Jeremiah 31

Jeremiah 31:2

The heaven - The highest heaven, is the place where I shew myself in my majesty. So Psal 11:4 Psal 103:19 Matthew 5:34. Hence we are taught to pray; our father which art in heaven. And the earth is my footstool - Or a place wherein I set my feet, Matthew 5:35. The house - Can there be an house built, that will contain me? My rest - Or where is the place wherein I can be said to rest in a proper sense?

Jeremiah 31:3

Have been - They were not only made by God, but kept in being by him. Look - Yet God will look with a favourable eye to him that hath a broken and contrite spirit, whose heart is subdued to the will of God, and who is poor, and low in his own eyes. Trembleth - Who trembleth when he hears God’s threatening words, and hears every revelation of his will with reverence.

Jeremiah 31:4

He that, &c. - Solomon, Proverbs 15:8, gives a full commentary on the whole verse; The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. As if - From hence it is plain, that the prophet is not here reflecting upon idolatrous worship, but formal worship: upon those who in a formality worshipped the true God, and by acts which he had appointed. God by the prophet declares, that these mens services were no more acceptable to him than murder, idolatry, or the most horrid profanation of his name. Own ways - They live as they lust. Delight - They take pleasure in their sins.

Jeremiah 31:5

Chuse - They have chosen to mock and delude me, I will chuse to suffer them to delude themselves; they have chosen to work wickedness, I will chuse the effect. Their fears - That is, the things which they feared. Did not hear - God accounts that those do not hear, who do not obey his will.

Jeremiah 31:6

You - That truly fear God. Your brethren - By nation. Cast you out - That cast you out of their synagogues, cast you out of their city, and some of you out of the world. For my names sake - For my sake; for your adherence to my law. Glorified - Thinking they did God good service, John 16:2.

Jeremiah 31:7

A voice - The expression of a prophetical extasy, as if he said, I hear a sad and affrighting noise; it comes not from the city only, but from the temple, wherein these formalists have so much gloried. There is a noise of soldiers slaying, and of the poor people shrieking or crying out. Of the Lord - A voice of the Lord, not in thunder, but that rendereth recompence to his enemies. Thus he seems to express the destruction of the Jews by the Roman armies, as a thing at that time doing.

Jeremiah 31:8

Before - The whole verse is expressive of a great and sudden salvation, which God would work for his church, like the delivery of a woman, and that of a man - child, before her travail, and without pain. Doubtless it refers to the coming of Christ, and the sudden propagation of the gospel.

Jeremiah 31:9

For - As soon as the voice of the gospel put the church of the Jews into her travail, in Christ’s and the Apostles time, it presently brought forth.

Jeremiah 31:10

Shall I - I, that in the ordinary course of my providence use to give a birth to women, to whom I have given a power to conceive, shall I not give a birth to my people, whom by my promises I have made to conceive such expectations? And shut - Nor shall Zion once only bring forth, but she shall go on, her womb shall not be shut, she shall every day bring forth more and more children, and my presence shall be with my church, to the end of the world.

Jeremiah 31:12

Consolations - The gospel doctrine was their breasts of consolation. Her glory - Christ was the glory of the people of Israel, though he was also a light to the Gentiles.

Jeremiah 31:13

Like a river - It is plain this prophecy relates to a farther conversion of the Jews than hath been yet seen. Ye - Ye Jews also. Her sides - The Gentiles were borne upon the sides of Jerusalem and dandled upon her knees, as first hearing from the Apostles (who were members of the Jewish church) the glad tidings of salvation.

Jeremiah 31:14

As one whom, &c. - That is, in the most tender, and compassionate way.

Jeremiah 31:15

Rejoice - The peace of the church and the propagation of the kingdom of Christ, is always the cause of an heart rejoicing to such as fear God, so that they flourish like an herb in the spring. The hand - The power, protection, and influence of God.

Jeremiah 31:16

With fire - With terrible judgments, or with fire in a proper sense, understanding it of the fire with which enemies use to consume places brought under their power. Whirlwind - With a sudden sweeping judgment. Fury - That is, with fervour; for fury properly taken is not in God. Rebukes - They had contemned the rebukes of the law, now God will rebuke them with fire, and sword.

Jeremiah 31:17

Plead - God at first pleads with sinners by words, but if he cannot so prevail, he will plead with them in a way by which he will overcome; by fire, pestilence and blood. All flesh - Thus he threatens to do with all the wicked Jews. The slain - Those whom God should cause to be slain.

Jeremiah 31:18

Gardens - In which they worshipped idols. In the midst - Behind one of the trees, or one by one behind the trees. The abominations - All those beasts forbidden the Jews for meat. God will not only destroy gross idolaters, but all those who make no conscience of yielding obedience to the law of God in such things as seemed to them of a minute nature, and such as they easily might have obeyed.

Jeremiah 31:19

Come - It shall come to pass that I will cast them off, and then l will gather all nations, &c. My glory - My oracles, my ordinances, which hitherto have been locked up in the church of the Jews, and been their glory, shall be published to the Gentiles.

Jeremiah 31:20

A sign - By this may be understood Christ, Luke 2:34, or the ministry of the word attended with miracles, these were set up among the Jews first, then among the Gentiles. Afar off - To all the quarters of the world. They shall - This was eminently made good after the destruction of Jerusalem, when the believers among the Jews, as well as the apostles went about publishing the gospel to all people, which was declaring the Lord’s glory.

Jeremiah 31:21

Your brethren - Those who are the children of Abraham, not considered as the father of the Jewish nation only, but considered as the father of many nations, and as the father of the faithful, and so are your brethren, shall be brought out of all nations for an offering to the Lord. Holy mountain - And they shall be brought into the church, which began at Jerusalem. As - And they shall come with as much joy and gladness, with as much sincerity and holiness, as the Godly Jews do when they bring their offerings in clean vessels.

Jeremiah 31:22

For priests - God will find among the converted Gentiles those who though they are not of the tribe of Levi, yet shall do the true work of priests and Levites.

Jeremiah 31:23

The new heavens - The new state of the church to be raised up under the Messiah. Remain - As I intend that shall abide, so there shall be a daily succession of true believers for the upholding of it.

Jeremiah 31:24

And, &c. - In the gospel - church there shall be as constant and settled a course of worship (though of another nature) as ever was in the Jewish church: Christians are not bound to keep the Jewish sabbaths or new - moons. But New Testament worship is expressed by Old Testament phrases. The Jews were only obliged to appear three times in a year at Jerusalem, but (saith the prophet) the gospel - church shall worship God from one sabbath to another.

Jeremiah 31:28

Anathoth - Was a city three miles from Jerusalem, allotted out of the tribe of Benjamin for the priests.

Jeremiah 31:29

The word - That commission from God that authorized him to his prophetic work, for the space of forty - one years successively in Judea, viz. from the 13th year of Josiah to the 11th year of Zedekiah, besides the time that he prophesied in Egypt. In the days - During his reign. Thirteenth - By which it appears that Jeremiah prophesied the last eighteen years of Josiah’s reign; for he reigned thirty - one years, 2 Kings 22:1.

Jeremiah 31:31

Then - When he was first called to his office.

Jeremiah 31:32

I sanctified - I ordained thee for this public service. He speaks thus to Jeremiah, not to the other prophets, because he stood in need of greater encouragement than they, both in respect of the tenderness of his years, and the difficulties which he was to encounter with. The nations - To other nations besides the Jews.

Jeremiah 31:34

Thou shalt speak - Fear not, I will make thee eloquent and courageous.

Jeremiah 31:36

Then - God having excited the prophet by command and promise, now in a vision confirms him, either by the hand of an angel, or by himself in some visible shape.

Jeremiah 31:37

The kingdoms - Having now received his commission, he is directed to whom he is to go; to the greatest, not only single persons, but whole nations, as the Babylonians, Persians, and Egyptians. To pull down - That is, to prophecy that I will pull down; which I will as certainly effect, as if thou hadst done it thyself: for, according to scripture - usage, the prophets are said to do that which they foretell shall come to pass. To plant - Metaphors taken from architects and gardeners: either the former words relate to the enemies of God, and the latter to his friends; or rather to both conditionally: if they repent, he will build them up, he will increase their families, and settle them in the land; if they do not, he will root them up, and pull them down.

Jeremiah 31:38

Came unto me - This and the boiling caldron, ver.13, is thought to be at the same time, and in the same vision, when he was first appointed to the work. Almond - tree - That had leaves, and probably blossoms on it like Aaron’s. This is a tree that blossoms early, and speedily, and so it may point at either God’s readiness, to smite, ver.12, or Israel’s ripeness to be smitten; this rod being like a portentous comet, shewing to Jeremiah the miseries that were at hand, at the death of Josiah, which soon followed this vision, the taxing them by Pharaoh Necho, presently after the breaking in of the Chaldees, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, and then the Babylonian captivity.

Jeremiah 31:39

Well seen - Or thou hast seen and judged right. Hasten - Word for word, I will almond - tree it, that is, I will be upon them speedily, in a short time. My word - My threatening against Judah and its inhabitants.

Jeremiah 31:40

Seething - Pot - I see a pot coming, meaning the Babylonian army, who would besiege Jerusalem as a fire plays round the pot, when it is to be made boil; and reduce the inhabitants to miserable extremities. Face - Or front of the pot, or furnace, the place where the fire was put in, or blowed up to make it boil. North - Indicating from whence their misery should come, namely, from Chaldea, which lay north from Jerusalem.