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CHAP. XXX.

And reconciliation]
Jacob shall return, and shall be in
rest; and be quiet, and none shall
make him afraid.

11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.

12 For thus saith the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.

13 There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.

14 All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.

15 Why cryest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.

16 Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.

17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying,

CHAP. XXX.

[to the God of Jacob. This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

18 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.

19 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

20 Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.

21 And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD.

22 And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

23 Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.

24 The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it. (H)

EXPOSITION.

(H) Promises of all Israel's return and reconciliation to the God of Jacob.-This and the following chapter must relate, in part at least, to a still future restoration of the Jews from their several dispersious; as no deliverance hitherto afforded them

comes up to the terms of it: for the return from Babylon, included little more than the tribe of Judah, and they were again enslaved by the Greeks and Romans (contrary to ver. 8,) and in no place in the world are they at present independent of the Gentiles; so that the prophecy remains

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Farther promises]

CHAP. XXXI.

JEREMIAH.

AT the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.

4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.

5 Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.

6 For there shall be a day, that the watchman upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up, to Zion, unto the LORD our God.

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[of Israel's return,

lish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.

8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her. that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.

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

10 Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off; and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doṭh his flock.

11 For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall

EXPOSITION—Chap. XXX. Continued.

still to be fulfilled in the days of the Messiah. In this light the Jews themselves consider it; for they expect, when their Messiah comes, (the son of David,) that he will gather the outcasts from all nations and defeat their enemies. This also we expect, though in a different point of view; for we consider his reign to be rather moral (or spiritual) in the hearts of his people, in which he will write his covenant and his law. But as moral reform leads to national prosperity, and individual conversion to eternal life; so an accumulation

of blessings, both temporal and spiritual, shall distinguish the promised spiritual reign of Christ upon the earth.

The prophecy opens by an easy transition from the temporal deliverance before spoken of; and describes the great revolu tions that shall precede the final restoration of Israel, who are encouraged to trust in the promises of God. They must expect corrections; but they shall have a happy issue at a future period in the blessings of Messiah's reign, from which the wicked and impenitent shall be excluded.

NOTES.

CHAP. XXXI. Ver. 3. Of old Heb. "From afar:" but the original term may refer either to distance of time or space. We here prefer the former. Therefore with loving kindness, &c.—Marg. "Therefore have I extended loving kindness unto thee."

Ver. 4. Tabrets-Marg. "Timbrels." See Exod.

V. 20.

Ver. 6. Eat them, &c.-Heb. " Profane them." This

refers to the law, Lev. xix. 23-25, and implies, that they should remain in the land to enjoy its fruits.

Ver. 6. For there shall be a day "For the day is come, cry the watchmen," &c.

Ver. 15. A voice was heard in Ramah-Ramah was a city of Benjamin, near which Rachel (here spelt Rabel) was buried. This is applied, by way of ac commodation, to Herod's massacre of the infants. See Matt. ii. 17, 18.

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CHAP. XXXI.

And future] be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

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

sorrow.

14 And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.

15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were

not.

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

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

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

19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,

CHAP. XXXI.

[establishment.

because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

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

21 Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way. which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

22 How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a

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EXPOSITION.

rael's restoration.-The first verse of this

(1) Ver. 1-26. Farther promises of Is- chapter should doubtless be added to the

NOTES.

Ver. 19. 1 smate upon my thigh-an_indication of great sorrow and compunction. Sec Ezek. xxi. 12. Blayney.

Ver. 20. Are troubled-Heb. "Sound." See Isa. Ixiii. 15.

Ver. 21. High heaps-that is, for way-marks. Ver. 22. A woman shall compass a mun. The text literally reads, "A female shall surround a male." This is very differently explained, and the words will certainly admit of different renderings. Blayney reads, "A woman shall put to the rout, (or repulse) a strong man;" or, more literally, cause hita to turn back (so David Levi.) Boothroyd," Shall put to fight the mighty man; Gesenius, "The woman shall protect the man?" Gataker, "Beset and prevail against a mighty man." The sense of all these versions is, that Zion, compared to a weak and feeble woman, shall be so strengthened as to be

able to repel, turn back, or put to fight her most powerful enemy. Comparing this with the beginning of the verse, the sense appears to be, "How long wilt thou go (or turn) about to avoid thine enemy? return to thy God, and he will enable thee to resist and repel him."

As to the sense given to this passage by some expositors, as referring to the miraculous conception, there appears no ground for it, as both Gataker and Boothroyd confess. The word" encompass" is never used for pregnancy; and if it were, there is nothing wonderful in a woman being pregnant of a male child; and there is no intimation of this woman being a virgin.

Ver. 26. Upon this I awaked.-This shows that some part of the preceding discourse was revealed in a prophetic dream; perhaps from ver. 3.

Ver. 27. I will son the house of Israel—that is, as

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LORD, that I will sow the house of Isracl and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of

beast.

28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build and to plant, saith the LORD.

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

30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

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

32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

[the latter days.

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remem ber their sin no more.

35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:

36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.

37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed

EXPOSITION-Chap. XXXI. Continued.

preceding. In the 2d verse begins a new series of promises and predictions relative to Israel's restoration, and the happy events therewith connected. The Prophet, in a sacred vision, looks back to Israel's escape from Pharoah and his host by God's miraculous interference. The Jewish church is brought in, acknowledging the Lord's miraculous interposition on that occasion; and the Lord replies that he well remembers his ancient kindness, which had been continued, under all circumstances, to the present day. (Comp. ch. ii. 2, 3.) Upon the same principle, he promises to renew the exertions of his Almighty power in their recovery from all their captivities, and in their final re-establishment as a nation, notwithstanding the then unfavourable appearances.

A change of scenery is now introduced. Rachel is represented as awaking from her tomb, (in a city of Benjamin near Jerusslem,) looking about for her children, and bitterly lamenting their fate, as none of them are to be seen in the land of their fathers. But she is consoled with the assurance that they are not lost, and that they shall in due time be restored. Ephraim (often put for the ten tribes) comes theu into view, bitterly lamenting his past errors, and expressing the most earnest desire of reconciliation: upon which God, as a tender parent, immediately forgives him. (Ver. 20.) The virgin of Israel is then directed to prepare for returning home, as the promised Saviour was provided; and the vision closes with a promise of perpetual peace and stability to the Jews in their own land.

NOTES.

by sowing seed the husbandman multiplies the produce of the earth, so will I wonderfully multiply the increase both of men and cattle in the land of Israel. Ver. 35. Which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar. This appears to us an allusion to the viding the Red Sea, while its waves were agitated tha strong east wind." Exod. xiv. 21. See also b. 15.

Ver. 38-40. Behold, &c. --These verses seem to imply an enlargement of the city, so as to include Golgotha, or the heap of Goath, as, in fact, it w does. And does not this imply the conversion of the city to Christianity? Would the Jews, who rejected Jesus, wish to enclose this within their city?

Ver. 40. The whole valley of dead bodies.—See Note on Isa. lxvi. 24.

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of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

38 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.

39 And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goathi.

40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse-gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever. (K)

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[buys a field.

the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

4 And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans; but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his

eyes;

5 And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper?

6 And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

7 Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.

8 So Hanameel, mine uncle's son, came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

9 And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Ana

EXPOSITION.

(K) Ver. 27-40.) With the restoration of Israel is promised the New Covenant of Grace, with all its blessings.-An objection is introduced, (ver. 29) as if the present generation were suffering, not for their own sins, but the sins of their fathers; according to that declaration in the decalogue, that the Lord would "visit the sins of the fathers upon their children :" and it is true, from the very constitution of nature, that the sins of the parent often entail poverty, disease and death upon their offspring; but we know of no instance in which children have been judicially punished for the sins of their parents, when they have not

followed their example. See Exod. xx. 5. and Note.

The remainder of this chapter presents a series of New Covenant blessings reserved for yet future ages; wheu Israel shall all know and serve the Lord; when his law shall be written in their hearts, and they shall know their sins forgiven; when all their former blessings shall be restored in more ample measure; when Calvary, where their fathers crucified the Lord of Glory, shall be brought within the holy city; and even the valley of Hinnom, the most lively image of hell itself, shall be consecrated to Jehovah.

NOTES.

CHAP. XXXII. Ver. 7. In Anathoth-where Jeremiah had resided, eh. i. 1.—The right of redemption. See Rath iv. 4. Ver. 9. Seventeen shekels — equal to about forty shillings of our money.

Ver. 10. Subscribed the evidence-Heb. "Wrote in the book."

Ver. 11. That which was sealed.... and that which was open. The former was the original document, carefully preserved by the proprietor; the latter, an

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