Jeremiah 31:13

Jeremiah spent most of his ministry warning Judah of judgment for its idolatry and its unfaithfulness to the covenant, and he lived to see that judgment fall. Babylon overran the kingdom, Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed in 586 BC, and much of the people were carried away. The northern kingdom, called Israel or Ephraim, had already been taken into exile by Assyria more than a century earlier, in 722 BC. To a people who felt abandoned by God, chapters 30 to 33, often called the Book of Consolation or the Book of Comfort (Jeremiah 30–33), bring promise after promise of return. They open with the LORD’s word that he will bring his people back to the land he gave their fathers (Jeremiah 30:3), and the verses just before this passage speak of his everlasting love and of Israel going out again with singing and dancing (Jeremiah 31:3–8).

These eight verses describe the homecoming itself. “Jacob”, “Israel” and “Ephraim” in them take in the whole covenant people, north and south together. A little later in the same chapter comes the promise of the new covenant, with God’s law written on the heart (Jeremiah 31:31–34), and the return described here leads up to it. The same faithfulness is sung over the ruined city in Lamentations: “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22–23).

Verse 7 is a burst of commands from “the LORD”, Yᵉhôvâh, the personal covenant name of God, the eternal One who keeps his promises. “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say”. “Sing with gladness” (rânan) and “shout” (tsâhal) call for joy that is loud and public. “Publish” comes from shâma, to hear, which in this form means to make others hear, to tell abroad what God has done. “Praise”, hâlal, is the word that gives us “hallelujah”. Its root sense is to be clear or to shine, and from there to boast and to celebrate, so this is praise meant to be seen and heard. “And say”, ʼâmar, brings in the very words they are to speak.

The command comes while the people are still in exile or facing it. God tells them to rejoice over his promise as though it were already done, and a few verses later he promises to turn their mourning into joy (verse 13). Zephaniah gives the same call to the same people: “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem” (Zephaniah 3:14–17), because the LORD is in the midst of them.

“Among the chief of the nations” sets this joy before the leading peoples of the world. It may look ahead to Israel, once humbled and scattered, standing again among the nations, and it plainly means that God’s saving work for his people will be seen by the whole world and bring glory to his name.

The shout of praise ends in a prayer: “O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.” The verb for save is yâshaʻ. The people praise God for the salvation he has promised and ask him for it in the same breath. His promise is certain, and he gives his people the privilege of praying for what he has already decreed. “Thy people” reminds them that after all their failures they still belong to him.

“Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth”. God himself does the bringing and the gathering. The north country is first of all Babylon. It lay to the northeast of Judah and its armies came down on Judah from the north, so the direction from which judgment came becomes the direction of return. “The coasts of the earth” widens the view to the farthest places, and the Jewish people were in fact scattered far and wide long after the return from Babylon. To gather, qâbats, means to grasp, collect or assemble, bringing people together for a common purpose. Isaiah speaks of the Lord setting his hand “again the second time to recover the remnant of his people” from many lands (Isaiah 11:11).

Then comes the tenderest line of the passage: “and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together”. These are the people least able to make a long journey on foot. The blind, ʻivvêr, cannot see the road and the lame cannot walk it, and a woman near her time or already in labour is the most fragile traveller of all. On a long march they would be the first to fall behind. God names them so that everyone knows they are coming too, and their safe arrival will show that the whole return is his doing. A psalm says of him, “The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down” (Psalm 146:8).

“A great company shall return thither.” The word for company, qâhâl, means an assembly or congregation called together, and it also means a crowd or multitude. Those God brings home will be many. To return, shûwb, is to turn back. Elsewhere it often describes turning back to God, and here it is the journey home that reverses the exile.

“They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them”. Weeping, bᵉkîy, is the ordinary word for tears, sorrow and mourning. These are the tears of people who now see what their sins have cost them, and they come home humbled and praying. Supplications are earnest prayers for favour and mercy, and God answers them by leading his people himself. Joel calls Israel back in the same spirit: “turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning” (Joel 2:12–13).

“I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble”. In a dry land, streams of water mean life, rest and refreshment on a hard road. David uses the same picture of the Shepherd who “leadeth me beside the still waters” and “leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:2–3). The “straight way” joins derek, a road or path and also a course of life, with yâshâr, straight, upright or just. It is a direct and level road that God has cleared, so that even the blind and the lame of verse 8 can walk it safely. The road the people had chosen before brought them to ruin, and Jeremiah had asked them, “Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?” (Jeremiah 2:17–19). Now he leads them by the way again.

The reason for all this tenderness comes at the end of verse 9: “for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.” The word for father, ʼâb, carries authority, protection, provision and deep love, and God brings his children home because they are his own. He called the whole nation his son at the exodus: “Israel is my son, even my firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). Hosea recalls the same love: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1).

Ephraim was the leading tribe of the northern kingdom and stands here for all of it. Its people had wandered furthest and had been in exile longest. The firstborn, bᵉkôwr, held the place of honour, privilege and inheritance in a family, and here the title speaks of that rank. By calling the most wayward part of his people his firstborn, God restores them to the honour they had lost and shows that his love reaches every one of his children.

Verse 10 turns to the Gentile nations: “Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off”. The nations, gôwy, are summoned to listen, and the message is to reach the isles, ʼîy, the coasts and islands and the people who live there, at the far edge of the known world (merchâq, a distant place). God’s dealings with Israel are news for the whole earth. They show that the LORD is God over all peoples, and they look ahead to the day when salvation comes to the Gentiles (Romans 11:11–12).

The news itself is “He that scattered Israel will gather him”. To scatter, zârâh, means to toss about, to spread abroad or to winnow, as grain is thrown into the wind. The scattering was God’s own judgment, as the law of Moses had warned: “the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other” (Deuteronomy 28:64). The same hand that scattered now gathers, qâbats. God rules over both the judgment and the restoration, and he meant the discipline of exile to end in a homecoming. Isaiah has God say, “I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west” (Isaiah 43:5–6), and a psalm sings of the redeemed whom he “gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south” (Psalm 107:2–3).

The return under Ezra and Nehemiah fulfilled this in part. The prophets also look further, to a gathering joined with a deep inner renewal: “I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side” (Ezekiel 37:21–23).

“For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.” Two words for rescue stand side by side. To redeem, pâdâh, means to sever or to ransom, to set free by payment or by a strong act of rescue. To ransom, gâʼal, is the work of the kinsman-redeemer, the goel, the close relative whose duty was to buy back a family member’s land, marry his widow or free him from slavery. With this word God steps in as Israel’s nearest kin and claims his people as family.

“Jacob” is the whole nation, named after the patriarch whom God renamed Israel (Genesis 32:28). To that same Jacob God had said, “I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land” (Genesis 28:13–15), and here he keeps that word for Jacob’s children.

The one “stronger than he” is first of all Babylon, the great power of the day, which had crushed Judah and carried its people away. The word châzâq means strong, hard or fierce, and “the hand”, yâd, stands for power and control. Escape from such a grip by Judah’s own strength was impossible, and that is what makes God’s rescue so great. Babylon itself fell in its turn (Daniel 5).

“Hath redeemed” speaks of the rescue as already done, though it still lay ahead. God’s promise is so sure that the prophet can put it in the past tense. Israel had seen him do it before. At the exodus God said, “I will redeem you with a stretched out arm” (Exodus 6:6), and Moses told the people that because the LORD loved them he had “redeemed you out of the house of bondmen” (Deuteronomy 7:8). The Passover night (Exodus 12) and the crossing of the sea (Exodus 14) are the pattern for this second deliverance. Isaiah asks, “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?” and answers that the LORD will contend with Israel’s oppressor and save her children (Isaiah 49:24–26). Isaiah 43 opens with the same comfort, “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee”, and the psalmist says, “Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130:7–8).

“Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion”. The level road of verse 9 ends on the mountain of Jerusalem, the place God chose for his dwelling, and the travellers who set out weeping arrive singing. They “flow together to the goodness of the LORD”. The verb nâhar means to flow like a river, and it can also mean to sparkle or be cheerful. The people stream together toward God like a river, their faces bright, to receive what he gives.

His goodness is named in everyday things: “for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd.” Wheat was the staple grain, wine meant joy and celebration, oil served for food, light and anointing, and young lambs and calves meant wealth and food. These were the foundations of life on the land and the familiar signs of the blessing God promised to an obedient people (Deuteronomy 28:1–14). After the hunger and loss of exile, God sets a full table again.

“And their soul shall be as a watered garden”. The soul, nephesh, is the whole living person, life, self and appetite. A garden, gan, was a fenced and tended plot, valued and protected, and the word comes from a root meaning to hedge about. “Watered”, râveh, describes ground that has drunk its fill. Such a garden stays green and fruitful in a dry land. Isaiah uses the same picture: “thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:11). Ezekiel says the desolate land “is become like the garden of Eden” (Ezekiel 36:35), and a psalm says of those who trust God, “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures” (Psalm 36:8).

“Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together”. The word bᵉthûwlâh means a virgin, a young unmarried woman. Here she stands with the young men, bâchûwr, and the old, zâqên, so the young women of the nation dance with every generation “together”, yachad. The prophets often call Israel herself a virgin, so the word also brings to mind the whole nation made new after her unfaithfulness. Dancing, mâchôwl, often in a circle, was how Israel celebrated festivals, victories and weddings, and here it takes the place of the weeping and sackcloth that marked mourning.

“For I will turn their mourning into joy”. God does the turning, hâphak, which means to overturn. Mourning, ʼêbel, is the grief that follows a death or a national disaster, and it becomes joy, sâsôwn, gladness. “And will comfort them”, nâcham, to console and give relief, “and make them rejoice from their sorrow”, yâgôwn, grief and affliction. The verb to rejoice, sâmach, means to be glad, to feel and show great joy. It comes twice in the verse, first for the dancing and then for God’s own work of making his people glad, so their joy is his gift.

David knew this turning: “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing” (Psalm 30:11). Isaiah speaks of one sent “to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:3), and a psalm says, “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psalm 126:5–6).

“And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness”. To satiate, râvâh, is to slake thirst, to drink one’s fill, and it carries on the picture of the watered garden in verse 12. Fatness, deshen, means fat, and so richness and abundance, and it is also the word for the fatty ashes of the sacrifices. The fat of the offerings was the choicest part and belonged to God: “all the fat is the LORD’S” (Leviticus 3:16). Priests and Levites lived on the tithes and offerings of the people (Numbers 18:21–24), so in years of ruin and unfaithfulness they went short. When the people come home and worship flows again, the priests’ portion will be rich, and those who lead in worship will be refreshed in body and soul.

“And my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.” My people, ʻam, is the whole nation. Satisfied, sâbaʻ, means filled, having enough, the same word used of someone who dies full of days after a long life. Goodness, ṭûwb, is the good that God gives: welfare, gladness, beauty and prosperity, flowing from the goodness of God himself. “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalm 107:9). God calls through Isaiah, “hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (Isaiah 55:2).

This answers the grief God voiced early in Jeremiah, that his people had forsaken him, “the fountain of living waters”, for “broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). The want and famine that the curses of the covenant threatened (Deuteronomy 28) give way to plenty.

“Saith the LORD” is nᵉʼum Yᵉhôvâh, the declaration of the LORD. The word nᵉʼum means an utterance or declaration, the solemn statement of a prophet, and it seals all these promises with God’s own word.

The first fulfillment came when exiles returned from Babylon. Believers differ on what lies beyond it. Some hold that these verses still look ahead to a future gathering of the nation of Israel to its land and a renewed covenant with God, and they point to “the coasts of the earth”, which reach well past Babylon. Others hold that the return from Babylon was a first and partial fulfillment, and that the fuller one is the gathering of all who believe in Christ, Jews and Gentiles together, who are “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29), since “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (Romans 9:6–8). On either reading, God’s gathering is complete when Christ returns and “shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds” (Matthew 24:31). All agree that God keeps his word, that he saves, and that his people are to sing about it.

God told his people to sing while they were still far from home, and he gives you the same freedom. You can praise him for what he has promised before you see it, because the one who promised has already paid the ransom. You can pray in the words he gave, “O LORD, save thy people”, for the church and for those still far off, and you can tell what he has done to the people around you, at home, at work and to the ends of the earth.

This passage also shows where God’s heart is. He named the blind, the lame and women in labour so that they would know they were included, and he made the road level for them. If you are slow, or weak, or carrying a heavy load, you are part of the great company he is bringing home. And because he cares for the weakest travellers, we are called to care for them too, walking at their pace and helping them along. The road may begin in tears, but the LORD who leads it is a father and a shepherd, and it ends in singing, in plenty and in his goodness.