Jeremiah 31

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

(a) When this noble governor will come, meaning Christ, not only Judah and Israel, but the rest of the world will be called. Thus saith the LORD, The people [who were] {b} left by the sword found grace in the wilderness; {c} [even] Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

(b) Who were delivered from the cruelty of Pharaoh. (c) That is, God. The LORD appeared {d} of old to me, [saying], {e} I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

(d) The people thus reason as though he were not so beneficial to them now as he had been of old. (e) Thus the Lord answers that his love is not changeable. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again {f} be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.

(f) You will still have opportunity to rejoice which is meant by tabrets and dancing as their custom was after notable victories, Ex 15:20, Jud 11:34. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of {g} Samaria: the planters shall plant, and {h} shall eat [them] as common things.

(g) Because the Israelites who were the ten tribes never returned to Samaria, therefore this must be spiritually understood under the kingdom of Christ, which was the restoration of the true Israel. (h) That is, will eat the fruit of it, as in Le 19:23-25, De 20:6. For there shall be a day, [that] the {i} watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to {k} Zion to the LORD our God.

(i) The ministers of the word. (k) They will exhort all to the embracing of the gospel, as in Isa 2:3. {l} For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: proclaim ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.

(l) He shows what will be the concord and love of all under the gospel when none will be refused for their infirmities: and everyone will exhort one another to embrace it. They shall come with {m} weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of {n} waters in a straight way, in which they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim [is] {o} my firstborn.

(m) That is, lamenting their sins which had not given ear to the prophets and therefore it follows that God received them to mercy, Jer 50:4. Some take it that they should weep for joy. (n) Where they found no impediments, but abundance of all things. (o) That is, my dearly beloved as the first child is to the father. For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand {p} of [him that was] stronger than he.

(p) That is, from the Babylonians and other enemies. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for {q} grain, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

(q) By these temporal benefits he means the spiritual graces which are in the Church, and of which there would ever be plenty, Isa 58:11,12. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the {r} 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.

(r) In the company of the faithful, who ever praise God for his benefits. And I will abundantly satisfy the soul of the priests with {s} fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.

(s) Meaning, the spirit of wisdom, knowledge and zeal. Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, [and] bitter weeping; {t} Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they [were] not.

(t) To declare the greatness of God's mercy in delivering the Jews, he shows them that they were like the Benjamites of the Israelites, that is, utterly destroyed and carried away, so much so that if Rachel the mother of Benjamin could have risen again to seek her children she would have found none remaining. I have surely heard {u} Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus]; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a {x} bull unaccustomed [to the yoke]: {y} turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou [art] the LORD my God.

(u) That is, the people who were led captive. (x) Which was wanton and could not be subject to the yoke. (y) He shows how the faithful used to pray, that is, desire God to tame them as they cannot turn of themselves. Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote upon [my] {z} thigh: I was ashamed, and even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.

(z) In sign of repentance and detestation of my sin. [Is] Ephraim {a} my dear son? [is he] a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestly {b} remember him still: therefore my heart is troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.

(a) As though he would say no for by his iniquity he did what lay in him to cast me off. Set thee up {c} waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thy heart toward the highway, [even] the way [which] thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

(c) Mark by what way you went into captivity and you will turn again by the same. How long wilt thou wander about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created {d} a new thing in the earth, A woman shall encompass a man.

(d) Because their deliverance from Babylon was a figure of their deliverance from sin, he shows how this would be procured that is, by Jesus Christ, whom a woman would conceive and bear in her womb. Which is a strange thing in earth, because he would be born of a virgin without man or he means that Jerusalem which was like a barren woman in her captivity would be fruitful as she that is joined in marriage and whom God blesses with children. Upon this I awoke, and beheld; and my sleep {e} was sweet to me.

(e) Having understood this vision of the Messiah to come, in whom the two houses of Israel and Judah would be joined, I rejoiced. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah {f} with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.

(f) I will multiply and enrich them with people and cattle. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have {g} eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

(g) The wicked used this proverb when they murmured against God's judgments pronounced by the prophets, saying that their fathers had committed the fault and that the children were punished, Eze 18:2,3. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a {h} new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

(h) Though the covenant of redemption made to the fathers and this which was given later seemed varied, yet they are all one and grounded on Jesus Christ, save that this is called new, because of the manifestation of Christ and the abundant graces of the Holy Spirit given to his Church under the gospel. 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 {i} broke, although I was an husband to them, saith the LORD:

(i) And so were the opportunity of their own divorcement through their infidelity, Isa 50:1. But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After {k} 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.

(k) In the time of Christ, my law will instead of tables of stone be written in their hearts by my Holy Spirit, He 8:10. And they shall {l} 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 to the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

(l) Under the kingdom of Christ there will be no one blinded with ignorance, but I will give them faith, and acknowledge God for remission of their sins and daily increase the same: so that it will not seem to come so much by the preaching of my ministers as by the instruction of my Holy Spirit, Isa 54:13 but the full accomplishing of it is referred to the kingdom of Christ, when we will be joined with our head. Thus saith the LORD, who giveth {m} the sun for a light by day, [and] the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The LORD of hosts [is] his name:

(m) If the sun, moon and stars cannot but glue light according to my ordinance, so long as this world lasts, so shall my church never fail, neither shall anything hinder it: and as sure as I will have a people, so certain is it, that I will leave them my word forever to govern them with. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, {n} and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

(n) The one and the other is impossible. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the {o} city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner.

(o) As it was performed, Neh 3:1. By this description he shows that the city would be as ample and beautiful as it ever was: but he alludes to the spiritual Jerusalem whose beauty would be incomparable.

Jeremiah 32

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the {a} tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which [was] the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

(a) So that Jeremiah had now prophesied from the thirteenth year of Josiah to the last year save one of Zedekiah's reign, which was almost forty years. And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until {b} I visit him, saith the LORD: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper.

(b) Till I take Zedekiah away by death: for he will not die by the sword as in Jer 34:4. Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thy uncle shall come to thee, saying, {c} Buy for thee my field that [is] in Anathoth: for the right of redemption [is] thine {d} to buy [it].

(c) By which was meant that the people would return again out of captivity and enjoy their possessions and vineyards as in Jer 32:15,44. (d) Because he was next of the kindred, as in Ru 4:4. So Hanameel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, Buy my {e} 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.

(e) Of the possession of the Levites, read Le 25:32. And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that [was] in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, [even] seventeen {f} shekels of silver.

(f) Which amounts to about ten shillings six pence in our money if this shekel were the common shekel, see

Geneva "Ge 23:15", for the shekel of the temple was of double value, and ten pieces of silver were half a shekel, for twenty made the shekel. So I took the deed of the purchase, [both] that which was sealed {g} [according] to the law and custom, and that which was open:

(g) According to the custom the instrument or evidence was sealed up with the common seal and a copy of it remained which contained the same in effect but was left open to be seen if anything should be called into doubt. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase, both that which is sealed, and this deed which is open; and put them in an earthen {h} vessel, that they may continue many days.

(h) And so to hide them in the ground, that they might be reserved as a token of their deliverance. Thou shewest lovingkindness to thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their {i} children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, JEHOVAH of hosts, [is] his name,

(i) Because the wicked are subject to the curse of God, he shows that their posterity who by nature are under this malediction will be punished both for their own wickedness and that the iniquity of their fathers which is likewise in them, will be also avenged on their head. {k} Who hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, [even] to this day, and in Israel, and among [other] men; and hast made thee a name, as at this day;

(k) Meaning that his miracles in delivering his people would never be forgotten. Behold the {l} mounts, they are come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou seest [it].

(l) The word signifies anything that is cast up, as a mount or rampart, and is also used for engines of war, which were laid on a high place to shoot into a city before guns were in use. Behold, I [am] the LORD, the God of all {m} flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?

(m) That is, of every creature: who as they are his work, so does he govern and guide them as pleases him, by which he shows that as he is the author of their captivity for their sins, so will he for his mercies be their redeemer to restore them again to liberty. For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done evil only before me from their {n} youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the LORD.

(n) From the time that I brought them out of Egypt and made them my people and called them my firstborn. And they have turned to me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, {o} rising early and teaching [them], yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.

(o) 2Ch 36:15,Isa 65:2,Jer 7:13,13;3,26;5,29:19,35:14,44:4. And they built the high {p} places of Baal, which [are] in the valley of the {q} son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to {r} pass through [the fire] to Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

(p) That is, the altars which were made to offer sacrifices to their idols on. (q) Read Jer 7:31, 2Ki 21:4,6. (r) Read 2Ki 16:3. And now {s} therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, of which ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence;

(s) Read Jer 30:16. And I will give them {t} one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:

(t) One consent and one religion, as in Eze 11:19,36:26. And I will make an everlasting {u} covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

(u) Read Jer 31:1-33:26. Men shall buy {x} fields for money, and signed deeds, and seal [them], and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captives to return, saith the LORD.

(x) This is the declaration of that which was spoken of in Jer 32:8.

Jeremiah 33

Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the {a} court of the prison, saying,

(a) Which was in the king's house at Jerusalem, as in Jer 32:1,2. Thus saith the LORD the {b} maker of this, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD [is] his name;

(b) That is, of Jerusalem, who as he made it, so will he preserve it, read Isa 37:26. For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the {c} mounts, and by the sword;

(c) Read Jer 32:24. They come to {d} fight with the Chaldeans, but [it is] to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in my anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my {e} face from this city.

(d) The Jews think to overcome the Chaldeans, but they seek their own destruction. (e) He shows that God's favour is cause of all prosperity, as his anger is of all adversity. Behold, I {f} will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.

(f) In the midst of his threatenings God remembers his, and comforts them. And I will {g} cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, by which they have sinned, and by which they have transgressed against me.

(g) Declaring that there is no deliverance nor joy, but where we feel remission of sins. And it shall be to me a name of {h} joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do to them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure to it.

(h) By which he shows that the Church in which is remission of sins, is God's honour and glory, so that whoever is enemy to it, labours to dishonour God. The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, {i} Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD [is] good; for his mercy [endureth] for ever: [and] of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captives of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.

(i) Which was a song appointed for the Levites to praise God by, 1Ch 16:8; Ps 105:1; 106:1; 107:1; 118:1; 136:1; Isa 12:4 In the cities of the {k} mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that counteth [them], saith the LORD.

(k) Meaning that all the country of Judah will be inhabited again. In those days, and at that time, will I cause {l} the Branch of righteousness to grow up to David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.

(l) That is, I will send the Messiah, who will come of the house of David, of whom this prophecy is meant, as testify all the Jews and that which is written, Jer 23:5. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety: and this [is the name] by which {m} she shall be called, The LORD our {n} righteousness.

(m) That is, Christ that will call his Church. (n) That is, Christ is our Lord God, our righteousness, sanctification and redemption, 1Co 1:30. Neither shall the priests the Levites lack a man before me to offer {o} burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.

(o) That is, chiefly meant of the spiritual sacrifice of thanksgiving which is left to the Church in the time of Christ, who was the everlasting priest and the everlasting sacrifice figured by the sacrifices of the law. Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the {p} day, and my covenant of the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season;

(p) Read Jer 31:35. Considerest thou not what {q} this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

(q) Meaning, the Chaldeans and other infidels who thought God had utterly cast off Judah and Israel or Benjamin, because he corrected them for a time for their amendment.