Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the city shall be built to Jehovah, from the tower of Hananeel unto the corner-gate.
Jeremiah 31 is the chapter of the new covenant, and it ends with a map. God names a tower and a gate, so readers ask one plain question: is this picture language, or a promise about real ground in a real city?
The tower and the gate are the first argument. William Kelly reads them as God's own guard against turning the promise into a picture:
The prophet shows that we should not read this prophecy as an allegory, but literally. He says, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate" (verse 38). This is not the city in the heavens, whose maker and builder is God. It is not the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from God, because there is no Tower of Hananel there. There is no such thing as measuring the corner there... They are the old localities and gates of the city of Jerusalem; and God will renew them in the day that is coming.
W. Trotter presses the same test by asking what else such words could possibly mean:
How can we spiritualize "the tower of Hananeel?" What mystic meaning could we attach to "the hill Gareb," or to the city being compassed "about to Goath?"... If the literal, actual Jerusalem be not here intended, what language could give expression to that idea?
The tower was a known point on the city's defences, listed elsewhere in Scripture among the gates:
Tower in the wall of Jerusalem between the sheep-gate and the fish-gate. Neh. 3:1; Neh. 12:39; Jer. 31:38; Zech. 14:10. Its position is not identified.
So the line runs from a tower in the city wall to a gate of the same city. These are points on a real map, even if no one can pinpoint the tower today.
Some read Israel's judgments as Israel's and Israel's blessings as the church's. Darby answers by keeping both halves with the same people, and by tying verse 38 back to God's promise earlier in the chapter to watch over them to build and to plant:
Has God watched over the church to pluck it up? And after the verse you quote, the prophet adds what you leave out: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate," and "it shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever." Jeremiah was speaking to the Jews. He told them that God would not cast them off in that future day, that the city would be built, and that those who had been so completely pulled up would never be pulled up again. Is this the church?
The city is not simply rebuilt; it is rebuilt for Him. Kelly notes that this closing promise, unlike the new covenant promise just before it, cannot be borrowed by Christians — its subject is a place, with borders:
The chapter ends with the third promise about the city, its limits and landmarks. Unlike the second promise, it cannot be fairly applied to the needs, circumstances, or blessings of Christians. It is God's own land register for Jerusalem. The ground is mapped out, and the security announced is one only the mouth of God can give.
A. Pridham ties that security to the new covenant, and to a city that can never be pulled down again:
Here is the unchanging stability and security of Jerusalem and her children, set free into the liberty of the new covenant. "It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever" (Jer. 31:38-40). Her walls shall be called Salvation, and her gates Praise.
This rebuilding has not happened yet. Kelly sets it in the reign of the Messiah, and includes more than the city:
It is the restoration of the people and the land and the city, when Messiah reigns on His own throne... Allegory is vain as to all this.
- Named: God names a tower and a gate because He means a real city. The heavenly Jerusalem has no Tower of Hananel.
- Measured: God sets the limits Himself. A promise with a map cannot be turned into a symbol.
- Same people: God pulled up Israel, and God will rebuild Israel. The judgment and the blessing land on the same people.
- His city: The city is rebuilt for the LORD. Its safety rests on God's own word, not on its walls.
- Forever: What God rebuilds will never be pulled down again. Commentators place that day in the reign of the Messiah, still to come.
And the measuring line shall yet go forth before it unto the hill Gareb, and shall turn toward Goath.
Jeremiah ends this chapter with a surveyor's line stretched over named hills on the edge of Jerusalem. Do these place names mean anything real? Or is the city on the map only a picture of something else — the church, or heaven?
You cannot stretch a measuring line over a metaphor. One commentator rests his whole case on the place names.
The prophet shows that this prophecy is not an allegory. It is meant literally. He says, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate" (verse 38). This is not the city in the heavens, whose maker and builder is God. It is not the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from God, because there is no tower of Hananel there. There is no measuring of the corner there. "And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah" (verse 39). These are the old places and gates of the city of Jerusalem, and God will renew them in the day that is coming.
The measuring line also fixes where the city begins and ends. One writer counts this as the third of the chapter's promises about the city.
The chapter ends with the third promise about the city, its limits and landmarks. Unlike the second promise, no one can fairly apply it to the needs, circumstances or blessings of Christians. It is God's own record book of Jerusalem. The boundaries are defined, and the security promised here can come only from the mouth of God.
Some read the judgments in Jeremiah as falling on Israel while the blessings pass over to the church. The place names break that reading: a hill called Gareb has no place in a promise about the church.
Jeremiah 31:23, 27, 28, 31, to the end. Notice verse 28. Who is it that the Lord has broken down, thrown down, and destroyed? The same that He will build and plant. It is a little unreasonable to give all the judgments to Israel, and then give all the blessings that concern those same people to the church. And if this passage really is about the church, what do these words mean: "from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate," "the hill Gareb," and so on? Notice too the last words of the chapter: "It shall not be plucked up or thrown down ever again."
The measuring is not an end in itself. One writer sets it at the close of a sequence: the people owned again, then the land, then the city.
This is the restoration of the people, the land and the city, when Messiah reigns on His own throne. The reader can find more about it in Isaiah 11, 12, 35, 65, 66; Jeremiah 3:16-18, Jeremiah 30, Jeremiah 32:37-44, Jeremiah 33; Ezekiel 40-48; and in the minor prophets, especially Zechariah 12 - 14. Allegory has no place in any of this.
The measuring in this verse is not the next thing on the calendar. One summary of Jerusalem's future sets out a long stretch of trouble first, and only then reaches the promise these verses close with.
Scripture teaches this about the future of Jerusalem. Some of the Jews will return in unbelief (and many have now returned). They will occupy Jerusalem, rebuild the temple, and have a political existence... They will then live under the protection of the future Roman Empire, and they will accept Antichrist. After that they will pass through great tribulation. The city will fall and the temple will be destroyed... But this will not be Jerusalem's final destiny. We read, "It shall not be plucked up or thrown down ever again." Jeremiah 31:38-40.
- Measured. The line runs over Gareb and Goah — real ground on the edge of the old city, not a symbol of the church or of heaven.
- Mapped. The named limits form God's own register of Jerusalem. Only His word can promise a security like that.
- Matched. The city He tore down is the city He rebuilds; the judgments and the blessings belong to the same people.
- Mastered. The survey belongs to the day Messiah reigns on His own throne. The people, the land and the city are restored together.
- Made permanent. Unbelief, Antichrist and tribulation come first. But the last word over this measured ground is that it will never be plucked up or thrown down again.
And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the torrent Kidron, unto the corner of the horse-gate toward the east, shall be holy unto Jehovah it shall not be plucked up, nor overthrown any more for ever.
Jeremiah's chapter on the new covenant ends with a map: a tower, a hill, a gate, a valley of dead bodies and ashes, and the Kidron ravine. The question is whether these places mean what they say, and how a burial ground can be called holy to the LORD for ever.
These closing lines belong to the section of the chapter that guarantees Israel's survival as a nation. One commentator reads the whole passage as God's answer to the idea that He is finished with His ancient people, and notes that its last three verses have no past fulfilment to point to:
This word of Jehovah is a complete answer to those in Christendom who think that God has cast away Israel, that they are no longer the chosen people. The Lord makes a condition: if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, He will cast off all the seed of Israel for all they have done. Heaven has not been measured. The depth of the earth has not been searched out. Neither ever will be. What a faithful covenant-keeping God He is! Verses 38-40 have never been fulfilled in the past.
Some take this promise as a picture of heaven. One commentator answers with a single detail from the verse:
The prophet then speaks of "the whole valley of the dead bodies." Surely no one would seriously think that there is a valley of dead bodies in the new Jerusalem. The idea is so groundless that saying too much about it carries a danger. We could give the impression that we were only trying to make the scheme look ridiculous.
Another writer asks what wording God could have used, if not this, to mean the actual city:
How can we spiritualise "the tower of Hananeel"? What mystical meaning could we attach to "the hill Gareb," or to the city being surrounded "about to Goath"? If the literal, actual Jerusalem is not meant here, what language could express that idea?
The ground named in the verse had a grim history. A reference work links the Kidron to idol burnings and to burials:
The valley, or wide ravine, that lies between the east of Jerusalem and the west of the Mount of Olives. It is joined by the valley of Hinnom that runs along the south of Jerusalem... In Old Testament times it was treated as a defiled place. Asa burned his mother's idol there. 1 Kings 15:13. Josiah also burned there the symbols of idolatry. 2 Kings 23:4, 6, 12; and from 2 Kings 23:6 and Jer. 31:40 it appears to have been the common burial ground.
That very ground, the verse says, will be holy to the LORD.
The God who tore this city down is the one who promises to rebuild it. One writer uses that reversal to show the promise cannot pass to someone else:
Note verse 28. Who is it that the Lord has broken down, thrown down, and destroyed? The same ones that He will build and plant. It is a little unreasonable to apply all the judgments to Israel, and all the blessings which concern the same people to the church. Notice, too, the closing words of the chapter: "It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever."
One commentator treats the map itself as part of the promise:
The chapter ends with a third promise about the city, its limits and landmarks. Unlike the second promise, no one can fairly apply this one to the needs, circumstances, or blessings of Christians. It is God's own register of Jerusalem. It sets down the geography exactly, and it announces a security that belongs only to the mouth of God.
The same writer names the time when all this comes true:
It is the restoration of the people and the land and the city, when Messiah reigns on His own throne — about which the reader can find more in Isa. 11, 12, 35, 65, 66; Jer. 3:16-18, Jer. 30, Jer. 32:37-44, Jer. 33; Ezek. 40-48; and in the minor prophets, especially Zech. 12-14. Allegory is useless as to all this.
- Unfulfilled. Nothing in Israel's history has yet matched these closing verses.
- Unmistakable. No one can spiritualise away a tower, a hill, a gate and a valley of dead bodies. The wording names the actual Jerusalem.
- Unclean. The Kidron valley was a defiled place. Kings burned idols there, and the city buried its dead there.
- Undone. The God who broke the city down will build and plant it. The people who bore the judgment receive the blessing.
- Unshakable. God measures the boundaries and attaches His guarantee. Only His own mouth could promise such safety, and Messiah's reign will make it good.