JEREMIAH
31
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2003 James Melough
31:1. “At the
same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel,
and they shall be my people.”
“... the same time” is
generally understood to be the time described in verses 17-22 of the preceding
chapter, i.e., the Millennium, the meaning here being that everyone passing
from the Great Tribulation into the Millennium will have become a believer
during that terrible era.
31:2. “Thus
saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword, found grace in the
wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”
The reference here seems to
be to those, who during the Great Tribulation, will have found a place of
safety in the wilderness, that refuge, it is believed by many, being the
ancient rock-carved city of Petra which stands today as it did more than two
thousand years ago, untouched by the ravages of time, preserved by God to be a
refuge for some of His own during the Great Tribulation.
31:3. “The Lord
hath appeared of old (from afar) unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with
an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.”
“... of old” is better
translated, “from afar.” The one to whom Jehovah appeared is taken by some to
have been Jeremiah; by others, to have been the believing post-Tribulation
remnant of Israel about to enter the Millennium.”
31:4. “Again I
will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again
be adorned with thy tabrets (tambourines), and shall go forth in the dances of
them that make merry.”
In the Millennium Israel
will be increased numerically, the use of the term virgin referring to
her moral purity, her going forth with musical instruments to sing and dance,
speaking of the joy that is the inseparable concomitant of obedience.
31:5. “Thou
shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant,
and shall eat them as common things.”
This adds yet another brush
stroke to the idyllic picture, for wine, the product of grapes, is a biblical
symbol of joy and gladness.
The Wycliffe Bible
Commentary offers
the following instructive comment on this verse, “Eat them as common things.
The Hebrews did not eat the fruit for the first three years. The fruit of the
fourth year was given to God. But it could be ‘redeemed’ and eaten as a
common thing (Lev 19:23-25; Deut 20:6). This verse means that Israel would be
settled and living off the land in a normal condition.”
31:6. “For there
shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye,
and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.”
The term watchman is used to
describe a guardian or protector, and refers here to the leaders of the
people. Contrary to what is usual, the leaders of Israel in the Millennium
will not be so occupied with their blessings as to forget the Giver: they will
lead the people to Zion, used here as a synonym for the Temple that will be
standing again on mount Zion, to worship Jehovah.
The choice of Ephraim rather
than the name of another tribe is particularly appropriate here, for it means
double ash-heap: I shall be doubly fruitful, there being no
contradiction between the two meanings of the name, for its ash-heap was an
accurate barometer of the size and wealth of a city, the large prosperous city
having a correspondingly large ash-heap or city dump, there being cast there
articles which a poorer town would have continued to use.
31:7. “For thus
saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among (as) the chief
of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the
remnant of Israel.”
The use of the name Jacob
continues to remind us that these are God’s earthly people enjoying earthly
blessings on the millennial earth, and are distinct from the Church which is
comprised of His heavenly people who are blessed “with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly things in Christ,” Eph 1:3.
They are to shout, not
among the chief of the nations, but as the chief; nor are they to
call upon God to save them: the correct translation is that they are to praise
Him for having already saved them, they being the believing remnant that will
have emerged from the Great Tribulation as the new redeemed Israel.
A practical lesson to be
learnt from their response to their being so abundantly blessed, is that we
who are heirs of richer blessings surely ought to return a correspondingly
fuller measure of thanksgiving, praise, and worship.
31:8. “Behold, I
will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the
earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that
travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.”
Russia is the great northern
power which will head up a coalition of nations that will attack Israel during
the Great Tribulation, and that will be miraculously destroyed by God “on the
mountains of Israel,” Eze 39:1-5, but there is nothing in Scripture to
indicate that Jews have ever been carried captive into Russia.
It seems therefore that
Babylon is the country referred to here, for though it lay east of Palestine,
the great Arabian desert lying between the two lands required the Babylonians
to travel first northward and then southward to attack Israel, hence its being
called the north country. That same territory is now occupied by Arab states,
all of which are hostile to Israel, so it seems that the regathering mentioned
in this verse will be from the Arab states, and from all the countries of the
earth to which the Jews were scattered in AD 70.
31:9. “They
shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause
them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight (level: smooth) way,
wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my
firstborn.”
In The Amplified Bible
this verse is translated, “They shall come with weeping (in penitence for
joy), and pouring out prayers (for the future). I will lead them back.”
Israel’s
being called “my firstborn,” is related to the fact that the firstborn was the
one who inherited a double portion of the father’s inheritance, and to whom
his brethren and sisters were made subordinate. See verse six for comments on
the meaning of the name Ephraim.
31:10. “Hear the
word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say,
He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his
flock.”
This continues to point to
God’s regathering and blessing of Israel in the Millennium.
31:11. “For the
Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was
stronger than he.”
Certainly God had delivered
Israel from Babylonian bondage, but there is much in this verse to indicate
that the reference is to a different kind of deliverance.
First, “redeemed” and
“ransomed” imply the payment of a price, but no payment was involved in God’s
deliverance of Israel from Babylonian captivity. Secondly, the name Jacob is
always related to what is of the flesh rather than the spirit; and thirdly
“him that was stronger than he” seems to imply a power greater than that of
literal Babylon.
The description, in fact,
appears to be of a spiritual rather than a physical emancipation, and is in
perfect keeping with what will be in connection with the regathering of Israel
at the end of the Great Tribulation. The repentant, believing remnant that
will be the Israel which inherits millennial blessing, will be indeed a
redeemed people: like believers of every age, they will be those who will have
been redeemed, not, “... with corruptible things as silver and gold ... but
with the precious blood of Christ,” 1 Pe 1:18-19, so that instead of being
fleshly, as represented by Jacob, they will be a spiritual people as portrayed
in the name Israel. And the “stronger than he” is not Nebuchadnezzar, but
Satan.
31:12.
“Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow
together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, 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.”
Their singing “in the height
of Zion” is a poetic description of their assembling in the Temple on mount
Zion to present their grateful, joyful worship; their “flowing together” being
an equally poetic way of describing their return to Canaan to enjoy its
millennial abundance.
Their soul being “as a
watered garden” speaks of their spiritual enlightenment and blessing; and
their having no “sorrow any more at all” emphasizes the completeness of their
millennial felicity.
31:13. “Then
shall the virgin rejoice in the 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.”
This continues the
description of the joy and gladness that will characterize life for young and
old alike in the Millennium. All the bitter sorrow that has been Israel’s
portion through the centuries, and that will culminate in the terrible
Tribulation judgments, will be ended for ever, the blessedness of the
Millennium continuing eternally in the new heavens and new earth.
31:14. “And I
will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be
satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.”
The universal form of
worship in the Millennium will be according to the Levitical ritual, and since
sin will be restrained to a very great extent in that glorious era, the
offerings will be those of thanksgiving and praise, and will be brought in
such abundance as to leave the priests with what will be far in excess of
their needs.
31:15. “Thus
saith the Lord’ A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping;
Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children,
because they were not.”
With dramatic abruptness the
picture of abundance, bliss, and joy is replaced with one of bitter
lamentation, as the prophet reveals what must precede millennial blessedness.
The first application is undoubtedly to what would occur during Babylon’s
final invasion of the land in 586 BC, when the ruthless slaughter would cause
the nation-wide “lamentation, and bitter weeping” mentioned here. That,
however, was only a preview of more terrible troubles to come, for it was
repeated in fuller measure in the massacre of Jews by the Romans in AD 70, and
has been repeated often in the pogroms of the past twenty centuries.
The specific weeping
mentioned here, however, was that which followed Herod’s slaughter of the
Jewish children from two years old and under at the time of the Lord’s birth;
but the ultimate fulfillment will come in the impending Great Tribulation when
Jewish blood will again be spilt like water.
31:16. “Thus
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.”
Again warning of coming
tribulation and suffering gives place to encouragement that all will yet
culminate in their being delivered out of the hand of their enemies. “... thy
work” in the present context seems to be related to their work of repentance,
i.e., their ceasing to do evil, thereby giving evidence of the reality of
their repentance.
31:17. “And
there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again
to their own border.”
“... in thine end” is also
translated “for your future,” or “for your descendants.” The return of that
generation addressed by the prophet is not promised, but rather that of the
future generation that will emerge from the Great Tribulation; which raises
the question of what comfort that present generation would be able to find in
such a promise. It is to be remembered, however, that God’s promises are not
limited simply to our lives on earth: for the believer, they embrace eternity,
enabling us to look beyond our earthly circumstances in the sure hope of
eternal rest and blessedness, death being simply the event that carries us
into the enjoyment of those blessings. How different it is with the
unbeliever! All his hopes are bounded by earthly parameters, eternity being
something to which he seldom gives even a thought; the promises which
encourage and comfort the believer, having no meaning whatsoever for the
unbeliever.
31:18. “I have
surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was
chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be
turned, for thou art the Lord my God.”
See verse 6 for comments on
the use of the name Ephraim to designate all Israel. Here we have the record
of the genuine repentance wrought in the hearts of the people by God’s
judgments. They willingly acknowledge their need of the chastisement that has
exposed their sin, and that has produced penitent humility; and now their one
desire is to be brought back into fellowship with the One Whom they now know
to be the only true God in contrast with the worthless idols they had formerly
worshiped.
He is a wise man who learns
early in life, that fullness of blessing is the concomitant of an obedient
walk with God.
31:19. “Surely
after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote
upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the
reproach of my youth.”
First there was the
chastisement that had resulted in a return to God in sincere penitent
submission, and then there was instruction which brought enlightenment as to
the enormity of the sins that had been committed, that enlightenment producing
remorse expressed in the beating of the thighs (a common form of expressing
anger, sorrow, or shame). Deep shame and confusion were the result of their
having had the enormity of their sin exposed, the shame being the equivalent
of that which results from exposure of the body by stripping. Their past sins
now haunted them as the sins of his youth often haunt the mature man.
31:20. “Is
Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I
do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I
will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.”
Ephraim continues to be used
as a synonym for the nation Israel, that wayward nation being God’s favorite
son, His darling child, from amongst the other nations. And though Israel’s
sin must be punished, God took no pleasure in administering that punishment,
His ultimate purpose in the chastisement being to bring
Israel
to repentance, so that He might then pour out blessing.
The same principle governs
His dealings with men. He desires only their salvation and eternal blessing.
31:21. “Set thee
up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even
the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to
these thy cities.”
“Waymarks” were highway
markers or signposts; and “high heaps,” were landmarks or guideposts; and “set
thine heart toward the highway” is also translated “Pay heed to the highway:
mark the road well,” so that they would remember the way back when God’s
chastisement would have done its work in producing repentance, and a desire to
return to Him and to the land He had given them.
“O virgin of Israel”
describes her as she will yet be when the terrible Tribulation judgments will
have produced a repentant, believing remnant which will be the new Israel that
will inherit millennial blessings.
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.”
“... go about” is also
translated “turn hither and thither: hesitate: waver: vacillate.” God is
asking backslidden Israel how long she will continue wavering between whether
to return to Him and be blessed, or continue worshiping her false gods and be
cursed.
“A woman shall compass a
man” is also translated “a woman shall court a man: the woman sets out to find
her Husband again: Israel shall seek Him.” The truth being declared is that
the Tribulation judgments will produce the new repentant, believing Israel
that will seek after God.
31:23. “Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech
in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their
captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of
holiness.”
This was not fulfilled
relative to the remnant that returned from the seventy-year Babylonian
captivity. Its application is to the believing remnant that will emerge from
the judgments of the Great Tribulation, and that will be enjoying millennial
blessing in the land of Canaan. Then, and only then, will the nations say
concerning the land of Canaan and its people, “The Lord bless you, O
habitation of righteousness, O holy hill,” The Revised Standard Version;
“May the Lord God bless you, holy mountain, abode of justice!” The New
American Bible.
31:24. “And
there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together,
husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.”
Taylor’s
translation of this verse is so clear as to make comment unnecessary, “And
city dwellers and farmers and shepherds alike shall live together in peace and
happiness.”
31:25. “For I
have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
The certainty of fulfillment
is assured in that the promised blessing is spoken of as already bestowed.
Every tired and thirsty soul will be abundantly satisfied as is a tired,
thirsty man when given all the fresh clear water he can drink. The hungry
will likewise be fully satisfied with all they can eat.
This is a symbolic picture
of the peace, abundance, and blessing that will be in the Millennium.
31:26. “Upon
this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.”
His sleep was sweet to
Jeremiah in that the revelation given assured him that ultimately a future
generation of Israel
would inherit all the blessings promised to Abraham, but that had been
forfeited by the rebellion of the generations that followed him.
31:27. “Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the
house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.”
This is the assurance of the
phenomenal multiplication of Israel and their cattle in the Millennium.
Since Israel means he
shall be prince of God; and Judah, he shall be praised, the use of
these names to describe the nation are the symbolic announcement of the fact
that in the Millennium Israel will be chief among the nations, and will be
praised and honored by them.
31:28. “And it
shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to
break down, and to throw down (overthrow), and to destroy, and to afflict; so
will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord.”
As their disobedience has
required Him to pluck up or scatter them, to break them and overthrow them, to
destroy them as a nation, and to afflict them, so in the Millennium will their
obedience enable Him to bless them, multiplying them, and settling them
peacefully in Canaan.
The same principle governs
God’s dealings with men in every age: obedience commands His blessing;
disobedience, His chastisement.
31:29. “In those
days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the
children’s teeth are set on edge.”
31:30 “But
everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape,
his teeth shall be set on edge.”
This is another way of
saying what is written in Ex 20:5-6 “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,
nor serve them (idols): for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me,
and keep my commandments.” That God does not punish the children for the sins
of their fathers, and vice versa, is made clear in Eze 18:20 “... The son
shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the
iniquity of the son....” In Ex 20:5-6 the children of the third and fourth
generation hated God just as did their fathers. God deals with each
individual according to whether that man is a repentant believer, or an
unrepentant sinner.
In the case of Israel each
succeeding generation had walked in the disobedient idolatrous steps of its
predecessor, thus making itself an heir of judgment, but it is to be
remembered that in each generation there was a small believing remnant, many
of whom had to endure the judgments brought upon the nation by the rebellious
majority, the great difference being that at the end of life’s journey the
believers entered paradise; the unrepentant majority went down to hell.
31:31. “Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel,
and with the house of Judah:”
31:32. “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 brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord.”
The old covenant mentioned
here was that of law, in which the people, foolishly unaware of their own
propensity to sin, swore to obey all God’s commandments, and then forfeited
the promised blessings by their failure to keep their part of the agreement,
see Ex 20 and 24:3, their sin being compounded by the fact that God had kept
His part, acting towards them as would a loving husband towards his wife.
31:33. “But this
shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After 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.”
“After those days ...”
refers to the Great Tribulation, out of which will come a believing remnant of
Israel and of the nations, to enter the Millennium and enjoy its blessings.
The difference between that future generation of Israel and the one that was
delivered from Egyptian bondage, will be that that coming one will be composed
entirely of those who will have become believers in the Great Tribulation, the
same being true of the Gentile nations who will accompany them into the
Millennium.
The generation delivered
from Egypt
were mostly unconverted, but like multitudes of unconverted today, they were
confident that they could keep the law, and that infractions would be covered
by the Levitical sacrifices. The sorry disaster that marked every generation
of them is infallible proof of man’s inability to keep God’s holy law; nor was
it ever given as a means of entering heaven. It was given as “... our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith,”
Ga 3:24. How? Every honest man is compelled to confess his inability to keep
God’s law, and finding himself therefore condemned by his failure, he cries
out as did the Philippian jailor in Ac 16:30, “What must I do to be saved?”
the reassuring reply given him by Paul being the same assurance as is given
every man who would be saved, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved ....” verse 31.
And salvation makes all the
difference, for the believer does what the unbeliever can’t: he loves God, as
it is written, “We (believers) love Him, because He first loved us,” 1 Jn
4:19.
That doesn’t mean that the
believer never sins. Sadly, he does! but sin is the accidental thing in his
life, not the habitual, and he hates it. It is that loathing of sin, and the
desire to obey God, that is the basic difference between the believer and the
unbeliever.
What God says of that coming
generation of Israel is true of every believer in every age: He puts his law
in their inward parts, and writes it in their hearts, meaning simply that they
cherish His law as the standard which His holiness requires, and which they
attempt to keep, even though with much failure, not as a means of being
justified, but as an expression of their love for Him, their inward peace
resting on the certainty that their eternal salvation rests on the Lord’s
having kept that holy law which they can’t keep, yet being willing to die in
their guilty stead, God in His infinite love, mercy, and grace imputing
Christ’s death to them, so that in Him they have died vicariously, and have
therefore passed for ever beyond condemnation, and stand before God having
Christ’s righteousness imputed to them.
All who pass from the
Tribulation into the Millennium will be believers, having God’s law written in
their hearts just as have believers in every age, but with several great
differences: (1) since they will all be believers they will have the same
abhorrence of sin as do true believers in every age, (2) there will be far
less temptation to sin because Satan and his minions will be imprisoned in the
bottomless pit for those thousand years. It is to be remembered, however,
that the children who will be born in the Millennium will be unbelievers
requiring to be born again spiritually to fit them for God’s presence in the
eternal state, as are the children born in every age. Because of the reduced
temptation to sin, the penalty for overt sin will be death, the sinner being
allowed to live only as long as his sin remains covert: not expressed in word
or deed.
The Lord Jesus Christ will
then be reigning in power and glory over the earth from the heavenly
Jerusalem, a descendant of David being His regent on the throne on the earthly
Jerusalem, and He will not, as in past ages, permit sin to mar
the glory of His kingdom.
31:34. “And they
shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I
will remember their sin no more.”
There will be no need to
teach anyone about God, for in that halcyon age the knowledge of Him will be
universal, even the unbelievers born to that first and succeeding generations
knowing Him, not as believers know Him, but knowing of their need to be born
again as soon as they come to years of discretion, many of them becoming
believers, but, as noted already, many also refusing to submit willingly to
His rule, and being allowed to live only as long as their sin remains covert.
His willingness to forgive
their iniquity, and to remember their sin no more, is not to be understood as
a universal amnesty granted apart from a new spiritual birth. The reference
here is to that first generation of believers passing from the Great
Tribulation into the Millennium. It will apply only to as many of their
descendants as are born again through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as
Savior.
31:35. “Thus
saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of
the moon and of the stars for light by night, which divideth the sea when the
waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name:”
“... ordinances” means
appointment, i.e., He has appointed the moon and stars to give light by
night, just as He has appointed the sun to give light by day. There may,
however, be a deeper spiritual significance attached to His giving the
sun, but His
appointing
the moon and stars, for the sun is a biblical symbol of Christ; the moon, of
Israel and the Church; and the stars, of individual believers, see Genesis,
Verse by Verse, chapter 1, by the present author, also available on this web site.
He gave the Lord Jesus Christ to die to make atonement for sin, but He
appointed, first Israel, and then the Church to be His corporate
witnesses on the earth; and then believers of this Church age to be His
individual witnesses. As the moon and stars give light at night, so were
Israel, and now the Church and the individuals composing her, to give light
during the spiritual night of the Lord’s absence.
The sea also is used
symbolically to represent earth’s rebellious human masses, see Isa 57:20, “But
the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast
up mire and dirt.”
“... divideth” in a bad
sense means to toss violently and suddenly; in a good sense to
settle or quiet, and while scholars differ as to which is
applicable here, in the present context it seems that the latter meaning is to
be preferred.
31:36. “If those
ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also
shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.”
This declares the
impossibility of God’s ever permitting Israel to perish from the earth.
31:37. “Thus
saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, 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.”
Israel’s preservation
continues to be assured by the fact that as the things God mentions here are
impossible, so also is it impossible that He would ever destroy Israel in
spite of all her many and grievous sins.
The following instructive
historical data are supplied by The Liberty Bible Commentary:
In A.D. 70 Titus killed
1,300,000 Jews when he captured Jerusalem. In eighth-century
France
and Spain, Jews were persecuted and burned at the stake. With the
establishment of Islam in 622, most Arabian Jews were killed. England
banished all Jews in 1020. The eleventh-century Crusaders were as cruel to
the Jews as they were to the Muslims. Blamed for the European Black Plague
(1350), over one half of the Jews in Europe were murdered. Thousands of Jews
died in the Roman Catholic Inquisition (1411). Under the Russian czars,
thousands of Jews were murdered. During World War 1 many European towns
instituted local massacres of Jews. In the Ukraine alone over twelve hundred
such pogroms took place. With Hitler’s slaughter of six million Jews, the
most devastating genocide in world history occurred. The Jew today is one of
the greatest proofs of the promises of God.
31:38. “Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from
the tower
of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.”
The tower of Hananeel was
situated between the Fish and Sheep gates on the north-east corner of
Jerusalem, and certainly the city has been rebuilt after the seventy years of
the Babylonian captivity, and again after its destruction by Rome in AD 70,
but the reference here is to its being rebuilt in the Millennium, for the city
will be virtually destroyed again in the Great Tribulation.
31:39. “And the
measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and
shall compass about to Goath.”
Gareb and Goath are believed
to have been the southwest and southeast corners respectively of the city.
31:40. “And the
whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the
brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be
holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for
ever.”
The “valley of the dead
bodies” was the Valley of Hinnom, see comments on 7:31. The place once
notorious for the most heinous sins associated with idolatry, will yet be
“holy unto the Lord,” nor will Jerusalem ever be destroyed again.
[Jeremiah
32]