Thus saith Jehovah A voice hath been heard in Ramah, the wail of very bitter weeping, -- Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are not.
Jeremiah 31 promises that God will bring His people home, and then it stops for a mother's cry in Ramah. Why is Rachel weeping here, and why does Matthew quote her when Herod's soldiers reach Bethlehem?
Ramah is a real town with a hard history. Rachel's descendants were going into exile when this cry went up.
The Rama or Ramah spoken of in these verses was a city of the tribe of Benjamin, some 5–10 miles north of Jerusalem (Joshua 18:21 and 25). The Assyrian, the rod of His anger, had already removed the ten tribes — the kingdom of Israel — out of the Lord's sight (2 Kings 17; Isaiah 10:5). The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the descendants of Joseph, the first son of Rachel, were among them. Now Nebuchadnezzar was removing the tribe of Benjamin, Rachel's second son, along with the tribe of Judah, "at the commandment of the Lord" (2 Kings 24).
Two things tie Rachel to Bethlehem: her grave and her son.
Why Rachel's voice? While Bethlehem belonged to the tribe of Judah, Benjamin was next to them; and you remember Benjamin was Rachel's son. Bethlehem is first mentioned in connection with Rachel's death (Gen. 35:16-20), and her tomb was "in the border of Benjamin, at Zelzah" (1 Sam. 10:2). This bit of land, belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, dipped down into the land of Judah. A little building still marks the site of her tomb, about a mile north of Bethlehem, on the main road from Jerusalem and Bethel.
Herod's soldiers reached into Benjamin's ground too, and the voice raised over it belongs to a woman centuries dead.
Herod was so determined to sweep the area clear that he had children killed not only in Bethlehem, but in the districts around it — the parts of Benjamin just mentioned. Rachel had been dead for centuries and centuries, but the Spirit of God puts it in this remarkable way, as if her spirit had risen from the dead. Rachel's voice is lifted up in weeping over this terrible slaughter of so many of her own children, as well as the murdered infants of the tribe of Judah. Her cries of sorrow are heard even in Ramah, the chief town of Benjamin.
The sorrow in this verse is not the end of the road. One writer finds the turn in the two names of Rachel's son.
The story begins in chapter 30, and Jacob's name becomes prominent at once. Like his, the nation's way to the glory is through trial and trouble. The reference to Rachel's anguish (Jer. 31:15) points the same way. But "Benoni" — the son of her sorrow — becomes "Benjamin" — the son of the right hand.
Matthew applies this verse to the killing at Bethlehem. He stops at the tears and leaves out the promise that comes next.
It is beautiful to see that the Holy Spirit (Matt. 2:17-18) applies to that event the passage about sorrow but not that about joy. Here is what follows: "Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy" (verse 16).
The place made the grief sharper. This was the town where the King was born.
There was bitter sorrow then, even in the birthplace of royalty. Deep anguish was in the place where there ought to have been the greatest joy. The birth of the Messiah ought to have been the signal for universal joy in the land of Israel. And there would have been if there had been faith in God and His promise, but there was not.
Comfort was within their reach in the same chapter. They only had to read on.
But what comfort there would have been for them if they had turned to the Scripture which spoke of their sorrow. There we read, "The Lord appeared to Me from far away, saying: Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you… and there is hope for your future, declares the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own country" (Jer. 31).
Bethlehem was a real fulfilment, but not the last one. The verse's promise of a journey home is still ahead.
Read that verse with its context, and you will see that its final and complete fulfilment comes in the last days. Then God will end Rachel's weeping by bringing her children back from the land of the enemy. Still, what took place at Bethlehem was the same kind of thing on a smaller scale.
- Ramah. A town of Benjamin, north of Jerusalem — the chief town of the tribe Nebuchadnezzar was carrying away.
- Rachel. Mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She died near Bethlehem, and the tribes of both her sons went into exile.
- Refused. She would not be comforted. Yet the next verses tell her to dry her eyes: there is a reward, a return, and a future.
- Repeated. Herod's killing at Bethlehem was the same sorrow on a smaller scale. Matthew quotes the grief and stops before the joy.
- Restored. Benoni became Benjamin. Sorrow first, then the children come home — a return still ahead.
Thus saith Jehovah Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for there is a reward for thy work, saith Jehovah; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
In the verse just before this one, Rachel weeps for her children and will not be comforted. God answers her here, and commentators trace that answer from the exile in Babylon to the mothers of Bethlehem, and on to the day the children come home.
Commentators read Rachel's cry as the grief of a nation carried off to Babylon. They also hear in it a promise: the day when God makes a new covenant with Israel and Judah.
In Jeremiah 31:15-17 there is a very touching reference to Rachel and a connection with the affliction of "her children" in the day of the captivity to Babylon. But it looks on to the blessed time of gracious repayment, when the LORD will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
The refusal to be comforted lasts as long as the exile does.
She appears before us as a true Rachel. As we know, she now refuses to be comforted, and will refuse until her "children shall come again to her own border" (Jeremiah 31:15-17). Such is the heart of the children of Israel.
Matthew quotes this passage after Herod's killing at Bethlehem. He quotes the sorrow of verse 15 and stops.
In this chapter we find the well-known scripture that is applied to Herod's destruction of the children at Bethlehem. It is beautiful to see that the Holy Spirit (Matthew 2:17-18) applies to that event the passage about sorrow but not the one about joy.
The grieving mothers had the answer to their own grief lying a few lines further down the page.
But what comfort there would have been for them if they had turned to the Scripture which spoke of their sorrow. There we read, "The LORD appeared to Me from far away, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you… Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy."
Because Matthew used only half the prophecy, the other half is still waiting.
So the Holy Spirit applied the first part of the prophecy, but there He stops. When the entire prophecy is fulfilled, there will be sorrow again in the land, great sorrow, but there will also be joy. "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning." "And there is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country" (verse 17).
One writer reads the "work" of this verse as the nation's travail, and looks ahead to the moment it is paid.
Even this anguish points on to the future travail of the nation, just before their labour is rewarded (v. 16). The reward is the presence of Christ with them, their Messiah in resurrection life, the Man Child who has been brought forth before their travail (see Isaiah 66:7). All of this about Rachel and her children shows the comforting truth: joy comes in the morning, though weeping may last through the night.
Rachel's children "are not" — they are gone. So the promise that they will come back needs a power reaching past death.
Faith trusts the LORD, but Rachel has to learn that only resurrection holds life and power. For nature there must be a voice "heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping" — "weeping for her children, and no comfort, because they are not." Yet the LORD says: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears. In the power of Him who is in resurrection "they shall come back from the land of the enemy", and there is hope for the time to come.
God gives His people something to hold while they wait.
Hope is the handkerchief that God puts into His people's hands, to wipe the tears from their eyes — tears drawn out by their present troubles and the long wait for mercies they expect (Jeremiah 31:16-17).
- Weeping. Rachel's cry is a nation's grief in exile. That sorrow refuses comfort until the children come home.
- Quoted. Matthew applies only the sorrow of verse 15 to the children killed at Bethlehem. The joy of verse 16 is still ahead.
- Reward. The command to stop crying rests on a promise. The labour has a reward, and one writer names that reward as Christ Himself, present with His people.
- Return. Children who "are not" come back only by resurrection power — the enemy's land does not get the last word.
- Hope. God does not ask for dry eyes without giving the handkerchief; hope is what He puts in the hand of the one still waiting.
And there is hope for thy latter end, saith Jehovah, and thy children shall come again to their own border.
God speaks here to a grieving mother who refuses all comfort, and He answers her with a future: the loss is not the last chapter. Two questions follow. What "hope" is left when the children are already gone? And where is "their own country" for a people scattered far from home?
The verse before it records grief. This verse turns that grief toward morning. One writer notes that Matthew, quoting the lament over the boys killed at Bethlehem, stops there and leaves the rest unsaid.
The Gospel writer did not quote this verse. He only referred to what was fulfilled. … So the Holy Spirit applied the first part of the prophecy, but there He stops. When the whole prophecy comes true, there will be sorrow in the land again, great sorrow, but there will also be joy. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning."
Because the tears of Bethlehem matched Jeremiah's words, some treat that as the whole meaning. The same writer weighs that against the way Matthew introduces the quotation.
It is pointless to quote Matthew 2 as if it proved that verse 15 was completely fulfilled there. The wording Matthew uses points out no more than a likeness in spirit between the prophecy he quotes and the event. It does not say the event was what the prophecy aimed at.
One commentator reads the promise as ruling out the idea that the dead children themselves rise. It speaks of captives coming back — and of the change of heart that follows.
But the promise, "they shall come back from the land of the enemy" and "your children shall come back to their own country," clearly shows that captivity is also meant. Rachel's children (Joseph and Benjamin, that is, Ephraim) will return from it after the final tribulation and weeping. Physical resurrection is not in view here. That is why the next verse speaks of Ephraim moaning and repenting. Then comes God's gracious answer: "Is Ephraim My dear son? — I will surely have mercy on him."
Commentators differ over which part of the nation is in view. Another writer reads verse 8 of the ten tribes, and verses 16 and 17 of the two tribes.
Then God will fulfil what is said here of the ten tribes: "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth…" (verse 8). He will also fulfil what is said of the two tribes: "Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears… they shall come back from the land of the enemy… and your children shall come back to their own country" (verses 16 and 17).
The hope points forward, and the road to it runs through more pain. One writer sets Rachel's anguish beside a time of trouble still ahead for the nation, and names the reward promised in verse 16.
Even this anguish points on to the nation's future birth pangs, just before their labour receives its reward (v. 16): the presence of Christ with them, their Messiah in resurrection life, the Man Child brought forth before their birth pangs (see Isaiah 66:7). All of this with Rachel and her children shows the comforting truth that joy comes in the morning, though weeping may last for a night.
God's answer to tears does not deny the loss. He puts something in the mourner's hand instead. One writer pictures what hope does for people worn down by trouble and by mercies that are slow in coming.
Hope is the handkerchief that God puts into His people's hands. With it they wipe away the tears that their present troubles, and the long wait for expected mercies, draw from their eyes.
One writer draws this same word into the grief of the Lord Jesus over the cities that would not repent. True grief, he notes, is found where nothing around offers help.
"Then He began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent." Here was true grief, and fully felt as grief. There is no true grief except where there is no help around; and Jesus had none around Him. "Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more" — the word to her was, "There is hope for your future."
- Weeping — The grief is real, and God names it before He answers it. The verse does not talk the mourner out of her tears.
- Word — Matthew quotes only the sorrow of this passage. The promise attached to it still stands, waiting to be kept.
- Return — The hope is a homecoming. Children come back from enemy land to their own country; the dead are not raised here.
- Repentance — The road home runs through Ephraim's mourning, and God answers it with mercy.
- Reward — Night comes before morning. Christ's presence with His people rewards their labour at last, and hope is the handkerchief God gives them for the wait.
I have indeed heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus] Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock not trained turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art Jehovah my God.
Jeremiah 31 promises restoration. At verse 18 God repeats what He has overheard: a broken man talking to himself about the rod that struck him. Two things sit side by side in his words. He admits that he needed the beating. And he asks God Himself to bring him back.
Ephraim stands for the ten tribes that had gone furthest from God. Jeremiah takes up the image of the firstborn and sets that name inside a promise of return.
Later in their history, Jeremiah used this same beautiful image when he foretold that the nation of Israel would be restored from their scattering among the nations. The Lord pours out His "everlasting love," even on the ten tribes that had turned away from Him. He says, "I will bring them" back, "for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn." … Ephraim was not the "eldest" of the tribes of Jacob. "Firstborn" showed a position compared with others. This privilege was not based on being born first, but on the favour and choice of God.
The chapter also shows where this groaning leads.
Ephraim has repented, and God will cause him to feel that He has never forgotten him. The Lord has always remembered His erring child.
Earlier in the chapter Israel suffers at the hands of enemies. What arrives at verse 18 is not that.
But sorrow from man's oppression and cruel suffering is not all. There is a needed discipline from the Lord which is next brought before us.
Ephraim compares himself to an animal that has never carried a yoke. It is a picture of a will that fights the very thing meant to train it. (Older translations read "a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke.")
We are so often like a bullock that is not used to the yoke. We struggle restlessly instead of submitting patiently. Our senseless and useless efforts to shake the yoke off only make it chafe and hurt more.
Ephraim does not say the discipline turned him. He asks God to turn him — older translations render his words, "Turn me, and I shall be turned." One writer shows why that request is needed at all.
Mere discipline in itself does not turn to God. It may break the will, humble where God is working, and so do a preparatory work; but it does not turn to God. So they are brought here, in the desolations of Ephraim and Judah. They are down to the lowest, because nothing less would do. Then they say, "Turn me," "Turn us again." … There is the sense of belonging to God, being God's people, and the rebuke of God being upon them.
That explains the last words of the verse. Ephraim feels the rod as God's rod, and still calls Him "my God."
The next verse follows on from this request. One writer traces the order: what God does first, and what the man does after.
In Jeremiah we have first, "Turn me and I shall be turned." So the first thing is God's action in grace, turning the sinner round and converting him. He was looking away from God, had turned his back on God, and now in heart and will turns round towards Him. Repentance comes after this: "surely after I was turned I repented."
So what is repentance? Another writer gives a plain answer.
Now, repentance is a judging of one's self and of one's ways, and a turning from them. A change of mind? Yes. About whom or what? About God? No; about myself and my ways.
The verse opens with God saying He has heard. What follows in the chapter shows what such words do when they reach Him.
The language of repentance prevails. "I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself," says the Lord. Then came His compassion: "Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still."
- Rod. The blow Ephraim feels is not enemy cruelty. It is needed discipline from the Lord.
- Resistance. The untrained calf is the picture of a struggling will; fighting the yoke only makes it hurt more.
- Limit. Discipline can break a will and humble a man, but by itself it does not turn him to God.
- Turning. So Ephraim asks God to do it. God turns the sinner round first. Repentance — judging my own ways — comes after.
- Mercy. God says He has heard, and such words prevail with Him. He never forgot His erring child.
Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after I knew myself, I smote upon [my] thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, for I bear the reproach of my youth.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Is Ephraim a dear son unto me? is he a child of delights? For whilst I have been speaking against him, I do constantly remember him still. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will certainly have mercy upon him, saith Jehovah.
This verse is God's reply to a son who has come home broken. Ephraim — the northern tribes of Israel — has groaned under God's discipline and asked God to turn him back. Does correction mean God has stopped loving him?
Ephraim's words just before this verse show what real repentance is.
But what is repentance? How many have been confused about this, through lack of simplicity, and, it may be, from poor teaching. Repentance is judging yourself and your ways, and turning from them. A change of mind? Yes. About whom or what? About God? No; about myself and my ways. But that is not all. Scripture insists on works worthy of repentance.
In verse 18 Ephraim asks God to turn him. Only after that does he say he repented. Darby, quoting an older wording, shows why the order matters:
In Jeremiah we have first, "Turn me and I shall be turned." So first we have the action of God in grace turning the sinner round, converting him. He was looking away from God, had turned his back on God, and now in heart and will turns round towards Him. Repentance comes after this: "surely after that I was turned I repented."
William Kelly reads Ephraim's grief as God's own work in him:
Then comes the repentance of Ephraim. The Lord shows that this work of contrition certainly begins in their souls, and He carries it on to its end.
Older Bibles read "my bowels are troubled" here. The two pictures do the same work.
We use the heart as the symbol of love, but people in the East more often used the bowels as the symbol of the deepest feeling of love, pity and compassion.
The verse asks, "Is he my darling child?" An early English Bible answered in warmer words still.
Did you ever come across the beautiful rendering of Jer. 31:20, in Tyndale, I believe: "Ephraim, my dear son! the child with whom I have had all delight and pastime, since I first talked with him I have him ever in remembrance. My very heart drives me to him. Most lovingly and gladly will I have mercy on him, says the Lord of hosts."
God speaks against Ephraim and remembers him in the same breath. The same holds for anyone He disciplines.
When someone is truly under the rod of discipline, God chastens him, makes him feel the rod, but supports him under it. And it is always so with "the Father of spirits." He chastens, He disciplines; but the moment He has put the soul under discipline, it is as with Ephraim: "As often as I speak against him, I do remember him still."
God's love here is not only a feeling. It sets Israel moving.
The Lord shows His feeling of love for the repentant one… "Set up road markers for yourself, make yourself guideposts; consider well the highway, the road by which you went. Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities" (verses 20, 21). It is the final return of Israel to their own land after long wandering.
The return gives back more than a place to live:
Restored and made alive, Israel will have communion with their Lord. They will know that relationship and enjoy it freely, by grace — a relationship of the dearest, nearest kind!
- Turned — God moves first. He turns the sinner round, and repentance follows.
- Repented — repentance means judging yourself and your ways, and turning from them. It must show in works.
- Remembered — God speaks against Ephraim and remembers him at the same moment. Discipline never stops His remembering.
- Yearned — the older wording "my bowels are troubled" points to the deepest seat of pity and love. Tyndale put it: "My very heart drives me to him."
- Restored — mercy ends in a road home and a close relationship, not just a rescue.
Set up waymarks, make for thyself signposts; set thy heart toward the highway, the way by which thou wentest turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
God speaks here to a people scattered far from home, and tells them to mark out the road so they can walk back along it. It is a picture of a return journey: commentators ask who is coming home, and what that road asks of anyone who has wandered.
The command to mark the road does not stand alone. It follows God's word of mercy in the verse before. One writer reads the two verses as one movement, from God's love to Israel's journey.
The Lord shows His feeling of love for the repentant one... It is the final return of Israel to their own land after long wandering.
The verse asks for practical work: markers and posts set along a route so travellers cannot lose it. Another writer fills out the picture, and notes the change that has come over the road itself.
Then, filling out the beautiful picture of Israel's return, we hear the call to set up road markers and guideposts, and to set their heart toward the highway — once a road of sorrow, now of joy; for the Lord tells the virgin of Israel, forgiving all her past failure, to "return to these your cities."
Many readers have taken this title as a pointer to the birth of Christ. Commentators here reject that reading. They keep "virgin" as a name for the nation itself.
Jeremiah's reference is definitely to "the virgin of Israel"... In the "new thing" the prophet has in view those who will be blessed, not the One who will bless them. He sees that in the day of restoration the virgin remnant of Israel will keep herself morally pure. She will be free from all defilement with the idolatry of Babylon (see Rev. 14:3-5). Jeremiah's promise is that in that day Israel will return to the cities of the land from which she had been driven. He also uses this same figure, "virgin," of the nation in other parts of his prophecies (Jer. 14:17; 18:13; 31:4).
Another writer states that view and rejects it:
Many of the early church writers, and many under their influence, have loved to apply this to the birth of the Saviour. But this is an error. The meaning it brings in does not fit the context, and it does not fit the phrase itself, which has been forced to carry the weight of the incarnation.
The verse does not point to a new road. It points to the road already travelled, walked now in the opposite direction. One writer draws the rule from Abraham's return.
When Abraham left Egypt, he came back to the place of the altar he had built before, and there called on the name of the Lord. If we have departed from the Lord, we never get back into communion until we get back into the place we started from. When the Lord deals with Peter, He does not reproach him with what he had done, but gets at his heart — "Do you love me?" So in Jer. 31:21: "Consider well the highway, the road by which you went."
Another writer calls that retracing real work, not just a feeling:
If you want to be fully restored, you must go to the bottom of your sin and decline in God's presence. Sorrow and a prayer for forgiveness alone will not do. There must be real self-judgment, and a retracing of your steps to the point where you left.
Jeremiah spoke to Judah. Yet the promise in this chapter reaches much further.
Jeremiah's prophecies were addressed to Judah. But Judah alone would not be restored. All the families of Israel would enjoy this blessing... It is a deliverance worked by the Lord, and so it is complete... Ephraim has repented, and God will cause him to feel that He has never forgotten him.
- Mercy first. God shows His love for the repentant one first. The call to mark the road and come home follows.
- Marked road. Road markers, guideposts and a highway make the way home clear. The road once walked in sorrow is now walked in joy.
- Same road back. Restoration means going back the way you came. You go to the bottom of the matter before God and return to the point where you left.
- The virgin named. "Virgin Israel" is the nation itself, kept pure in the day of restoration. Commentators here reject reading this passage as the birth of Christ.
- Every family. The homecoming is not Judah only. All the families of Israel come home, and God shows Ephraim that He never forgot him.