.
21. waymarks--pillars to mark the road for the returning exiles. Caravans set up pillars, or pointed heaps of stones, to mark the way through the desert against their return. So Israel is told by God to mark the way by which they went in leaving their country for exile; for by the same way they shall return.
highway--([Is 35:8], ).
22. go about--namely, after human helps ([Jr 2:18], 23, 36). Why not return immediately to me? Maurer translates, as in [So 5:6], "How long wilt thou withdraw thyself?" Let thy past backslidings suffice thee now that a new era approaches. What God finds fault with in them is, that they looked hither and thither, leaning on contingencies, instead of at once trusting the word of God, which promised their restoration. To assure them of this, God promises to create a new thing in their land, A woman shall compass a man. Calvin explains this: Israel, who is feeble as a woman, shall be superior to the warlike Chaldeans; the captives shall reduce their captors to captivity. Hengstenberg makes the "woman" the Jewish Church, and the "man" Jehovah, her husband, whose love she will again seek ([Ho 2:6], ). Maurer, A woman shall protect ([De 32:10], Margin; [Psa 32:10]) a man, that is, You need fear no foes in returning, for all things shall be so peaceful that a woman would be able to take man's part, and act as his protector. But the Christian fathers (Augustine, &c.) almost unanimously interpreted it of the Virgin Mary compassing Christ in her womb. This view is favored:--(1) By the connection; it gives a reason why the exiles should desire a return to their country, namely, because Christ was conceived there. (2) The word "created" implies a divine power put forth in the creation of a body in the Virgin's womb by the Holy Ghost for the second Adam, such as was exerted in creating the first Adam ([Lu 1:35]; [He 10:5]). () The phrase, "a new thing," something unprecedented; a man whose like had never existed before, at once God and man; a mother out of the ordinary course of nature, at once mother and virgin. An extraordinary mode of generation; one conceived by the Holy Ghost without man. (4) The specification "in the land" (not "earth," as English Version), namely, of Judah, where probably Christ was conceived, in Hebron (compare [Lu 1:39], 42, 44, with [Jos 21:11]) or else in Nazareth, "in the territory" of Israel, to whom [Jr 31:5], [6, 15], [18, 21] refer; His birth was at Beth-lehem ([Mi 5:2]; [Mt 2:5], ). As the place of His nativity, and of His being reared ([Mt 2:23]), and of His preaching ([Hag 2:7]; Mal 3:1), are specified, so it is likely the Holy Spirit designated the place of His being conceived. (5) The Hebrew for "woman" implies an individual, as the Virgin Mary, rather than a collection of persons. (6) The restoration of Israel is grounded on God's covenant in Christ, to whom, therefore, allusion is naturally made as the foundation of Israel's hope (compare [Is 7:14]). The Virgin Mary's conception of Messiah in the womb answers to the "Virgin of Israel" (therefore so called, [Jr 31:21]), that is, Israel and her sons at their final restoration, receiving Jesus as Messiah ([Zec 12:10]). () The reference to the conception of the child Messiah accords with the mention of the massacre of "children" referred to in [Jr 31:15] (compare [Mt 2:17]). () The Hebrew for "man" is properly "mighty man," a term applied to God ([De 10:17]); and to Christ ([Zec 13:7]; compare [Psa 45:3]; [Is 9:6]) [Calovius].
23. Jerusalem again shall be the metropolis of the whole nation, the seat of "justice" ([Psa 122:5-8]; [Is 1:26]), and of sacred worship ("holiness," [Zec 8:3]) on "Mount" Moriah.
24. Judah ... cities ... husbandmen ... they with flocks--Two classes, citizens and countrymen, the latter divided into agriculturists and shepherds, all alike in security, though the latter were to be outside the protection of city walls. "Judah" here stands for the country, as distinguished from its cities.
25. The "weary, sorrowful," and indigent state of Israel will prove no obstacle in the way of My helping them.
26. The words of Jeremiah: Upon this (or, By reason of this) announcement of a happy restoration, "I awaked" from the prophetic dream vouchsafed to me ([Jr 23:25]) with the "sweet" impression thereof remaining on my mind. "Sleep" here means dream, as in [Psa 90:5].
27. He shows how a land so depopulated shall again be peopled. God will cause both men and beasts in it to increase to a multitude ([Eze 36:9-11]; [Ho 2:23]).
28. ([Jr 44:27]). The same God who, as it were (in human language), was on the watch for all means to destroy, shall be as much on the watch for the means of their restoration.
29. In those days--after their punishment has been completed, and mercy again visits them.
fathers ... eaten ... sour grape ... children's teeth ... on edge--the proverb among the exiles' children born in Babylon, to express that they suffered the evil consequences of their fathers' sins rather than of their own ([La 5:7]; [Eze 18:2], ).
30. ([Ga 6:5], ).
31. the days ... new covenant with ... Israel ... Judah--The new covenant is made with literal Israel and Judah, not with the spiritual Israel, that is, believers, except secondarily, and as grafted on the stock of Israel ([Ro 11:16-27]). For the whole subject of the thirtieth and thirty-first chapters is the restoration of the Hebrews ([Jr 30:4], [7, 10], ; , [10, 11], [23, 24], 27, 36). With the "remnant according to the election of grace" in Israel, the new covenant has already taken effect. But with regard to the whole nation, its realization is reserved for the last days, to which Paul refers this prophecy in an abridged form ([Ro 11:27]).
32. Not ... the covenant that I made with ... fathers--the Old Testament covenant, as contrasted with our gospel covenant (He 8:8-12; 10:16, 17, where this prophecy is quoted to prove the abrogation of the law by the gospel), of which the distinguishing features are its securing by an adequate atonement the forgiveness of sins, and by the inworking of effectual grace ensuring permanent obedience. An earnest of this is given partially in the present eclectic or elect Church gathered out of Jews and Gentiles. But the promise here to Israel in the last days is national and universal, and effected by an extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit ([Jr 31:33], ; [Eze 11:17-20]), independent of any merit on their part (Eze 36:25-32; 37:1-28; 39:29; [Joe 2:23-28]; [Zec 12:10]; [2Co 3:16]).
took ... by ... hand--([De 1:31]; [Ho 11:3]).
although I was an husband--(compare [Jr 3:14]; [Ho 2:7], ). But the Septuagint, Syriac, and St. Paul ([He 8:9]) translate, "I regarded them not"; and Gesenius, &c., justify this rendering of the Hebrew from the Arabic. The Hebrews regarded not God, so God regarded them not.
33. will be their God--([Jr 32:38]).
34. True, specially of Israel ([Is 54:13]); secondarily, true of believers ([Joh 6:45]; [1Co 2:10]; [1Jo 2:20]).
forgive ... iniquity ... remember ... no more--([Jr 33:8]; ; [Mi 7:18]); applying peculiarly to Israel ([Ro 11:27]). Secondarily, all believers ([Ac 10:43]).
35. divideth ... sea when ... waves ... roar ... Lord of hosts ... name--quoted from [Is 51:15], the genuineness of which passage is thus established on Jeremiah's authority.
36. a nation--Israel's national polity has been broken up by the Romans. But their preservation as a distinct people amidst violent persecutions, though scattered among all nations for eighteen centuries, unamalgamated, whereas all other peoples under such circumstances have become incorporated with the nations in which they have been dispersed, is a perpetual standing miracle (compare [Jr 33:20]; [Psa 148:6]; [Is 54:9], ).
37. (Compare [Jr 33:22]).
for all that they have done--namely, all the sins. God will regard His own covenant promise, rather than their merits.
38. tower of Hananeel--The city shall extend beyond its former bounds ([Ne 3:1]; ; [Zec 14:10]).
gate of ... corner--([2Ki 14:13]; [2Ch 26:9]).
39. measuring-line--([Eze 40:8]; [Zec 2:1]).
Gareb--from a Hebrew root, "to scrape"; Syriac, "leprosy"; the locality outside of the city, to which lepers were removed.
Goath--from a root, "to toil," referring to the toilsome ascent there: outside of the city of David, towards the southwest, as Gareb was northwest [Junius].
40. valley of ... dead--Tophet, where the bodies of malefactors were cast ([Is 30:33]), south of the city.
fields ... Kidron--so [2Ki 23:4]. Fields in the suburbs reaching as far as Kidron, east of the city.
horse gate--Through it the king's horses were led forth for watering to the brook Kidron ([2Ki 11:16]; [Ne 3:28]).
for ever--The city shall not only be spacious, but both "holy to the Lord," that is, freed from all pollutions, and everlasting ([Joe 3:17], ; [Re 21:2], 10, 27).
Chapter 32
Jr 32:1-14. Jeremiah, Imprisoned for His Prophecy against Jerusalem, Buys a Patrimonial Property (His Relative Hanameel's), IN Order to Certify to the Jews Their Future Return from Babylon
1. tenth year--The siege of Jerusalem had already begun, in the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah ([Jr 39:1]; [2Ki 25:1]).
2. in ... court of ... prison--that is, in the open space occupied by the guard, from which he was not allowed to depart, but where any of his friends might visit him ([Jr 32:12]; [Jr 38:13], ). Marvellous obstinacy, that at the time when they were experiencing the truth of Jeremiah's words in the pressure of the siege, they should still keep the prophet in confinement [Calvin]. The circumstances narrated ([Jr 32:3-5]) occurred at the beginning of the siege, when Jeremiah foretold the capture of the city ([Jr 32:1]; Jr 34:1-7; 39:1). He was at that time put into free custody in the court of the prison. At the raising of the siege by Pharaoh-hophra, Jeremiah was on the point of repairing to Benjamin, when he was cast into "the dungeon," but obtained leave to be removed again to the court of the prison ([Jr 37:12-21]). When there he urged the Jews, on the second advance of the Chaldeans to the siege, to save themselves by submission to Nebuchadnezzar ([Jr 38:2], ); in consequence of this the king, at the instigation of the princes, had him cast into a miry dungeon ([Jr 38:4-6]); again he was removed to the prison court at the intercession of a courtier ([Jr 32:7-13]), where he remained till the capture of the city ([Jr 32:28]), when he was liberated ([Jr 39:11], &c.; [Jr 40:1], &c.).
4. his eyes shall behold his eyes--that is, only before reaching Babylon, which he was not to see. [Jr 39:6], harmonizes this prophecy ([Jr 32:4]) with the seemingly opposite prophecy, [Eze 12:13], "He shall not see."