Jeremiah 31:22

How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter?.... From place to, place, from country to country, from one kingdom to another, as the Jews do to this day; and not return unto the Lord, and

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

That the Jews are here meant by the backsliding daughter is out of question; but what going about is here intended is not so plain. Some interpret it of their running after idols; some, of their seeking help from foreign nations, instead of applying themselves unto God; others, of their wandering up and down in captivity. But the greater difficulty is about this new thing, which the Lord saith he will create in the new earth, a woman compassing a man; some by women understanding feeble persons that should prevail against strong men. But the two interpretations of this difficult passage, which seem most reasonably to contend for preference, are, 1. The interpretation of those who think it contains a promise both of the Jewish church in its time, and of the gospel church after the Jewish church’ s period, prevailing, over all its enemies, whether temporal or spiritual; though, considering the paucity of the church’ s members, with the multitude of its enemies, and their power, it seemed as strange a thing as for a woman to prevail against a strong and mighty man. This the learned author of the English Annotations judgeth the true and genuine sense of these words. 2. Others interpret this woman to be the Virgin Mary, who was to enclose in her womb the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the converted Jews were to adhere; which sense neither Mr. Calvin nor our learned English Annotator approve of. But it being the received sense of very many interpreters, it is fit we should hear their reasons, which are, 1. They urge the particle yk for God, they say, here gives the reason why the Jews should desire to return into the country of Judea, because the Messias was to be born there. 2. They urge the term created, the body of Christ being not begotten by man, but created by God, though of the flesh of the Virgin. 3. They say this indeed was a new thing. It was a new thing for a virgin to become a mother, still remaining a virgin, and to be the mother of him who was God blessed for ever, though not the mother of the Divine nature; for so Christ answered the type of Melchisedec, without father as man, without mother as God. 4. All other encompassings of a man they say were as well out of Judea as in it, this was in Judea only. 5. The word translated woman in Scripture they say always signifies a particular individual woman, which could be no other than the Virgin. 6. They say the whole context refers to benefits coming by Christ, therefore he must certainly be the man here intended. 7. They urge that this prophecy follows , which, , is applied by the evangelist to Herod’ s murder of the infants upon the birth of Christ. But on the other side it is objected, 1. That the verb bbo is never used in Scripture to signify such an encompassing. 2.

Jeremiah 31:22 How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.Ver. 22. How long will thou go about?] Hunting after human helps, and - refusing to set thy heart on the right straight way - fetch a compass, to thy loss of time and labour. O thou backsliding daughter.] Who wast at times O virgin of Israel. For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth.] Or, Will create; he is even about it. A woman shall compass a man.] i.e., Say some, the Jews (who are now looked upon as weak women, and may say Imbelles damae, quid nisi turba sumus?). shall compass about, and conquer the Chaldees, those men of might - Sicut hostis circundat hostem. Or, As others sense it, the Church Christian, how weak soever at first it may seem, and inconsiderable, yet shall be able, by the confession of her faith, to resist her most potent persecutors, and by faith to overcome them, as she did in the apostles, in the noble army of martyrs and confessors. The text is generally understood to be Christ’ s wonderful conception in the womb of his virgin mother.

(22) How long wilt thou go about . . .?—The word describes the restless pacing to and fro of impatient, unsatisfied desire. The backsliding daughter—i.e., the adulterous yet now penitent wife—is described, like Gomer in the parable or history of Hos 2:7, as hesitating between her lovers and her husband. A woman shall compass a man.—The verse is obscure, and has received very different interpretations. It will be well to begin our inquiry with the meaning which the translators attached to it. On this point the following quotation from Shakespeare is decisive :— “If I can check my erring love, I will; If not, to compass her I’ll use my skill.” Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 4. To “compass” is to woo and win. And this gives, it is believed, the true meaning. The Hebrew verb (which presents a striking assonance with the word for “backsliding”) means literally “to go round about,” and this (as in Psalms 26:6; Psalms 32:7; Psalms 32:10) as an act of reverential tenderness and love. In the normal order of man’s life, the bridegroom woos the bride. In the spiritual relationship which the prophet has in view, this shall be inverted, and Israel, the erring but repentant wife, shall woo her Divine husband. The history of Gomer in Hosea 2:14-20 again presents a striking parallel. A like inversion of the normal order is indicated, though with a different meaning, in Isaiah 4:1, where the seven women might be said to “compass” the one man. It may be noticed that the words used express the contrast of the two sexes in the strongest possible form. A female shall compass (i.e., woo) a male, possibly as emphasising the fact that what the prophet describes was an exception to the normal order, not of human society only, but of the whole animal society. By some interpreters (Ewald) the words are rendered “a woman shall be turned into a man;” meaning that the weak shall be made strong, as a kind of contrast to the opposite kind of transformation in Jeremiah 30:6; but this gives a far less satisfactory meaning, and the same may be said of such translations as “the woman shall protect the man,” and “a woman shall put a man to flight.” The notion that the words can in even the remotest degree be connected with the mystery of the Incarnation belongs to the region of dreams, and not of realities; and, lacking as it does the support of even any allusive reference to it in the New Testament, can only be regarded, in spite of the authority of the many Fathers and divines who have adopted it, as the outgrowth of a devout but uncritical imagination. The word used for “woman,” indeed, absolutely excludes the idea of the virgin-birth.

Verse 22. A woman shall compass a man] נקבה תסובב גבר nekebah tesobeb gaber, "A weak woman shall compass or circumvent a strong man." This place has given much trouble to Biblical critics. By many Christian writers it is considered a prophecy of the miraculous conception of the holy virgin; but as I am sure no such meaning is in the words, nor in the context, so I am satisfied no such meaning can be fairly brought out of them. Houbigant thinks there is a small error in the text, i.e., תשובב teshobeb, shall return, and not תסובב tesobeb, shall compass. This reading is found in two of Kennicott's MSS., and he contends that the passage should be read, "The wife shall return to her husband;" alluding to the conversion of the Jewish people, called above a backsliding daughter. This makes a good sense; but I do not see why this should be called a new thing in the earth. After all, I think it likely that the Jews in their present distressed circumstances are represented under the similitude of a weak defenseless female נקבה nekebah; and the Chaldeans under that of a fierce strong man, גבר gaber, who had prevailed over and oppressed this weak woman. But, notwithstanding the disparity between them, God would cause the woman - the weak defenseless Jews, to compass - to overcome, the strong man - the powerful Babylonians. And this the prophet says would be a new thing in the land; for in such a case the lame would take the prey. The context favours both these meanings. Dr. Blayney gives a sense very near to this: "A weak woman shall repulse a strong or mighty man." It is most likely a proverbial expression.

22. How long wilt thou go hither and thither] How long wilt thou hesitate to return? A sign follows, in order to induce Israel to complete her reconciliation with her offended God. backsliding] lit. back-turning, i.e. recusant, apostate. the Lord hath created, etc.] No explanation that has been given of the latter part of the v. is quite satisfactory. But the sense clearly is that in some way the natural order of things shall be reversed. The best interpretation is perhaps that it shall be the bride that shall court her husband, i.e. “instead of shyly keeping aloof or worse (as hitherto), Israel, Jehovah’s bride, shall with eager affection press around her divine husband” (Cheyne). Another explanation is that such is the Lord’s condescension towards Israel, that He will for her glory allow the natural order to be reversed, and deign to accept protection (of His Temple, services, honour, etc.) at her hands. For this sense of cherishing, protecting, as belonging to the Heb. verb of the clause, we may compare Deuteronomy 32:10, “He (the Lord) led him (Israel) about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye”; and Psalms 32:10, “He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about.” Some commentators, by a very slight change in the Heb. vocalisation, obtain the rendering, a woman shall be turned into a man, i.e. shall be given the courage of a man, so that all fear and hesitation on her part may be at an end.

22. A woman shall compass a man — Numerous explanations of these unusual words have been given; as “The woman shall be changed to a man,” (Ewald;) “The woman shall court the man,” (Hitzig;) “The