At that time, saith Jehovah, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
Jeremiah writes to a nation broken in pieces, scattered, and under judgment. To that nation God announces a settled bond. Commentators press three questions here. When does this happen? Who counts as "all the clans of Israel"? And what makes such a promise safe with a people who had already failed under one covenant?
The chapter division hides a link. The opening words look back to the storm of God's anger at the close of chapter 30. That link fixes when this restoration comes.
The subject continues in Jeremiah 31. It connects at the beginning with the close of Jeremiah 30. Read verses 23 and 24 of the one chapter, and verse 1 of the other. You have a very definite statement about the time when this restoration takes place. It comes when the predicted judgments on the wicked are complete, both in Israel and among the nations. Prophecy speaks of those judgments so widely… Can anything be more clear and decisive than this?
The phrase is wide. Older translations read "all the families of Israel." A partial return from exile had already happened, and commentators say it fell far short of this promise.
Another important distinction is already set out at the beginning of Jeremiah 31. It is not a return of Judah, but of the twelve tribes. How different from the small remnant of Jews, with a few stragglers of other tribes, under Ezra and Nehemiah! Here all the families of Israel are in question… Who can claim that this has been made good either in the Jews or in the gospel, much as the gospel has gone beyond it?
Some read prophecies like this one as pictures of the church. Commentators here test that by asking who the rest of the chapter is about.
Now who are the people the Lord has watched over, to pluck up, to break down, to afflict and to destroy? Are they not the same people He here promises to watch over, to build and to plant? … With whose fathers did the Lord make a covenant when He took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt? With the same people He here promises to make a new covenant. … It is precious indeed for our souls to know that the blessings of the new covenant are ours. … But does that set aside the fulfilment of the promise to those to whom it strictly, properly and primarily applies?
The weight of the promise sits on God's side. One writer, commenting on the same covenant words elsewhere in Scripture, unpacks the short title "their God."
There is more than even dwelling with them: there is also relationship. "I will be their God." Note it well. It is not what they shall be to Him, though they were His people by His grace. It is what He will be to them. "Their God" — words full of unspeakable blessing. When God undertakes to become the God of His people, and stoops to enter into relationship with them, He assures them of everything they need: guidance, food, defence, help — yes, everything. All of it is secured for them by what He is to them as their God.
The second half of the verse reverses a verdict already spoken over Israel. God had named them "not My people"; here He names them His own again.
Israel, now Lo-Ammi — not My people — will be Ammi, in new covenant blessing (compare Hosea 1 and 2). They will then be set up with a national life of their own on earth, yet still distinct from the nations. The people of God are completely taken out today, from Jew and Gentile; "our citizenship is in heaven."… Our blessings are not under the literal terms of the new covenant, but we are blessed in the spirit of it.
Later in this same chapter God promises a new covenant. One writer explains what makes its promises better.
To get some idea of these better promises you must read Jeremiah 31:31-34, where God promises the new covenant itself. God's "I will" is the characteristic feature of it. All is a question of what God is going to do, and of what Israel will therefore be and have.
- Timing. "At that time" reaches back to the storm of God's anger at the end of chapter 30. Restoration comes once God has finished judging the wicked, in Israel and among the nations.
- Reach. The promise covers all the clans of Israel — the twelve tribes, not the small return of Judah under Ezra and Nehemiah.
- Literal. The people God plucked up and broke down are the people He promises to build and plant. Believers enjoy the covenant's blessings now, and that does not cancel the promise made to Israel.
- Gift. "I will be their God" says what God will be to them, not what they must be for Him — and it covers guidance, food, defence and help.
- Guarantee. The new covenant of verses 31–34 secures it all, and its one repeated note is God's "I will." God calls a nation once named "not My people" His people again.
Thus saith Jehovah The people [that were] left of the sword have found grace in the wilderness, [even] Israel, when I go to give him rest.
Jeremiah writes to a people facing exile. Chapters 30 and 31 look past the ruin to a restoration God Himself will bring. To picture it, the verse looks back to the exodus. A nation escaped the sword, then had a desert to cross. What does God do with people He has already rescued?
Which sword did they survive? The words point back to the night of the Passover in Egypt.
On that night of terror, Jehovah passed through the land of Egypt to strike the firstborn of the Egyptians. He spared His own people because of the blood of the lamb sprinkled on their doorposts. Jehovah had promised, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." The sword of the destroyer did not touch one of them. The weakest and the worst were as safe as the strongest and the best, because they were under the shelter of the blood — the blood that pictured the blood of the "Lamb without blemish and without spot."
But escape was not the end of it.
God had done more than keep them safe from the sword of divine justice in Egypt (Jer. 31:2). He had also brought them near to Himself, so that He might enter into covenant relationship with them, and that they might be to Him "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
Rescue answered their past. The desert raised the question of their future.
One stage of God's dealings with His people was over. They had "survived the sword"; they were "saved" (Ex. 14:30). But what about their future? He had delivered them from judgment and from the power of the enemy. Would He now leave them to their own resources? Alas for Israel, if He had done so! No, praised be His name! "The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness." Moses tells us that "He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness" (Deut. 32:10)... Jehovah "found" the people whom He had delivered. He proved that He was enough for their every need, until they reached the promised rest.
They found grace; they did not earn it. Watch how God answered their complaints in the desert.
Each time He gave them what they wanted. He rebuked them, but He did not punish them at all, rebellious as their conduct had been. After the law was given, His dealings with them changed. He still sent manna and quails and water in answer to their complaints. But now Jehovah showed His displeasure by fire and plagues and fiery serpents, which destroyed their thousands.
The verse ends with rest. Older translations read the last clause as God's act: "when I go to give him rest." Rest came the same way the rescue did.
And so it was a tale of grace from first to last. Grace delivered them from the sword. Grace sustained them in the wilderness. Grace brought them into the promised rest at the end. They had plenty of hard fighting to do before they could settle in the land of their inheritance. Yet in the end it was not their own efforts that brought them into rest, but the grace of their God.
Verse 1 speaks of "all the families of Israel." How much does that promise cover?
Another important difference appears at the start of Jeremiah 31. This is not a return of Judah only, but of all twelve tribes. How different from the small group of Jews, with a few stragglers from other tribes, who returned under Ezra and Nehemiah! Here all the families of Israel are in view.
Who does this restoration, and what does it do to those it reaches?
This deliverance is the Lord's own work, and so it is complete. Weakness cannot spoil the enjoyment of it. It melts the heart and brings tears and pleading, yet it removes every cause for tears, except grace.
The same grace meets us today. Where should we expect to find it?
The path is often steep and rough, and the desert sand is hard to trudge through. But we must not be tempted to leave it for a smoother path and pleasant lawns. It is "in the wilderness" we shall "find grace"... There are resources in our God to meet every difficulty. Indeed, the greater the trial, the greater the grace ready for us. "He gives more grace" (James 4:6).
- Grace spared — the survivors lived only because blood was on the door, and under it the weakest was as safe as the best.
- Grace found — God did not rescue them and then walk away. He found them in the desert and proved He was enough there.
- Grace endured — before the law He answered their complaints without punishing them; after the law He still sent manna, quails and water, but now with signs of His displeasure.
- Grace finished — they fought hard for the land, but the grace of their God, not their own effort, brought them into rest.
- Grace still promised — the restoration ahead gathers all the families of Israel; the Lord works it, so it is complete.
Jehovah hath appeared from afar unto me, [saying,] Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.
This verse sits in Jeremiah's promises about Israel's future. God is speaking to a people about to be scattered, and He tells them why He will gather them again. His reason is not their record but His own love. That raises the questions commentators ask: who is God speaking to, how far back does this love go, and what does it mean to be "drawn"?
The promise is not limited to one part of the nation. Reading verse 1 alongside verse 3, one writer stresses how wide the restoration is:
So in Jeremiah 31, God makes this new relationship very clear. "At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel." There is to be a complete restoration of the scattered and dispersed tribes, not of Judah only but of all Israel: "all the clans of Israel." Nothing could be clearer.
The same writer notes that when God gathers them, even the weak are carried along: "even the suffering and the sick will be brought safely back by God's command and care… Jehovah will forget none."
The chapter goes on to promise rebuilding. One writer points out what that hope rests on. (The older translation quoted here ends verse 3 "therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you"; the ESV reads "therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.")
In chapter 31 the Holy Spirit goes on encouraging the heart with bright hopes of the coming glory. And He shows that the secret behind it all is the unchanging, eternal love of God. God says, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel!"
God speaks this love to a people who had sinned. One writer draws out what comes first:
Whatever the state of His people, the Lord never forgets His love for them, and He is never slow to say so… We might have expected His first word to be a warning and a rebuke for their sins. But no. God's first word should have reminded them of the length and breadth, the depth and height, of that unchanging love… So we are brought face to face with the source of our redemption, and of every blessing we enjoy. We can never be reminded too often that we do not belong to the Lord because we love Him. We belong to Him because He has loved us and made us what we are.
An everlasting love is not a love that never corrects. Another writer holds both together, and points out who God was speaking to:
God never has turned away from the cry of His people, and He never will. He loves them with an unchanging love. He must often correct them for their waywardness… yet He will not give them up. It was about these stubborn children of Jacob that He said: "I have loved you with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness I will draw you."
Verse 3 answers the verse before it, where a people who survived the sword found grace in the desert. One writer traces that grace from start to finish:
So it was a story of grace from first to last. Grace saved them from the sword. Grace kept them in the wilderness. And grace brought them at last into the promised rest. They had plenty of hard fighting to do before they could settle in the land. Even so, it was not their own effort that brought them into rest. It was the grace of their God.
The same writer adds that the grace is found in the trial, not away from it: "It is 'in the wilderness' we shall 'find grace'… No, the greater the trial the greater the grace ready for us."
"Therefore" ties the drawing to the love. One writer follows that line backwards past conversion, past birth, past creation itself:
His love, His mercy, were set upon us. When we were converted? No, before then. When we were born? No, before then. When the world was created? No, even before then… Jeremiah writes, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you." He has drawn us to Himself, and He looks for an answer to His love.
Commentators apply the verse in two ways: to Israel's future, and to believers today. One writer sets the two side by side:
In their times of sorrow, the psalms will teach Israel the deep sympathy of the Spirit of Christ. The knowledge of unchanging love will hold them up — "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (Jer. 31:3)… How much more do we know that same eternal love, made known to us in the Son!
- Source. The love comes first: we belong to God not because we loved Him, but because He loved us and made us what we are.
- Reach. That love reaches back further than we do — before we turned to Him, before we were born, before the world began.
- Pull. Because the love is everlasting, the drawing follows — loving-kindness is the cord, and it looks for an answer.
- Wilderness. The same love supplies grace along the way, not around it; the harder the road, the greater the grace given on it.
- End. The love carries through to rest — a full restoration for all the clans of Israel, none forgotten, and that same love shown to us in the Son.
I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel! Thou shalt again be adorned with thy tambours, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
God makes this promise to a nation He is about to scatter: He will rebuild the very people He is tearing down. Three questions follow: who is "virgin Israel," what makes such a turnaround certain, and why does the promise end in music and dancing?
The word "again" looks back at the verse before it. God names Himself as the builder, and this is no fresh decision. It flows from a love that never stopped.
The Holy Spirit keeps encouraging the heart in chapter 31 with bright hopes of the coming glory. He makes known that the secret behind it all is the unchanging, eternal love of God. As He says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin Israel!" (vv. 3-4).
That order holds for everyone God saves. His love comes first; our love answers it.
We are thus brought face to face with the source of our redemption, and of all the blessings we enjoy; for we cannot be too often reminded that we do not belong to the Lord because we love Him, but because He has loved us and made us what we are.
This promise is not for Judah alone. The chapter opens by naming the whole scattered nation.
In Jeremiah 31 God states this new relationship plainly: "At that time, declares the LORD, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel." He will fully restore the scattered and dispersed tribes — not of Judah only, but of Israel: "all the clans of Israel." Nothing could be more definite.
Some readers treat promises like this as pictures of the church rather than pledges to a nation. Commentators answer that the text names its own subject.
There is a way of reading prophecy that spiritualizes it and explains it away, applying it to the Church and to Christianity. As if to guard against that, we are told, "These are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah." They are not words about something else pictured under the names of Israel and Judah. They are words the Lord spoke (a solemn thought!) about Israel and about Judah.
The title is surprising. The same prophet calls this nation a backsliding daughter. Commentators read the name as a picture of what she will become, not of what she has been.
Jeremiah is speaking of "the virgin of Israel," the same people he also calls "you backsliding daughter." He sees that in the day of restoration the virgin remnant of Israel will keep herself morally pure, free from all defilement with the idolatry of Babylon.
The tambourine and the dance were the sounds of a rescued people. Israel had known that joy once before, on the morning God redeemed them out of Egypt.
Every heart was full of gladness, and it came out in music, dancing, and song. They were redeemed, and they knew it on that happy morning. Loaded with the joy of their salvation, they pour it out in words of thanks and praise.
When that sound returns, God Himself will welcome it. Their gladness comes back to Him as an offering.
The virgin of Israel will then go out again with dance, music, and song (Jer. 31:4). Their glad rejoicing will be acceptable to the Holy One. It will be the thankful offering of a people whose righteousness and beauty are the lasting memorials of His own abounding grace.
- Love first. The word "therefore" points back. The rebuilding grows out of an everlasting love, not out of anything the nation offered. We belong to the Lord because He loved us, not because we loved Him.
- Built again. God rebuilds the very people He had torn down. He promises restoration, not replacement.
- Israel again. The promise reaches the whole scattered nation, not Judah only. The Lord spoke about Israel and Judah, not about someone else under their names.
- Virgin again. God gives the backsliding daughter a name of purity. It describes what grace will make her in the day of restoration.
- Joy again. The tambourines and dances of a redeemed people return. God welcomes their gladness as a memorial of His own grace.
Thou shalt again plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall eat the fruit.
Samaria's hills belonged to the ten northern tribes. They were scattered among the nations long before Jeremiah wrote, and they never came back. So who receives this promise of vineyards, and when do the planters sit down and eat?
The chapter opens with God speaking to tribes that had abandoned Him. His reason for bringing them back is His own love, not their repentance.
Jeremiah foretold the promised restoration of the nations of Israel from their scattering among the Gentiles. Out of the Lord's "everlasting love," even toward the ten tribes who had turned away from Him, He says, "I will bring them" back, "for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn" (Jer. 31:1-9).
Ephraim is the name that stands for all ten northern tribes.
In the prophecies about the future blessing of the twelve tribes, Ephraim stands for the ten tribes. See Ezekiel 37:16-22, where the twelve tribes become one nation in their own land, with one king over them. That prophecy has never yet been fulfilled, but God will surely accomplish it in His own time.
Some read this as fulfilled when exiles came home under Ezra and Nehemiah. The scale of the promise argues against that.
This is no return of Judah, but of the twelve tribes. How different from the small remnant of Jews, with a few stragglers from other tribes, under Ezra and Nehemiah! Here all the families of Israel are in question.
The record of that return names which tribes actually came home.
It is plain from this and other scriptures that only two tribes were restored — Judah and Benjamin. There may have been people from other tribes among them… For the same reason, the ten tribes will not be gathered and restored until after the appearing of the Lord for the salvation of the remnant in the land.
Some read such promises as pictures of the Church. The prophecy names its own subject.
These words seem meant to guard against the method of interpretation that explains such prophecies away by applying them to the Church and to Christianity. We are told, "And these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah." They are not words about something else pictured under the names of Israel and Judah. They are words the Lord spoke (solemn thought!) about Israel and about Judah.
That does not leave Christians without a share. It sorts out which hope belongs to whom.
Israel's is an earthly calling… In days to come, grace will restore and save them. They will then stand in grace, no longer holding their blessings on the terms of their own obedience. Even so, the blessings that mark out their calling and position will still be earthly. Ours is a heavenly calling.
Vines were not a random crop. Israel had already been pictured as God's vineyard, and that story ended badly.
They would have understood well the picture of a "vineyard" standing for Israel. God had formed it on a very fruitful hill and planted it with the choicest vine. He had done everything possible for its fruitfulness and protection. Yet when He looked for fruit, He found only wild grapes. In the end God broke down its wall, and the vineyard was trampled down — a picture of the state of Israel until now. Ps. 80; Isa. 5:1-10.
The second half of the verse answers an old warning. Under the law, disobedience meant others ate what you grew.
First, a man would enjoy the fruit of his own labour. This is simply the fulfilment of the promises God made to His people, on the condition that they observed and kept His commandments (see Deut. 28:1-12). The same chapter shows the contrast: if they turned aside from God's statutes and laws, others would eat the fruit of their land and all their labours. (v. 33.)
The vineyards are not the end of the picture. Planting leads to dancing and feasting.
They will say of Him whom their fathers rejected, "He is our God." And He will own them, and take pleasure in them, as His people. With dance and tambourine they will crown the vine-clad mountains of Samaria, in the happy joy of an acceptable gladness. The Lord's loving-kindness will have drawn them into the covenant of endless peace, and they will keep their feasts of gladness in the beautiful garments of salvation (Jer. 31:4-5).
- Love plants. The replanting starts in God's everlasting love toward tribes that had walked away. It does not start with any change in them.
- Love reaches. Ephraim stands for the ten northern tribes. The promise reaches past Judah to all the families of Israel.
- Love outlasts. Only Judah and Benjamin came back under Ezra and Nehemiah. Commentators here place the gathering of the ten tribes after the Lord's appearing.
- Love repays. Under the law, others ate what Israel grew. Here the planters eat their own fruit, and the trampled vineyard is planted again.
- Love sings. The vines on those hills end in dancing and feasting. That is the earthly blessing of an earthly people; the Church's calling is heavenly.
For there shall be a day, when the watchmen upon mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion, unto Jehovah our God.
Watchmen stand in the northern hill country and shout. That land belonged to the ten tribes that broke away from Jerusalem. Their cry sends people south, to worship at Zion. Why is that so surprising, and when does the day come?
Start with the place. A reference work explains the term:
This does not refer to any particular mountain, but to the range of hill-country in Ephraim.
How far does this promise reach? One writer weighs the words "all the families of Israel":
There is to be a complete restoration of the scattered and dispersed tribes. Not of Judah only, but of Israel: "all the families of Israel." Nothing can be more distinct.
A king once built his whole religion on stopping that very journey. One writer describes what Jeroboam did:
Jeroboam had no faith in God and His word. He feared for his throne if the people kept going up to Jerusalem to worship. So he installed golden calves in Bethel and Dan. He appointed priests from all classes, ignoring the special privilege of the Levites. He set up feasts of his own devising against God's law. This turned the people completely away from God's centre and from His order. All this was more than unfaithfulness; it was open apostasy.
Later the invitation to come back was offered again. One writer records how the northern tribes answered:
The message reached Ephraim, Manasseh and Zebulun. Most of the people met it with nothing but contempt and mockery. The Lord had already broken down much of their false worship. Yet when the chance came to return to God's true centre of worship, Jerusalem, they refused in folly and pride.
The place they are called to matters too. One writer traces God's choice of Zion back to a moment when everything had collapsed:
Scripture ties Zion to David and his rule. It ties Zion, just as plainly, to the sovereign grace of God, at a time when everything entrusted to man in Israel had failed. The priesthood had broken down. The ark had gone into captivity in the enemy's land. God's judgment on the Philistines brought it back, yet no one sought after it in the days of Saul. He was the Lord's anointed king, yet he had become apostate. Everything might have seemed lost. But it was not. At that lowest point, as the seventy-eighth psalm says, "Then the Lord awoke as from sleep… and He put His adversaries to rout. He rejected the tent of Joseph; He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which He loves… He chose David His servant."
The two kingdoms do not stay two. One writer gathers the same promise from other prophets:
Ephraim shall no more provoke Judah, nor shall Judah again provoke Ephraim (Isaiah 11:13). They shall be "one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms" (Ezekiel 37:22).
When does that day come? One writer sets it after the Lord's return, and explains why these tribes are treated differently:
The restoration of the ten tribes will happen after the Lord has taken His kingdom. Because they had no part in the rejection and crucifixion of Christ, they will be spared the fearful and unusual trials their brothers must pass through. They will still be judged for their own sins. Those trials fall on their brothers because they accept the antichrist and join themselves to him.
The call is plural: "let us go up." One writer draws out what such shared movement produces:
These, and many other Scriptures, show the blessedness and joy of the people of God as they move together in relation to His interests… What precious results such movements yield! There is praise and thanksgiving to God. There is gladness of heart in a growing knowledge of God's holy ways. There is a deeper desire to walk in a way that pleases Him, and a testimony that draws others to Himself.
- Place — the hill country of Ephraim is a whole region, not one peak. It was home to the tribes that walked away from Jerusalem.
- Reversal — Jeroboam set up calves at Bethel and Dan to stop people going up to worship. Here Ephraim's own watchmen shout the opposite.
- Grace — God chose Zion after everything entrusted to man had failed. The psalm says He did not choose Ephraim. Yet Ephraim is where this call goes out.
- Reach — the promise covers all the families of Israel, not Judah only.
- Result — the two kingdoms become one nation under one king. The same call still marks God's people whenever they move toward Him together.
For thus saith Jehovah Sing aloud [with] gladness for Jacob, and shout at the head of the nations; publish ye, praise ye, and say, Jehovah, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
Jeremiah 31:7 is a command to celebrate before the rescue has happened. God tells His people to sing, shout, proclaim and praise while the exile is still a fact. The song He gives them is also a prayer: it asks God to save "the remnant of Israel."
One writer marks the gap between this promise and the return that history actually recorded.
Another important difference is already set out at the start of Jeremiah 31. It is not a return of Judah, but of the twelve tribes. How different from the small remnant of Jews, with a few stragglers from other tribes, under Ezra and Nehemiah! Here all the families of Israel are in question… Who can claim that this has been fulfilled either in the Jews or in the gospel, much as the gospel has gone beyond it?
The same writer notes elsewhere that the relationship itself is new and complete: "There is to be a complete restoration of the scattered and dispersed tribes not of Judah only but of Israel: 'all the families of Israel.' Nothing can be more distinct."
The gladness commanded here does not rest on anything Israel has done. Another commentator names what makes the singing possible, and says it holds for Christians too.
Verses 1–9. Sovereign grace will bring them back and give them the songs of salvation. It is true of Israel: "I have loved you with an everlasting love, and so with loving-kindness I have drawn you." It is just as true of us. What a day of joy it will be when they go back home once more, never to leave the old homeland again!
That quotation of Jeremiah 31:3 follows an older translation. The ESV reads, "therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."
Some have argued that the verse calls Israel itself the chief of the nations. One writer answers that it says no such thing.
This passage does not say that "Israel" is "the chief of the nations," but it is a call of joy among the chief of the nations. Israel means there the whole twelve tribes.
Commentators differ here. Other writers do speak of Israel regaining first place among the nations. They set that recovery at the end of this age:
In political terms, the Jews once had the chief place among the nations of the world. They lost it through their disobedience. It passed to the Gentiles in the person of Nebuchadnezzar, and the Gentile holds this rule to this day. He will keep it until the Lord comes to judge the rulers of the earth, and gives the Jews back the place they once held as chief among the nations.
The prayer takes in the ten tribes as well, carried off long before Christ came. Writing about the return under Ezra, one commentator explains why they come back later than Judah.
It is plain from this and other scriptures that only these two tribes were restored, though there may have been people from other tribes among them. So it was only to Judah and Benjamin that Christ was later presented for acceptance, when He was born into this world. They rejected Him. That is why they, and they only of the twelve tribes, will pass through the terrible trouble… For the same reason, the ten tribes will not be gathered and restored until after the Lord appears to save the remnant in the land. (See Zechariah 14, Ezekiel 20:33–44, Ezekiel 34, and Jeremiah 31:6–14.)
The call to sing follows a call to go up to the LORD. One writer sets this beside other passages where God's people move toward Him together, and lists what such movement gives.
"Let us go up … to the LORD our God. For thus says the LORD: Sing aloud with gladness" (Jeremiah 31:6–7). These Scriptures, and many others, show the blessedness and joy of the people of God as they move together in relation to His interests… Such movements yield precious results: praise and thanksgiving to God; gladness of heart in a growing knowledge of God's holy ways; a deepening desire to walk in a way that pleases Him; and a testimony which draws others to Himself!
- Love first. God commands the song because of His everlasting love and sovereign grace. Israel did not earn the return. One writer says that same love holds for believers now.
- Love reaches all twelve. The promise covers "all the families of Israel." No return from Babylon did that. Only a small group from Judah and Benjamin came back under Ezra and Nehemiah.
- Love reaches the lost ten. The prayer takes in the ten tribes, carried off long before Christ came. Commentators place their gathering after the Lord appears, later than Judah's ordeal.
- Love, not status, is the point. Commentators differ over "chief of the nations." Is it a shout raised among the great nations, or a promise that Israel regains first place? Either way, the change is coming.
- Love sings out loud. The verse turns joy outward: proclaim, praise, and pray. God's people go up to Him together, and their gladness becomes a testimony that draws others in.