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31. Restoration of Israel

¹ “At that time,” declares the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”

² This is what the LORD says:

   “The people who survive the sword
   will find favor in the wilderness;
   I will come to give rest to Israel.”

³ The LORD appeared to us in the past, Or LORD has appeared to us from afar saying:

   “I have loved you with an everlasting love;
   I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.
⁴ I will build you up again,
   and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.
Again you will take up your timbrels
   and go out to dance with the joyful.
⁵ Again you will plant vineyards
   on the hills of Samaria;
the farmers will plant them
   and enjoy their fruit.
⁶ There will be a day when watchmen cry out
   on the hills of Ephraim,
‘Come, let us go up to Zion,
   to the LORD our God.’”

⁷ This is what the LORD says:

   “Sing with joy for Jacob;
   shout for the foremost of the nations.
Make your praises heard, and say,
   ‘LORD, save your people,
   the remnant of Israel.’
⁸ See, I will bring them from the land of the north
   and gather them from the ends of the earth.
Among them will be the blind and the lame,
   expectant mothers and women in labor;
   a great throng will return.
⁹ They will come with weeping;
   they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
   on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father,
   and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

    ¹⁰ “Hear the word of the LORD, you nations;
   proclaim it in distant coastlands:
‘He who scattered Israel will gather them
   and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
¹¹ For the LORD will deliver Jacob
   and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
¹² They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
   they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD—
the grain, the new wine and the olive oil,
   the young of the flocks and herds.
They will be like a well-watered garden,
   and they will sorrow no more.
¹³ Then young women will dance and be glad,
   young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
   I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
¹⁴ I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
   and my people will be filled with my bounty,” declares the LORD.

¹⁵ This is what the LORD says:

   “A voice is heard in Ramah,
   mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
   and refusing to be comforted,
   because they are no more.”

¹⁶ This is what the LORD says:

   “Restrain your voice from weeping
   and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,” declares the LORD.
   “They will return from the land of the enemy.
¹⁷ So there is hope for your descendants,” declares the LORD.
   “Your children will return to their own land.

    ¹⁸ “I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning:
   ‘You disciplined me like an unruly calf,
   and I have been disciplined.
Restore me, and I will return,
   because you are the LORD my God.
¹⁹ After I strayed,
   I repented;
after I came to understand,
   I beat my breast.
I was ashamed and humiliated
   because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
²⁰ Is not Ephraim my dear son,
   the child in whom I delight?
Though I often speak against him,
   I still remember him.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
   I have great compassion for him,” declares the LORD.

    ²¹ “Set up road signs;
   put up guideposts.
Take note of the highway,
   the road that you take.
Return, Virgin Israel,
   return to your towns.
²² How long will you wander,
   unfaithful Daughter Israel?
The LORD will create a new thing on earth—
   the woman will return to Or will protect the man.”

²³ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, Or I restore their fortunes the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The LORD bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.’ ²⁴ People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks. ²⁵ I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”

²⁶ At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.

²⁷ “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. ²⁸ Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD. ²⁹ “In those days people will no longer say,

‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.

    ³¹ “The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
   “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
   and with the people of Judah.
³² It will not be like the covenant
   I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
   to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
   though I was a husband to Hebrew; Septuagint and Syriac / and I turned away from them, Or was their master” declares the LORD.
³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
   after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
   and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
   and they will be my people.
³⁴ No longer will they teach their neighbor,
   or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
   from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
   and will remember their sins no more.”

³⁵ This is what the LORD says,

   he who appoints the sun
   to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
   to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
   so that its waves roar—
   the LORD Almighty is his name:
³⁶ “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
   declares the LORD,
“will Israel ever cease
   being a nation before me.”

³⁷ This is what the LORD says:

   “Only if the heavens above can be measured
   and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
   because of all they have done,” declares the LORD.

³⁸ “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹ The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah. ⁴⁰ The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the LORD. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.”

By these words the Prophet confirms what he had said; for the Israelites and the Jews might have ever made this objection, “Why should God promise to be the liberator of his people, whom he had suffered to be oppressed with so great evils, for it would have been easier to prevent them?” The Jews then might have raised this clamor, “Thou givest us here the hope of a return, but why does God suffer us to be driven into exile? why then does he not apply the remedy in time; for now too late he declares that he will be a help to us after our ruin.” As then the Jews thought that a restoration was promised to them unseasonably, the Prophet says that it was God who chastised them and punished them for their sins, and that he could also relieve them whenever it pleased him. For had the Chaldeans, according to their own pleasure, ruled over the Jews, and had obtained the victory over them, who could have ever hoped that the miserable men, thus reduced, could have been delivered by God’s hand? But now the Prophet shews that there was no reason for the Jews to despair, as though it were difficult for God to free them from the tyranny of their enemies; for nothing had happened to them by chance, or through the power of their enemies, but through the righteous judgment of God.

We now then perceive the design of the Holy Spirit in what the Prophet says, As I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to break in pieces and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch, etc. ⁵⁰⁵⁰ The words here used are the very same with those in Jeremiah 1:10, except the addition, “to afflict;” and yet neither the Targ., nor the Versions, except the Syriac, render them alike, giving in some instances the meaning of one verb to another, — a proof that they are very loose versions. — Ed. God then sets himself forth as the judge who had punished them for their sins, in order that he might convince them that he would also become their Physician, as though he had said, “I who have inflicted the wound can therefore heal it,” according to what is said elsewhere,

“God is he who kills and brings to life, who leads down to the grave and brings up.”
(1 Samuel 2:6)

But he employs many words, for the great mass of so many evils might have plunged the Jews into the abyss of despair. Hence the Prophet anticipates them, and shews, that though they had been reduced to extremities, yet so many and so severe calamities could not prevent God from restoring them, when it seemed good to him. He yet reminds them, that it was not without cause that they suffered such grievous things; for God takes no delight in the miseries of his people. The people then ought to have learnt that they had been guilty of great sins from the fact, that they had been chastised with so much rigor and severity. He now adds, So will I watch over you to build and to plant

As for the verb destroy, if we read הרם erem, it ought to be rendered, and to take away The verb רם rem, as it is well known, means to elevate; but metaphorically, to take away. But the received reading, as I have said, is הרס eres. He says, that he would watch to build and to plant them, as he had watched to destroy them; as though he had said, that they had already been taught by experience, how great was the power of God’s hand to save as well as to destroy. They had disregarded threatenings as long as God had spared them, and they thought that they could sin with impunity; and we see how insolently they rejected all the Prophets. But God had at length shewed by severe proofs how his judgments oughf; to have been dreaded. He now then inspires them with hope, for his watching would no less avail for their preservation. It follows, —