English · KJV

Jeremiah 31:17

“Rachel Weeps, God Comforts”Jeremiah 31:15–17

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

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
And there is H3426 hope H8615 in thine end H319, saith H5002 the LORD H3068, that thy children H1121 shall come again H7725 to their own border H1366.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
So there is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children will return to their own land.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
And there is hope for thy latter end, saith Jehovah; and thy children shall come again to their own border.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
There is hope for your latter end, says the LORD; and your children shall come again to their own border.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
And there is hope in thine ende, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come againe to their owne borders.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
And there is hope for thy latter end, An affirmation of Jehovah, And the sons have turned back to their border.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
8 Hebrew words
  1. וְיֵשׁve·yeshand thereH3426Conj-w ¦ Adj-csAdjective Numerical Singular common gender Absoluteוְandיֵשׁthere
  2. תִּקְוָהtik·Vah[is] hopeH8615N-fsNoun Singular Feminine Absolute
  3. לְאַחֲרִיתֵךְle·'a·cha·ri·Tekhfor your futureH319Prep-l ¦ N-fsc ¦ 2fsNoun Singular Feminine Construct with suffixלְforאַחֲרִיתֵfutureךְyour
  4. נְאֻםne·'um[the] utterance ofH5002N-mscNoun Singular Masculine Construct
  5. יְהוָהYah·wehYahwehH3068N-properNoun Proper Title
  6. וְשָׁבוּve·Sha·vuand they will returnH7725Conj-w ¦ V-Qal-ConsecPerf-3cpVerb Qal Consecutive Perfect 3rd Plural common genderוְandשָׁבוּthey will return
  7. בָנִיםva·NimchildrenH1121N-mpNoun Plural Masculine Absolute
  8. לִגְבוּלָםlig·vu·Lamto their own territoryH1366Prep-l ¦ N-msc ¦ 3mpNoun Singular Masculine Construct with suffixלִtoגְבוּלָown territoryםtheir
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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In the KJVVerse 19,709 of 31,102 · 63.4%

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This verse

The LORD promises that Rachel’s future holds hope, because her children will return to their own land.

“And there is hope in thine end,”

Tiqvâh is a confident expectation, and ʼachărîyth is the end, the future or posterity. Rachel’s future is in her children, and it holds hope.

“saith the LORD,”

The fourth time in three verses the LORD’s name is set on the words, and it is the covenant name that makes the hope sure.

“that thy children shall come again to their own border.”

Shûwb again, the same “come again” as verse 16. “Their own border” is the land God gave their fathers, and the promise looks ahead to God bringing all his children home (Revelation 21:3–4).

Passage studyJeremiah 31:15–17

Rachel Weeps, God Comforts

15Thus 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. 16Thus 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. 17And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

Summary

A voice is heard in Ramah. It is Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are gone. Then the LORD speaks to her. He tells her to hold back her voice from weeping and her eyes from tears, because her work will be rewarded and her children will come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in her end, he says, for they will return to their own border. In three verses God gives his people’s grief its full voice and then answers it with his own promise. Matthew later hears Rachel weeping again at Bethlehem, and the whole of Scripture looks ahead to the day when God wipes away every tear.

Who weeps in Ramah, and why

Verse 15 opens with “Thus saith the LORD”, so this lament comes to us as the LORD’s own word. He tells of a voice heard in Ramah and names it three times over: lamentation, bitter weeping, and Rachel weeping for her children. The exile she mourns came as the consequence of his people’s sin, and still God himself gives voice to their pain. Before he speaks a word of comfort, he lets the sorrow be heard in full.

The word for lamentation, nᵉhîy, means an elegy or a wailing, the mournful cry raised over the dead or over a great calamity, so the grief here is open and public. Bᵉkîy, the word for weeping, comes from bâkâh, “to weep”, and it can describe weeping that overflows, sore and continual weeping. With “bitter”, tamrûwr, the weeping becomes sharp and hard to bear. The three words heaped together tell us how great the loss is.

Rachel “refused to be comforted for her children”. The verb mâʼên is the plain word for refusing, and the depth of her grief comes from what she has lost. To be comforted is nâcham. The word properly means to sigh or breathe strongly, and from there it can mean to be sorry, to pity, to console, or to comfort oneself. The form used here means to be comforted, and Rachel will have none of it. The reason closes the verse: “because they were not.” Her children are gone, killed, carried away or scattered, and with them the family and the nation are torn apart.

Why Ramah?

Ramah was a town in the territory of Benjamin, and it was traditionally near the tomb of Rachel, which makes it a fitting place for her to be heard weeping. Ramah was also the place where captives were assembled to be marched into exile after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. So the voice heard in Ramah is Rachel’s voice, and it is also the real crying of people being led away from their homeland.

Why Rachel?

Rachel was Jacob’s beloved wife and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Through Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, she was the mother of the leading tribes of the northern kingdom, whom Assyria scattered. Through Benjamin she belonged to the southern kingdom as well, which Babylon carried into exile. Long after her death she is pictured weeping as the mother of Israel, mourning her descendants lost to death, captivity and dispersion, and the nation’s grief is given a mother’s voice.

Her own story deepens the picture. Rachel once cried to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die” (Genesis 30:1). The mother who longed so for children now weeps because her children are gone.

Why a lament stands in the Book of Consolation

Jeremiah 30–33 is often called the Book of Consolation, or the Book of Comfort (Jeremiah 30–33). Its chapters look past judgment and exile to the day when God restores Israel and Judah. Chapters 30 and 31 promise return and renewed prosperity (Jeremiah 30–31), and later in this chapter God promises a new covenant with his people (Jeremiah 31:31).

Verse 15 stops in the middle of those promises to hear the grief that made them necessary. God’s comfort comes with full knowledge of what his people have suffered. He names the wounds that sin and its consequences have left, and then the promises of return, renewal and the new covenant that follow carry all the more weight. The comfort God gives begins by hearing the pain.

The exiles’ own songs carry the same sorrow. Psalm 137 begins, “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion”, and the exiles go on to ask how they can sing the LORD’s song in a strange land (Psalm 137:1–6). Rachel’s tears in Ramah and the tears by the rivers of Babylon are the same grief, for the same lost home and the same lost children.

God answers Rachel’s tears

Verse 16 opens again with “Thus saith the LORD”, and now God speaks directly to Rachel, and through her to all Israel. “Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears.” The verb mânaʻ means to hold back, keep back, restrain or withhold. It is a command from the LORD, and it comes with a reason. God tells her to stop weeping because he is about to change what she weeps over. Voice and eyes are paired, the sound of mourning and the tears, so the whole of her grief is addressed.

The command is full of compassion. The God who heard her weeping in verse 15 is the one who now tells her to dry her eyes, and the second “saith the LORD” in the middle of the verse sets his own name on the promise.

What does “thy work shall be rewarded” mean?

It means that what God’s people have gone through is seen by him and will have its answer. The word for work, pᵉʻullâh, covers work and labour and also the wages or reward that labour earns. The Hebrew speaks of a reward, sâkâr, for that work. Here the work is the suffering of exile, the endurance of it, and all the loss and hardship the people have borne. God promises a good outcome in return, and the reward he means is his own recompense and restoration, given out of his faithfulness. The rest of the verse names it at once: “they shall come again from the land of the enemy.” Sorrow will be turned into joy, and loss into reunion.

A psalm says the same thing about the exiles: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psalm 126:5–6). Paul gives the same assurance to believers, that all things work together for good to them that love God (Romans 8:28).

They shall come again from the land of the enemy

“Come again” is shûwb, to turn back or return. It is a broad word that can also describe a condition passing away, as anger turns away, and here it promises that the exiles will make the journey home and their displacement will be reversed. The land of the enemy is the land of the people who carried them captive: Babylon for Judah, and for the northern tribes the lands where Assyria scattered them. Among the nations of that day, conquered peoples rarely went back to their own lands, so this was a promise only God could make good. He did so when the exiles returned from Babylon, as the books of Ezra and Nehemiah record.

There is hope in thine end

Verse 17 gives the promise its ground. “There is hope in thine end” is literally yêsh tiqvâh, “there is hope”. The word tiqvâh comes from a root meaning to stretch a cord, and it means a confident expectation, a firm looking forward. The word for end, ʼachărîyth, means the last or the end, and so the future or posterity. For a mother weeping over her children, both senses fit. Her future holds hope, and that hope lies in her children.

“Saith the LORD” stands in the middle of the verse. The name is Yᵉhôvâh, God’s covenant name, and the hope rests on him. Israel had earned none of it by its own effort or merit, and it depends on the character and faithfulness of the LORD alone. Even in judgment God’s purpose for his people is to redeem them. Jeremiah had already written to the exiles, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end, and an hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). The “expected end” there and the “end” here are the same promise.

The promise itself is that “thy children shall come again to their own border”. Their border means the land and its boundaries, the tribal inheritances God had appointed and the land he promised to their fathers. To come home to their own border is to be restored as a people living in safety in their own land. Ezekiel gives the same promise: “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24).

This is hope for something still unseen, and Paul describes hope in just those terms: “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it” (Romans 8:24–25).

Is the return only a physical one?

For the exiles the first meaning was a real return to their own land and its borders, and with it the restoration of their life as God’s people, their identity and their covenant relationship with him. The promise also shows God’s power to bring his scattered people home and give them a place to belong, and Scripture carries that promise on to its fullness. John sees the day when God himself dwells with his people and wipes away their tears (Revelation 21:3–4), and there all who are his come home for good.

Rachel’s weeping at Bethlehem

Matthew quotes verse 15 when Herod has the young children of Bethlehem killed: “In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not” (Matthew 2:18). Jeremiah’s words were first spoken over the exile, and Matthew hears the same mother’s cry again at the birth of Christ, when innocent children die at the hands of an unjust king. Rachel’s lament reaches beyond one event and gives voice to the grief that runs through a fallen world wherever the innocent suffer.

Christ, who weeps and wipes away tears

The sorrow Rachel mourns is finally the work of sin and death, and Christ entered fully into it. Isaiah calls him “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), and he wept at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:35). On the cross he bore the sin of the world and its bitter consequences, the separation and loss that made Rachel weep, and so he is the comfort she could find nowhere else.

The chapter where Rachel weeps also holds the promise of the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31–34). Jesus established that covenant in his blood (Luke 22:20), and Hebrews quotes Jeremiah’s words about it, a covenant in which God writes his law on his people’s hearts and forgives their sins (Hebrews 8:8–12). In Christ the return from the land of the enemy reaches its fullest meaning. God has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption (Colossians 1:13–14). Christ rose and conquered death, the last enemy, and he says, “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25–26). He turns back the captivity of sin and death.

Christ is also the hope that verse 17 promises. Paul calls him “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Those who were once far off are made nigh by his blood and reconciled to God and to one another (Ephesians 2:13–16). God’s children, adopted in him, find their home and their inheritance in Christ, who has gone to prepare a place for them (John 14:2–3). We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter 3:13), and there Rachel’s tears and ours are ended: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Weeping that ends in hope

These verses give us leave to grieve. The world is often quick to offer easy words or to hurry people past their sorrow, while God himself put Rachel’s inconsolable weeping into his word. Some losses are so great that comfort feels impossible for a time, whether of a child, a home or the security we once had, and Scripture names that grief honestly. Our tears are seen by God, and he is able to give them a voice.

The same God then speaks into the grief. Rachel’s weeping in verse 15 is followed by his promise in verses 16 and 17, so despair is never the last word. We can lament honestly and still hold on to his promise, waiting with patience for what we do not yet see. The endurance of hard years is known to him and will have its answer. Our hope rests on “saith the LORD”, and he has promised a day when every tear is wiped away and his children come home.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Jeremiah 31:10–17.

1662–1714 · 8 verses
Passage under commentJeremiah 31:10–17

This paragraph is much to the same purport with the last, publishing to the world, as well as to the church, the purposes of God's love concerning his people. This is a word of the Lord which the nations must hear, for it is a prophecy of a work of the Lord which the nations cannot but take notice of. Let them hear the prophecy, that they may the better understand and improve the performance; and let those that hear it themselves declare it to others, declare it in the isles afar off. It will be a piece of news that will spread all the world over. it will look very great in history; let us see how it looks in prophecy.

It is foretold, 1. That those who are dispersed shall be brought together again from their dispersions: He that scattereth Israel will gather him; for he knows whither he scattered them and therefore where to find them, Jeremiah 31:10. Una eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit - The hand that inflicted the wound shall heal it. And when he has gathered him into one body, one fold, he will keep him, as a shepherd does his flock, from being scattered again. 2. That those who are sold and alienated shall be redeemed and brought back, Jeremiah 31:11. Though the enemy that had got possession of him was stronger than he, yet the Lord, who is stronger than all. has redeemed and ransomed him, not by price, but by power, as of old out of the Egyptians' hands. 3. That with their liberty they shall have plenty and joy, and God shall be honoured and served with it, Jeremiah 31:12, Jeremiah 31:13. When they shall have returned to their own land they shall come and sing in the high place of Zion; on the top of that holy mountain they shall sing to the praise and glory of God. We read that they did so when the foundation of the temple was laid there; they sang together, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, Ezra 3:11. They shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord; that is, they shall flock in great numbers and with great forwardness and cheerfulness, as streams of water, to the goodness of the Lord, to the temple where he causes his goodness to pass before his people. They shall come together in solemn assemblies, to praise him for his goodness, and to pray for the fruits of it and the continuance of it; they shall come to bless him for his goodness, in giving them wheat, and wine, and oil, and the young of the flock and of the herd, which, now that they have obtained their freedom, they have an uncontested property in and the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of, and which therefore they honour God with the first-fruits of and out of which they bring offerings to his altar. Note, It is comfortable to observe the goodness of the Lord in the gifts of common providence, and even in them to taste covenant-love. Having plenty (plenty out of want and scarcity) they shall greatly rejoice, their soul shall be as a watered garden, flourishing and fruitful (Isaiah 58:11), pleasant and fragrant, and abounding in all good things. Note, Our souls are never valuable as gardens but when they are watered with the dews of God's Spirit and grace. It is a precious promise which follows, and which will not have its full accomplishment any where on this side the height of the heavenly Zion, that they shall not sorrow any more at all; for it is only in that new Jerusalem that all tears shall be wiped away, Revelation 21:4. However, so far it was fulfilled to the returned captives that they had not any more those causes for sorrow which they had formerly had; and therefore (Jeremiah 31:13) young men and old shall rejoice together; so grave shall the young men be in their joys as to keep company with the old men, and so transported shall the old men be as to associate with the young. Salva res est, saltat senex - The state prospers, and the aged dance. God will turn their mourning into joy, their fasts into solemn feasts, Zechariah 8:19. It was in the return out of Babylon that those who sowed in tears were made to reap in joy, Psalm 126:5, Psalm 126:6. Those are comforted indeed whom God comforts, and may forget their troubles when he makes them to rejoice from their sorrow, not only rejoice after it, but rejoice from it their joy shall borrow lustre from their sorrow, which shall serve as a foil to it; and the more they think of their troubles the more they rejoice in their deliverance. 4. That both the ministers and those they minister to shall have abundant satisfaction in what God gives them (Jeremiah 31:14): I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness; there shall be such a plenty of sacrifices brought to the altar that those who live upon the altar shall live very comfortably, they and their families shall be satiated with fatness, they shall have enough, and that of the best; and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, and shall think there is enough in that to make them happy; and so there is. God's people have an abundant satisfaction in God's goodness, though they have but little of this world. Let them be satisfied of God's lovingkindness, and they will be satisfied with it and desire no more to make them happy. All this is applicable to the spiritual blessings which the redeemed of the Lord enjoy by Jesus Christ, infinitely more valuable than corn, and wine, and oil, and the satisfaction of soul which they have in the enjoyment of them. 5. That those particularly who had been in sorrow for the loss of their children who were carried into captivity should have that sorrow turned into joy upon their return, Jeremiah 31:15-17. Here we have, (1.) The sad lamentation which the mothers made for the loss of their children (Jeremiah 31:15): In Ramah was there a voice heard, at the time when the general captivity was, nothing but lamentation, and bitter weeping, more there than in other places, because there Nebuzaradan had the general rendezvous of his captives, as appears, Jeremiah 40:1, where we find him sending Jeremiah back from Ramah. Rachel is here said to weep for her children. The sepulchre of Rachel was between Ramah and Bethlehem. Benjamin, one of the two tribes, and Ephraim, head of the ten tribes, were both descendants from Rachel. She had but two sons, the elder of whom was one for whom his father grieved andrefused to be comforted (Genesis 37:35); the other she herself called Benoni - the son of my sorrow. Now the inhabitants of Ramah did in like manner grieve for their sons and their daughters that were carried away (as 1 Samuel 30:6), and such a voice of lamentation was there as, to speak poetically, might even have raised Rachel out of her grave to mourn with them. The tender parents even refused to be comforted for their children, because they were not, were not with them, but were in the hands of their enemies; they were never likely to see them any more. This is applied by the evangelists to the great mourning that was at Bethlehem for the murder of the infants there by Herod (Matthew 2:17-18), and this scripture is said to be then fulfilled. They wept for them, and would not be comforted, supposing the case would not admit any ground of comfort, because they were not. Note, Sorrow for the loss of children cannot but be great sorrow, especially if we so far mistake as to think they are not. (2.) Seasonable comfort administered to them in reference hereunto, Jeremiah 31:16, Jeremiah 31:17. They are advised to moderate that sorrow, and to set bounds to it: Refrain thy voice from weeping and thy eyes from tears. We are not forbidden to mourn in such a case; allowances are made for natural affection. But we must not suffer our sorrow to run into an extreme, to hinder our joy in God, or take us off from our duty to him. Though we mourn, we must not murmur, nor must we resolve, as Jacob did, to go to the grave mourning. In order to repress inordinate grief, we must consider that there is hope in our end, hope that there will be an end (the trouble will not last always), that it will be a happy and - the end will be peace. Note, It ought to support us under our troubles that we have reason to hope they will end well. The righteous has hope in his death; that will be the blessed period of his grief and the blessed passage to his joys. "There is hope for thy posterity" (so some read it); "though thou mayest not live to see these glorious days thyself, there is hope that thy posterity shall. Though one generation falls in the wilderness, the next shall enter Canaan. Two things thou mayest comfort thyself with the hope of:" - [1.] "The reward of thy work: - Thy suffering work shall be rewarded. The comforts of the deliverance shall be sufficient to balance all the grievances of thy captivity." God makes his people glad according to the days wherein he has afflicted them, and so there is a proportion between the joys and the sorrows, as between the reward and the work. The glory to be revealed, which the saints hope for in the end, will abundantly countervail the sufferings of this present time, Romans 8:18. [2.] "The restoration of thy children: They shall come again from the land of the enemy (Jeremiah 31:16); they shall come again to their own border," Jeremiah 31:17. There is hope that children at a distance may be brought home. Jacob had a comfortable meeting with Joseph after he had despaired of ever seeing him. There is hope concerning children removed by death that they shall return to their own border, to the happy lot assigned them in the resurrection, a lot in the heavenly Canaan, that border of his sanctuary. We shall see reason to repress our grief for the death of our children that are taken into covenant with God when we consider the hopes we have of their resurrection to eternal life. They are not lost, but gone before.

Historical interpretation

Historical reception

1 surviving comment on this verse from the historical church.

1 quote · AD 420
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCommentary on Jeremiah
(Verse 16, 17.) Thus says the Lord: Let your voice be still from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord. And the enemies (or of the enemies) will return from the land, and there will be hope for your future, says the Lord: and the children will return to their borders. This has not yet happened literally, for we do not read of the ten tribes who were exiled in the cities of the Medes and Persians returning to the land of Judah: but it has been fulfilled according to the spirit, and in the passion of the Lord, and it continues to be fulfilled: when all Israel is saved from the whole world, and Rachel is said: Let your voice be still from weeping, and your eyes from tears. And there is a sense: Stop weeping, for the Lord has considered your previous works. And your children will return from the land of the enemy, so you may not be held back by present sorrow. For there is hope for your future, says the Lord. And your children will return to their borders, which their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had. But we understand better concerning little ones, that they shall receive the reward of shedding blood for Christ: and for the land of Herod's enemies, they shall hold the kingdom of heaven: and they shall return to their former dwelling place, when, for the body of humility, they shall receive a glorious body. This is the ultimate hope, when the just will shine like the sun (Wis. III), and once little infants and nursing babies, without any increase in age, and without injury or physical labor, will rise again as fully grown men, to the measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph. IV).
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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