Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 31:26
Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
26. Words put in the mouth of the prophet himself, as they are not suitable either to God or to the exiles. The ecstatic state is here called “sleep,” and as the prophecy had been of so unusually cheering a character, that sleep might well be called sweet.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The prophet, seeming to himself to awake and look up in the midst of his sleep (whether ecstatic or not we cannot tell), rejoiced in a revelation so entirely consolatory, and unlike his usual message of woe.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. Upon this I awaked] It appears that the prophecy, commencing with Jer 30:2 and ending with Jer 31:25 of this chapter, was delivered to the prophet in a dream. Dahler supposes it to be a wish; that the prophet, though he could not hope to live to that time, might be permitted to awake up from his tomb; and, having seen this prosperity, would be content to return to his grave.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Either this revelation was made to Jeremiah in a dream, from whence he awaking, looked about him; and he was very well pleased with his sleep at that time, because of the gracious promises concerning Judah which the Lord had in that dream revealed to them. Or else in a vision, upon the sight and hearing of which he was as well pleased as a man that had slept quietly, and had had no ill and unpleasing, but sweet and delightful, dreams while he slept.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. The words of Jeremiah: Uponthis (or, By reason of this) announcement of a happyrestoration, “I awaked” from the prophetic dreamvouchsafed to me (Jer 23:25)with the “sweet” impression thereof remaining on my mind.”Sleep” here means dream, as in Ps90:5.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Upon this I awakened, and beheld,…. When or after he beheld or had seen the vision and prophecy concerning the incarnation of Christ, and the glory and happiness of his church and people in the latter day, he awoke; for it seems the prophecy contained in this and the preceding chapter was delivered to Jeremiah in a dream; who, when he had seen the vision, and upon the last words being spoken to him, awoke out of it:
and my sleep was sweet unto me; as it must needs be, to have so many gracious promises, and glorious prophecies, delivered to him in it. Some understand the words, that when he awoke out of sleep, he saw and considered with pleasure what had been made known to him; and then fell into a sweet sleep again, which was not usual with him. To which the Targum inclines,
“the prophet said, because of this good news of the days of consolation (that is, the days of the Messiah) that should come, I was raised up, and saw; again I slept, and my sleep was profitable to me.”
So Kimchi. Some interpret the words of Christ, and of his sleep in the grave.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Thereupon the prophet awoke from his ecstatic sleep, and said, “My sleep was pleasant” (cf. Pro 3:24). Very many expositors, including Rosenmller, Umbreit, and Neumann among the moderns, understand the words, “therefore (or, because of this) I awoke,” etc., as referring to God, because in what precedes and follows Jahveh speaks, and because God is sometimes, in the Psalms, called on to awake, e.g., Psa 7:7; Psa 35:23; Psa 44:24, etc. But it has been properly objected to this, that the words, “my sleep was sweet” (pleasant), are inappropriate as utterances of God, inasmuch as He does not sleep; nowhere in Scripture is sleep attributed to God, and the summons to awake merely implies the non-interference on the part of God in the affairs of His people. Moreover, we would need to refer the sleeping of God, mentioned in this verse, to His dealing towards Israel during the exile, in such a way that His conduct as a powerful judge would be compared to a sweet sleep – which is inconceivable. As little can the verse be supposed to contain words of the people languishing in exile, as Jerome has taken them. For the people could not possibly compare the time of oppression during the exile to a pleasant sleep. There is thus nothing left for us but to take this verse, as the Targum, Raschi, Kimchi, Venema, Dahler, Hitzig, Hengstenberg, and others have done, as a remark by the prophet regarding his feelings when he received this revelation; and we must accept something like the paraphrase of Tholuck ( die Propheten , S. 68): “Because of such glorious promises I awoke to reflect on them, and my ecstatic sleep delighted me.” This view is not rendered less tenable by the objection that Jeremiah nowhere says God had revealed Himself to him in a dream, and that, in what precedes, there is not to be found any intimation that what he sets forth appeared to him as a vision. For neither is there any intimation, throughout the whole prophecy, that he received it while in a waking state. The command of God, given Jer 30:2 at the first, to write in a book the words which Jahveh spoke to him, implies that the prophecy was not intended, in the first instance, to be publicly read before the people; moreover, it agrees with the assumption that he received the prophecy in a dream. But against the objection that Jeremiah never states, in any other place, in what bodily condition he was when he received his revelations from God, and that we cannot see why he should make such an intimation here – we may reply, with Ngelsbach, that this prophecy is the only one in the whole book which contains unmixed comfort, and that it is thus easy to explain why he could never forget that moment when, awaking after he had received it, he found he had experienced a sweet sleep. Still less weight is there in the objection of Graf, that one cannot comprehend why this remark stands here, because the description is evidently continued in what follows, while the dream must have ended here, when the prophet awoke. For this is against the assumption that the hand of the Lord immediately touched him again, and put him back into the ecstatic state. One might rather urge the consideration that the use of the word , “sleep,” does not certainly prove that the prophet was in the ecstatic state, from the fact that the lxx render , in Gen 2:21 and Gen 15:2, by . But wherever divine revelations were made in dreams, these of course presuppose sleep; so that the ecstatic state might also be properly called “sleep.” Jeremiah adds, “And I looked,” to signify that he had been thoroughly awakened, and, in complete self-consciousness, perceived that his sleep had been pleasant.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Here the Prophet comes forth, and by his own example encourages the faithful to be confident, even to recumb on God’s promise, as though they really enjoyed already what was as yet hid from them, nay, as it has been said, incredible. He then says, that he awoke and saw. This metaphor ought to be applied to a feeling contrary to that by which the Prophet had been, as it were, astonished. For though the Jews were not yet led into exile, yet the ten tribes were in that miserable bondage, — their kingdom had fallen and perished, and final ruin was nigh the kingdom of Judah. While then the Prophet was considering these dreadful vengeances of God, he was, as it were, overwhelmed with sleep. He now says that he awoke. As in darkness men lose the rigor of their minds, and sleep also prevails, so that they cannot distinguish between black and white; so also the Prophet confesses that he was for a time, as it were, lifeless; he then says, that he awoke, that is, when God’s favor shone forth, not by its own effect, but in this prophecy.
We then see that he knew as through a mirror what was yet far distant; for the term of seventy years had not as yet commenced: but faith, as it is well known, is the seeing of things hid, and the substance of things absent; for except the word of God obtains in our hearts this assurance, we betray our unbelief. The Prophet gave a proof of his faith, for he fully acknowledged that all that had been by God predicted, though far distant, would yet be accomplished in due time. We now understand why he says, that he awoke.
And he adds, And my sleep was pleasant to me After having said that he saw the work of God, which yet could not be seen by the human eye, he now adds that his sleep had been pleasant to him, while yet he had been sorrowful and full of fear; for the best alleviator of all sorrow is hope.
But we have said that the sorrow by which the mind of the Prophet had been for a time overwhelmed, is compared to a sleep. (48) He now adds, —
(48) It is difficult to see exactly the purport of this verse: what does “beheld,” or saw mean? May not the verb be considered as in Hophal, “I was made to see,” or, had a vision? The verb is often used in this sense: see Zec 3:1. Then we may give this version, —
Hereupon I awoke and had a vision; And my sleep had been pleasant to me.
Visions were of two kinds, given in sleep, and given to persons awake: the previous vision was given to the Prophet while he was asleep. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(26) Upon this I awaked . . .The words that follow have been very differently interpreted. By some writers (Rosenmller) they have been referred to Jehovah under the figure of the husband who has dreamt of his wifes return. Others (Ewald) have seen in them a quotation from some well-known psalm or hymn, like Psa. 17:15, indicating that in the golden days to which Jeremiah looked forward there should be freedom even from the evil and dark dreams of a time of peril, so that every man should be able to give thanks for the sweet gift of sleep (Psa. 127:2). It is, however, far more natural to take them as the prophets own words. The vision of a restored Israel, such as he paints it in the preceding verses, had come to him in his sleep. (See Jer. 23:28; Joe. 2:28, as to this mode of revelation.) And when he woke up there was no sense of bitter disappointment like that of the dreamer described in Isa. 29:8. The promise that came to him when he woke was as distinct and blessed as the dream had been. The sweet sleep has its parallel in Pro. 3:24.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
26. I awaked The prophet awoke from his sleep of prophetic ecstasy, and its revelations were satisfying and refreshing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 31:26. Upon this I awaked But, considering these things, I awaked, and was delighted with my sleep. Houbigant. The prophet, on awakening, perceived himself comforted by these agreeable promises. This is the conclusion of the preceding discourse.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
I put this verse by itself from the singularity of its contents. And while I propose my views of it, I pray the Reader to look up to the Lord as his teacher, to lead him, and to guide him into all truth. Is not this verse (for I ask the question) a new subject, a new paragraph, and a different speaker from the former? Who was it that is said here to have awaked? If we suppose it to be the blessed Jesus, may we not without violence to the expression conceive, that it refers to that period, when after the third day from our Lord’s death, he arose from the dead! And when he arose, might he not be supposed to say, that the short sleep of that temporary death was sweet to him, because by it he destroyed the everlasting sleep of eternal death to all his people? By death he destroyed him that had the power of death: and now, as the glorious Head of his body, the Church, he felt a blessedness and a sweetness in it, because in his triumphs all his people were concerned. I leave the Reader to his own thoughts on the subject. May a gracious and infallible Teacher instruct both Writer and Reader on the point, to the glory of God in Jesus Christ, Heb 2:14-15 ; 1Co 15:20 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 31:26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
Ver. 26. Upon this I awaked. ] Out of my prophetic dream.
And my sleep was sweet unto me,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 127:2, Zec 4:1, Zec 4:2
Reciprocal: Lev 26:6 – ye shall Jdg 5:12 – Deborah 1Ki 3:15 – awoke Pro 3:24 – and Ecc 5:12 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 31:26. Upon this means that on account of the good fortune to be given the people they will be able to enjoy refreshing hours of rest.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 31:26. Upon this I awaked, &c. These words afford a plain proof that the preceding revelations had been made to the prophet in a dream, or vision. And my sleep was sweet unto me The vision which I had seen was so agreeable to me that it gave me as great satisfaction and comfort as men usually feel when they have been refreshed with an undisturbed and sweet sleep.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
31:26 Upon this I awoke, and beheld; and my sleep {e} was sweet to me.
(e) Having understood this vision of the Messiah to come, in whom the two houses of Israel and Judah would be joined, I rejoiced.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jeremiah awoke from the sleep in which he had received this encouraging revelation from the Lord-feeling revitalized. The revelation was positive, and it encouraged him. Perhaps since sleep is often symbolic of death (cf. Job 14:12; et al.), Jeremiah here may also represent Judah awakening to new life. [Note: Ibid., p. 129.]
". . . this prophecy is the only one in the whole book which contains unmixed comfort, and that it is thus easy to explain why he [Jeremiah] could never forget that moment when, awaking after he had received it, he found he had experienced a sweet sleep." [Note: Keil, 2:33.]