Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 31:27
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
27. I will sow with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast ] I will make the people and their cattle to prosper and multiply so fast, that the offspring of both shall seem almost to spring from the ground after the manner of seed sown. Cp. Eze 36:9-11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
27 30. See introd. summary to the section.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The prophet shows that the happiness of Israel and Judah, united in one prosperous nation, will rest upon the consciousness that their chastisement has been the result of sins which they have themselves committed, and that Gods covenant depends not upon external sanctions, but upon a renewed heart.
Jer 31:27
So rapid shall be the increase that it shall seem as if children and young cattle sprang up out of the ground.
Jer 31:29, Jer 31:30
A sour grape – Better, sour grapes. The idea that Jeremiah and Ezekiel (marginal reference) modified the terms of the second Commandment arises from a mistaken exegesis of their words. Compare Jer 32:18; Deu 24:16. The obdurate Jews made it a reproach to the divine justice that the nation was to be sorely visited for Manassehs sin. But this was only because generation after generation had, instead of repenting, repeated the sins of that evil time, and even in a worse form. justice must at length have its course. The acknowledgment that each man died for his own iniquity was a sign of their return to a more just and right state of feeling.
Jer 31:31
A time is foretold which shall be to the nation as marked an epoch as was the Exodus. God at Sinai made a covenant with His people, of which the sanctions were material, or (where spiritual) materially understood. Necessarily therefore the Mosaic Church was temporary, but the sanctions of Jeremiahs Church are spiritual – written in the heart – and therefore it must take the place of the former covenant Heb 8:13, and must last forever. The prophecy was fulfilled when those Jews who accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, expanded the Jewish into the Christian Church.
Jer 31:32
Although … – i. e., although as their husband (or, lord (Baal, compare Hos 2:16)) I had lawful authority over them. The translation in Heb 8:9 agrees with the Septuagint here, but the balance of authority is in favor of the King James Version.
Jer 31:33
The old law could be broken Jer 31:32; to remedy this God gives, not a new law, but a new power to the old law. It used to be a mere code of morals, external to man, and obeyed as a duty. In Christianity, it becomes an inner force, shaping mans character from within.
Jer 31:34
I will forgive their iniquity – The foundation of the new covenant is the free forgiveness of sins (compare Mat 1:21). It is the sense of this full unmerited love which so affects the heart as to make obedience henceforward an inner necessity.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 27. I will sow – with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.] I will multiply both men and cattle.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, I will exceedingly multiply them, both with men and with cattle: they are now laid waste, their men are destroyed, or gone into other lands, their profitable beasts are destroyed, and killed up; but it shall not be so always, I will again plant them, and there shall be as great plenty of either as if they were sown. The multiplying both of men and of beasts in nations is Gods blessing.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
27. He shows how a land sodepopulated shall again be peopled. God will cause both menand beasts in it to increase to a multitude (Eze 36:9-11;Hos 2:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,…. Or, “are coming” k; and will be here shortly:
that I will sow the house of Israel, and the house of Judah, with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast; that is, will multiply both man and beast, so that there shall be a great increase; whereas, through war, famine, pestilence, and captivity, their number was greatly reduced. The allusion is to the sowing of a field with seed, which in due time springs up, and produces a large increase. Some understand this of the spiritual blessing of regeneration; but that is not of corruptible seed, such as is here mentioned, but of incorruptible seed, by the word of God: though this may be a type of the fruitfulness of the church in Gospel times; since afterwards an account is given of the new covenant, which should take place in those times.
k “venientes”, Montanus, Schmidt; “venturi sunt”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The renovation of Israel and Judah. – Jer 31:27. “Behold, days are coming, saith Jahveh, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with seed of men and seed of beasts. Jer 31:28. And it shall be that, just as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down, to pull down and to destroy and to hurt, so shall I watch over them to build and to plant, saith Jahveh. Jer 31:29. In those days they shall no more say, ‘Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children become blunt;’ Jer 31:30. But each man shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his own teeth shall become blunted.”
After announcement has been made, in what preceded, that both portions of the covenant people will be led back into their own land and re-established there, both are now combined, since they are again, at the restoration, to be united under one king, the sprout of David (cf. Jer 3:15, Jer 3:18), and to both there is promised great blessing, both temporal and spiritual. The house of Israel and the house of Judah, as separate nations, are represented as a fruitful field, which God will sow with men and cattle. , “cattle,” the tame domestic animals, contribute to the prosperity of a nation. That this seed will mightily increase, is evident from the fact that God sows it, and (as is further stated in Jer 31:28) will watch over it as it grows. Whereas, hitherto, He has watched for the purpose of destroying and annihilating the people, because of their apostasy, He will in time to come watch for the purpose of planting and building them up. The prophet has hitherto been engaged in fulfilling, against the faithless people, the first part of the commission given him by the Lord when he was called to his office (Jer 1:10); hereafter, he will be engaged in building up. As certainly as the first has taken place – and of this the people have had practical experience – so certainly shall the other now take place.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| God’s Covenant Renewed. | B. C. 594. |
27 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD. 29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. 30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. 31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
The prophet, having found his sleep sweet, made so by the revelations of divine grace, sets himself to sleep again, in hopes of further discoveries, and is not disappointed; for it is here further promised,
I. That the people of God shall become both numerous and prosperous. Israel and Judah shall be replenished both with men and cattle, as if they were sown with the seed of both, v. 27. They shall increase and multiply like a field sown with corn; and this is the product of God’s blessing (v. 23), for whom God blessed, to them he said, Be fruitful. This should be a type of the wonderful increase of the gospel-church. God will build them, and plant them, v. 28. He will watch over them to do them good; no opportunity shall be lost that may further their prosperity. Every thing for a long time had turned so much against them, and all occurrences did so transpire to ruin them, that it seemed as if God had watched over them to pluck up and to throw down; but now every thing that falls out shall happily fall in to strengthen and advance their interests. God will be as ready to comfort those that repent of their sins, and are humbled for them, as he is to punish those that continue in love with their sins, and are hardened in them.
II. That they shall be reckoned with no further for the sins of their fathers (Jer 31:29; Jer 31:30): They shall say no more (they shall have no more occasion to say) that God visits the iniquity of the parents upon the children, which God had done in the captivity, for the sins of their ancestors came into the account against them, particularly those of Manasseh: this they had complained of as a hardship. Other scriptures justify God in this method of proceeding, and our Saviour tells the wicked Jews in his days that they should smart for their fathers’ sins, because they persisted in them, Mat 23:35; Mat 23:36. But it is here promised that this severe dispensation with them should now be brought to an end, that God would proceed no further in his controversy with them for their fathers’ sins, but remember for them his covenant with their fathers and do them good according to that covenant: They shall no more complain, as they have done, that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge (which speaks something of an absurdity, and is an invidious reflection upon God’s proceedings), but every one shall die for his own iniquity still; though God will cease to punish them in their national capacity, yet he will still reckon with particular persons that provoke him. Note, Public salvations will give no impunity, no security, to private sinners: still every man that eats the sour grapes shall have his teeth set on edge. Note, Those that eat forbidden fruit, how tempting soever it looks, will find it a sour grape, and it will set their teeth on edge; sooner or later they will feel from it and reflect upon it with bitterness. There is as direct a tendency in sin to make a man uneasy as there is in sour grapes to set the teeth on edge.
III. That God will renew his covenant with them, so that all these blessings they shall have, not by providence only, but by promise, and thereby they shall be both sweetened and secured. But this covenant refers to gospel times, the latter days that shall come; for of gospel grace the apostle understands it (Heb 8:8; Heb 8:9, c.), where this whole passage is quoted as a summary of the covenant of grace made with believers in Jesus Christ. Observe, 1. Who the persons are with whom this covenant is made–with the house of Israel and Judah, with the gospel church, the Israel of God on which peace shall be (Gal. vi. 16), with the spiritual seed of believing Abraham and praying Jacob. Judah and Israel had been two separate kingdoms, but were united after their return, in the joint favours God bestowed upon them so Jews and Gentiles were in the gospel church and covenant. 2. What is the nature of this covenant in general: it is a new covenant and not according to the covenant made with them when they came out of Egypt; not as if that made with them at Mount Sinai were a covenant of nature and innocency, such as was made with Adam in the day he was created; no, that was, for substance, a covenant of grace, but it was a dark dispensation of that covenant in comparison with this in gospel times. Sinners were saved by that covenant upon their repentance, and faith in a Messiah to come, whose blood, confirming that covenant, was typified by that of the legal sacrifices, Exo 24:7; Exo 24:8. Yet this may upon many accounts be called new, in comparison with that; the ordinances and promises are more spiritual and heavenly, and the discoveries much more clear. That covenant God made with them when he took them by the hand, as they had been blind, or lame, or weak, to lead them out of the land of Egypt, which covenant they broke. Observe, It was God that made this covenant, but it was the people that broke it; for our salvation is of God, but our sin and ruin are of ourselves. It was an aggravation of their breach of it that God was a husband to them, that he had espoused them to himself; it was a marriage-covenant that was between him and them, which they broke by idolatry, that spiritual adultery. It is a great aggravation of our treacherous departures from God that he has been a husband to us, a loving, tender, careful husband, faithful to us, and yet we false to him. 3. What are the particular articles of his covenant. They all contain spiritual blessings; not, “I will give them the land of Canaan and a numerous issue,” but, “I will give them pardon, and peace, and grace, good heads and good hearts.” He promises, (1.) That he will incline them to their duty; I will put my law in their inward part and write it in their heart; not, I will give them a new law (as Mr. Gataker well observes), for Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it; but the law shall be written in their hearts by the finger of the Spirit as formerly it was written in the tables of stone. God writes his law in the hearts of all believers, makes it ready and familiar to them, at hand when they have occasion to use it, as that which is written in the heart, Prov. iii. 3. He makes them in care to observe it, for that which we are solicitous about is said to lie near our hearts. He works in them a disposition to obedience, a conformity of thought and affection to the rules of the divine law, as that of the copy to the original. This is here promised, and ought to be prayed for, that our duty may be done conscientiously and with delight. (2.) That he will take them into relation to himself: I will be their God, a God all-sufficient to them, and they shall be my people, a loyal obedient people to me. God’s being to us a God is the summary of all happiness; heaven itself is no more, Heb 11:16; Rev 21:3. Our being to him a people may be taken either as the condition on our part (those and those only shall have God to be to them a God that are truly willing to engage themselves to be to him a people) or as a further branch of the promise that God will by his grace make us his people, a willing people, in the day of his power; and, whoever are his people, it is his grace that makes them so. (3.) That there shall be an abundance of the knowledge of God among all sorts of people, and this will have an influence upon all good: for those that rightly know God’s name will seek him, and serve him, and put their trust in him (v. 34): All shall know me; all shall be welcome to the knowledge of God and shall have the means of that knowledge; his ways shall be known upon earth, whereas, for many ages, in Judah only was God known. Many more shall know God than did in the Old Testament times, which among the Gentiles were times of ignorance, the true God being to them an unknown God. The things of God shall in gospel times be made more plain and intelligible, and level to the capacities of the meanest, than they were while Moses had a veil upon his face. There shall be such a general knowledge of God that there shall not be so much need as had formerly been of teaching. Some take it as a hyperbolical expression (and the dulness of the Jews needed such expressions to awaken them), designed only to show that the knowledge of God in gospel times should vastly exceed that knowledge of him which they had under the law. Or perhaps it intimates that in gospel times there shall be such great plenty of public preaching, statedly and constantly, by men authorized and appointed to preach the word in season and out of season, much beyond what was under the law, that there shall be less need than there was then of fraternal teaching, by a neighbour and a brother. The priests preached but now and then, and in the temple, and to a few in comparison; but now all shall or may know God by frequenting the assemblies of Christians, wherein, through all parts of the church, the good knowledge of God shall be taught. Some give this sense of it (Mr. Gataker mentions it), That many shall have such clearness of understanding in the things of God that they may seem rather to have been taught by some immediate irradiation than by any means of instruction. In short, the things of God shall by the gospel of Christ be brought to a clearer light than ever (2 Tim. i. 10), and the people of God shall by the grace of Christ be brought to a clearer sight of those things than ever, Eph 1:17; Eph 1:18. (4.) That, in order to all these blessings, sin shall be pardoned. This is made the reason of all the rest: For I will forgive their iniquity, will not impute that to them, nor deal with them according to the desert of that, will forgive and forget: I will remember their sin no more. It is sin that keeps good things from us, that stops the current of God’s favours; let sin betaken away by pardoning mercy, and the obstruction is removed, and divine grace runs down like a river, like a mighty stream.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
We see that the Prophet brings forward nothing new, but only animates the Jews with confidence as to their deliverance and their return. He yet employs another similitude, even that God would again sow Judah in the land, that he might produce an increase of men, and also of cattle, and of all kinds of animals. We have said that the land was to be for a time dreary and forsaken. As God then thus condemned as it were the land, that all might regard it as given up to desolation and solitude, the Prophet says that God would cause it to be inhabited again by both men and beasts.
But the similitude sets forth still more fully the favor of God. There is to be understood a contrast between a cultivated and a deserted land. It is as though one should say, “They shall sow and reap on mountains, where corn has never been, where a plough has never been seen.” Were any one then to promise a sowing and a harvest in a desert land, it would be a new thing, and could hardly be believed. Even so does the Prophet now say, I will sow, etc., as though he said, “The land indeed shall for a time be accursed, so that it will not sustain either men or beasts; but it shall be sown again.” I will sow it, he says, with the seed both of, men and of animals: and thus he meets a question, which might have been asked, “How can it be that the land will be again inhabited, since it is now deserted by its inhabitants?” even because God will sow it. In this way then, the Prophet answers the question. But at the same time he exalts the favor of God, as though he had said, that there would be no other remedy for the barrenness of the land, until God should cultivate it himself, and scatter seed on it: which is the same as to say, that the restoration of the land would not be the work of human industry or power, but of the wonderful power of God. (49) It follows, —
(49) I am disposed to render the latter part of this verse according to the Syriac, —
That I will sow, as to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, The seed of man and the seed of beast.
I take את as a preposition, which it often is. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(27) I will sow the house of Israel . . .The same image of a fertile and happy population appears in Hos. 2:23; Zec. 10:9; Eze. 36:9-11. It will be noted that it embraces both Israel and Judah, which had once been rivals, each watching the increase of the other with jealousy and suspicion.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. Sow with the seed of man, etc. Will give a generous harvest of life, so that it will almost seem as if children and cattle sprang from the very ground.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
In Coming Days YHWH Will Re-establish Israel and Judah In The Land And Will Build Them Up ( Jer 31:27-30 ).
YHWH’s promise is that He will, once the time is ripe, sow the land with men and animals so that they will grow and multiply and fill the land, after which He will build and plant so as to establish His people in the land. The miracle of the restoration of Israel/Judah in the land is often only too easily overlooked by those who think only in terms of ‘the end times’. There was still a long time to go before the end times would be even a whisper on the horizon. Meanwhile YHWH would re-establish His people in an empty land to such an extent that by the time of Jesus both Judaea and Galilee would be well populated and relatively prosperous.
Jer 31:27
“Behold, the days come, the word of YHWH, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.”
The land of promise, (‘the house of Israel and the house of Judah’), is pictured as a fertile field waiting to be resown. And YHWH’s promise is that He will Himself be the Sower, and will sow it with human and animal life so that it will once more be populated by men and by animals, as a land should be unless it is a desert. The description of His activity as sowing indicates that the process will be a gradual one. The seed will be sown and the grain will grow gradually, being resown again and again.
Jer 31:28
“And it will come about that, just as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, the word of YHWH.”
And just as He had previously watched over them to pluck them down and break them down, to overthrow them and destroy them because of their sinfulness, He will now act in the opposite way to build them up and to plant them, and this in accordance with the sure word of YHWH. The assumption is being made (made explicitly elsewhere – Jer 29:12; Jer 31:9; Jer 31:18-19; Jer 31:23) that they are now seeking Him. This description was in accordance with His promise from the commencement of Jeremiah’s ministry (Jer 1:10) and other previous promises (Jer 18:9; Jer 24:6). Israel and Judah would once more be planted in the land as those who now sought YHWH with all their hearts. And as at the beginning, YHWH would be ‘watching’ over His word to perform it (Jer 1:12).
This re-establishment of His people in the land was very necessary if His other promises were to be fulfilled. From this people and this land would develop the whole of God’s plans for the future as first Jesus Christ came and fulfilled the work of salvation, and then as He established a Jewish remnant and sent out Jewish missionaries to take His message to the world. But beyond it we may see the settlement of God’s people in the eternal kingdom. For that is the end to which all else is aiming.
Jer 31:29
“In those days they will no more say,
The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
In the future the situation would be such that everyone would be responsible for his own sins. The nation would no longer be judged as a nation any more. No longer would the well know proverb be cited that, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” Each individual would be responsible for himself. They would no longer be able to throw the blame for what was happening to them onto their fathers. The implications of this, if fathomed, were quite huge. It was indicating the ‘secularisation’ of the state which was no longer seen as responsible to God as one whole.
Jer 31:30
“But every one will die for his own iniquity, every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.”
For in future judgment was to be an individual thing. It was the one who sinned who would die (compare Eze 18:4; Eze 18:20). It was the one who ate sour grapes whose teeth would suffer for it. We might ask how this fits in with the warning that the sins of the fathers would be visited on their children to the third and the fourth generation? The answer is not difficult. They would be so because those generations would sin as well in a similar way as a result of the influence of their forebears. But the way was always left open for repentance, at which point the law would cease to apply. God is always depicted as ready to respond to men’s repentance. Even the Jerusalem of Zedekiah’s day could have been saved by true repentance, as many examples from the past indicate (compare 1Ki 1:27-29; Jon 3:10).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Threefold Predictions Concerning ‘The Days That Are Coming’ ( Jer 31:27-40 ).
We now come to a threefold prediction concerning the coming days, backed up by absolute assurances of their fulfilment.
The days are coming when the people of Israel and Judah will be firmly established in the land, with full responsibility for their own individual behaviour (Jer 31:27-30).
The days are coming when YHWH will make with them a new and better covenant, a covenant written in their hearts so that all will know Him from the least to the greatest (Jer 31:31-34).
The days are coming when Jerusalem and its surrounds will be established in total purity, with all that is unclean done away so that it will abide for ever as the habitation of God among His people (Jer 31:38-40).
This is a remarkable potted history of what the future would hold. Initially we have the settlement and establishment in the land which took place during the inter-testamental period. Secondly we have the giving of a new covenant in the coming of Jesus Christ to die for our sins and offer us new life in the Spirit, which would cause the law to be written in our hearts (see 2Co 3:6-18; Heb 8:6-13). Thirdly we have the establishment of a new and everlastingly perfect Jerusalem (Gal 4:24-30; Heb 12:22; Rev 21:2 to Rev 22:5) something that could never happen on this earth. It will require a new Heaven and a new earth.
The concept of the new Heaven and the new earth is an essential one for Biblical exegesis. It is the only way in which the ancient promises, with their emphasis in ‘forever-ness’ could be fulfilled. God’s people will there eternally enjoy ‘the land given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’ and will enjoy the new Jerusalem, but it will only be in that other world, the heavenly (see Heb 11:10-14).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The New Life and The New Covenant
v. 27. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah, v. 28. And it shall come to pass that like as I have watched over them, v. 29. In those days they shall say no more, v. 30. But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. v. 31. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, v. 32. not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which My covenant they brake, although 1 was an Husband unto them, saith the Lord, v. 33. but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, v. 34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, v. 35. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, v. 36. If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, v. 37. Thus saith the Lord, v. 38. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord, v. 39. And the measuring-line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, v. 40. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
IV. The Entire Renovation
1. The New Life
Jer 31:27-30
27Behold, the days are coming, saith Jehovah,
When I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
With the seed of man and with the seed of beast.
28And it shall be that as I have been wakeful over them,
To pluck up and to root out,
To pull down, to destroy and to afflict,
So I will be wakeful over them,
To build and to plant, saith Jehovah.
29In those days it shall no more be said,
The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the teeth of the children are blunted.
30But every one shall die for his own iniquity:
Every man who eats sour grapes,
His teeth shall be blunted.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Whether Jeremiah fell asleep again at once or whether the following revelation was separated by a longer interval from the previous one is a question which must remain undecided. Both cases are possible. At any rate there is a close logical connection. This and the quotation from Jer 1:10 indicate that this passage by no means takes its origin from a sensibly later period. The prophet who, in Jeremiah 30, had treated of Judah and Israel, in Jer 31:1-22 only of Israel, and in Jer 31:23-26 only of Judah, now again directs his prophetic gaze on both (comp. Jer 3:18; Jer 5:11). He promises the old theocratic blessing of great fruitfulness both of the men and the cattle (Jer 31:27), the absence of all that, is destructive or afflictive, and on the other hand growth and progress on all sides (Jer 31:28). Entering more deeply into the ground of the previous destructive judgment, he sets before them so lofty a position and such energy of general morality that common guilt and solidaric implication of the following generations shall no more be spoken of. But the transgressions would be only exceptional cases, which would hence be no longer injurious to the whole, but only to the single individual (Jer 31:29-30).
Jer 31:27-28. Behold the days . . . saith Jehovah. On the promise of fruitfulness, comp rems. on Jer 29:6.I will sow. Comp. Gen 47:23.I have been wakeful. Comp. rems. on Jer 1:12; Jer 1:10; Jer 18:7; Jer 18:9.
Jer 31:29-30. In those days . . . be blunted. The proverb of the sour grapes and blunted teeth, here mentioned for the first time, may have a double meaning. It may mean the fathers have begun to eat sour grapes, but it is the sons only who have had their teeth blunted, i. e. the punishment does not always come immediately on the first, who are guilty, but on those of the second, third and fourth generations. It may also mean that the punishment does not always come on the guilty father, but often only on the innocent son or grandchild. In the latter sense Ezekiel, chap. 18., combats the proverb as a blasphemy of Gods justice. In the former sense however the proverb involves no blasphemy, but expresses only what the law itself declares in the words, I am a jealous God, visiting the sins of the fathers on the children, to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (Exo 20:5; Exo 34:7 : Num 14:18; Deu 5:9; Jer 32:18; Lam 5:7). This canon of the divine justice rests on the hypothesis that there is not only an individual but a corporate sin, a sin of families, races generations, nations, states. Of course every such sin, common to many, has its history. It unfolds like every other germ, till it has attained its widest extent and fullest maturity. When the point of maturity is reached the judgment comes. Those who are then living have their teeth blunted, possibly indeed as the less guilty (think of Louis 16., of France)always, however, as the children of their fathers in the same sense as the expression is used in Mat 23:31-32, i. e. as the apple falling not far from the trunk, as the organic continuation and perfection of the moral tendency adopted by the fathers. According to those who understand the proverb only in a bad sense, Jeremiah only declares in this passage that Jehovah will not then as now be accused of unrighteousness in an ungodly proverb, but it will be perceived that each one has to suffer for his own guilt (Graf). Appeal is made in favor of this explanation to Deu 24:16. To which I make the following objections: 1. The non-employment of the proverb (in the false sense) proves certainly a correct knowledge of the justice of God, but only elementary, merely negative knowledge. It is not a symptom of greatly advanced knowledge to perceive that God does not punish any innocent person; while according to the whole connection of this passage a period of the highest, prosperity of theocratic life is to be here described, an essential basis of which is a corresponding stage of religious and moral perfection. Comp. Jer 31:18-19.2. The passage Deu 24:16 is to be regarded not as the norm of divine, but only of human punitive justice. By this declaration that savage custom of the heathen merely was to be guarded against, according to which ob noxam unius omnis propinquitas was to perish. (Comp. Jdg 15:6; Haevernick on Ezek., S. 286). Comp. also 2Ki 14:6; 2Ch 25:4.I accordingly do not supply they shall say after but, Jer 31:30, but I regard Jer 31:30 as the declaration of the prophet. The moral level will be so high that only individual transgressions will occur as isolated exceptions from the rule. In general, and as a whole, Israel will be a holy congregation in which the power of the prevailing spirit will not allow the evil proceeding from individuals to extend itself. This will be restricted to the individual author and lead to the ruin of himself alone. Comp. Isa 60:18; Isa 60:20. I find here the same view of the moral condition, which the kingdom of God is to attain as the highest stage of its earthly perfection, which lies at the basis of the Sermon on the Mount, and which found its certainly only precursory and passing realization in the apostolic church at Jerusalem. For in Mat 5:21 sqq., the Lord tells us what will be the prevailing spirit in His Church, and according to what standard any contravention by individuals will be punished, to which Acts v. furnishes a practical commentary. In this view of the passage its connection with what follows is also clear, this passage being a preparation for what the prophet says of the Lords new covenant with the Church, and that being an elucidation of the present passage.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Joh. Conr. Schaller, pastor at Cautendorf, says in his Gospel Sermons, (Hof. 1742, S. 628), These chapters are like a sky in which sparkle many brilliant stars of strong and consolatory declarations, a paradise and pleasure-garden in which a believing soul is refreshed with delightsome flowers of instruction, and solaced with sweetly flavored apples of gracious promise.
2. On Jer 30:1-3. The people of Israel were not then capable of bearing such a prophecy, brimming over with happiness and glory. They would have misused it, hearing to the end what was promised them, and then only the more certainly postponing what was the only thing then necessarysincere repentance. Hence they are not yet to hear this gloriously consolatory address. It is to be written, that it may in due time be perceived that the Lord, even at the time when He was obliged to threaten most severely, had thoughts of peace concerning the people, and that thus the period of prosperity has not come by chance, nor in consequence of a change of mind, but in consequence of a plan conceived from the beginning and executed accordingly.
3. On Jer 30:7. The great and terrible day of the Lord (Joe 3:4) has not the dimensions of a human day. It has long sent out its heralds in advance. Yea, it has itself already dawned. For since by the total destruction of the external theocracy judgment is begun at the house of God (1Pe 4:17), we stand in the midst of the day of God in the midst of the judgment of the world. Then the time of trouble for Jacob has begun (Jer 30:7), from which he is to be delivered, when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in (Romans 11.)
4. On Jer 30:9. Christ is David in his highest potency, and He is also still more. For if we represent all the typical points in Davids life as a circle, and draw a line from each of these points, the great circle thus formed would comprise only a part of the given in Christ. Nevertheless Christ is the true David, who was not chosen like Saul for his bodily stature, but only for his inward relation to God (comp. Psa 2:7), whose kingdom also does not cease after a short period of glory, but endures forever; who will not like Saul succumb to his enemies, but will conquer them all, and will give to his kingdom the widest extent promised; all this however not without, like David, having gone through the bitterest trials.
5. On Jer 30:11. Modus patern castigationis accommodatus et quasi appensus ad stateram judicii Dei adeoque non immensus sed dimensus. Christus ecclesiam crucis su hredem constituit. Gregor. M. Frster.
6. On Jer 30:14. Cum virlutem patienti nostr flagella transeunt, valde metuendum est, ne peccatis nostris exigentibus non jam quasi filii a patre, sed quasi hostes a Domino feriamur. Gregor. M. Moral. XIV. 20, on Job 19:11. Ghisler.
7. On Jer 30:17. Providentia Dei mortalibus salutifera, antequam percutiat, pharmaca medendi grati componit, et gladium ir su acuit. Evagr. Hist. Ecc 4:6.Quando incidis in tentationem, crede, quod nisi cognovisset te posse illam evadere, non permisisset te in illam incidere. Theophyl. in cap. 18 Joh. Frster.Feriam prius et sanabo melius. Theophyl. in Hosea 11. Ghisler.
8. On Jer 30:21. This church of God will own a, Prince from its midstJesus, of our flesh and blood through the virgin Mary, and He approaches God, as no other can, for He is Gods image, Gods Son, and at the same time the perfect, holy in all His sufferings, only obedient son of man. This king is mediator and reconciler with God; He is also high-priest and fulfilled all righteousness, as was necessary for our propitiation. What glory to have such a king, who brings us nigh unto God, and this is our glory! Diedrich.
9. On Jer 31:1. There is no greater promise than this: I will be thy God. For if He is our God we are His creatures, His redeemed, His sanctified, according to all the three articles of the Christian faith. Cramer.
10. On Jer 31:2. The rough heap had to be sifted by the sword, but those who survived, though afflicted in the desert of this life, found favor with God, and these, the true Israel, God leads into His rest. Diedrich.
11. On Jer 31:3. The love of God towards us comes from love and has no other cause above or beside itself, but, is in God and remains in God, so that Christ who is in God is its centre. For herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us (1Jn 4:10). Cramer. Totum grati imputatur, non nostris meritis. Augustine in Psalms 31. Frster. Before I had done anything good Thou hadst already moved towards me. Let these words be written on your hearts with the pen of the living God, that they may light you like flames of fire on the day of the marriage. It is your certificate of birth, your testimonial. Let me never lose sight of how much it has cost Thee to redeem me. Zinzendorf. God says: My chastisement even was pure love, though then you did not understand it; you shall learn it afterwards. Diedrich. [I incline to the construction given in the English version, both because the suffix to the verb is more naturally, I have drawn thee, than I have drawn out toward thee, and because there seems to be a tacit allusion to Hos 11:4, With loving kindness have I drawn thee.-A great moral truth lies in this passage so construed, viz., that the main power which humbles mans pride, softens his hard heart and makes him recoil in shame and sorrow from sinning, comes through his apprehension of Gods love as manifested in Christ and His cross. It is love that, draws the fearful or stubborn soul to the feet of divine mercy. Cowles.S. R. A.]
12. On Jer 31:6. It is well: the watchmen on Mount Ephraim had to go to Zion. They received however another visit from the Jewish priests, which they could not have expected at the great reformation, introduced by John, and which had its seat among other places on Mount Ephraim. The Samaritans were not far distant, and Mount Ephraim had even this honor that when the Lord came to His temple He took His Seat as a teacher there. Zinzendorf. [Gods grace loves to triumph over the most inveterate prejudices No words could represent a greater and more benign change in national feeling than these: Samaria saying through her spiritual watchmen, Let us go up to Zion to worship, for our God is there. Cowles. Ascendamus in Sion, hoc est in Ecclesiam says S. Jerome. According to this view, the watchmen here mentioned are the Preachers of the Gospel. Wordsworth.S. R. A.]
13. On Jer 31:9. I will lead them. It is an old sighing couplet, but full of wisdom and solid truth:
Lord Jesus, while I live on earth, O guide me,
Let me not, self-led, wander from beside Thee.
Zinzendorf.
14. On Jer 31:10. He who has scattered Israel will also collect it. Why? lie is the Shepherd. It is no wolf-scattering. He interposes His hand, then they go asunder, and directly come together again more orderly. Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer 31:12-14. Gaudebunt electi, quando videbunt supra se, intra se, juxta se, infra se. Augustine.Prmia clestia erunt tam magna, ut non possint mensurari, tam multa, ut non possint numerari, tam copiosa, ut non possint terminari, tam pretiosa, ut non possint stimari. Bernhard. Frster.
16. On Jer 31:15. Because at all times there is a similar state of things in the church of God, the lament of Rachel is a common one. For as this lament is over the carrying away captive and oppressions of Babylon, so is it also a lament over the tyranny of Herod in slaughtering the innocent children (Mat 2:1-7.)Cramer. Premuntur justi in ecclesia ut clament, clamantes exaudiuntur, exauditi glorificent Deum. Augustin. Frster.With respect to this, that Rachels lament may be regarded as a type of maternal lamentation over lost children, Frster quotes this sentence of Cyprian: non amisimus, sed prmisimus (2Sa 12:23). [On the application of this verse to the murder of the innocents consult W. L. Alexander, Connexion of the Old and New. Testament, p. 54, and W. H. Mill in Wordsworths Note in loc.S. R. A.]
17. On Jer 31:18. The conversion of man must always be a product of two factors. A conversion which man alone should bring about, without God, would be an empty pretence of conversion; a conversion, which God should produce, without man, would be a compulsory, manufactured affair, without any moral value. The merit and the praise is, however, always on Gods side. He gives the will and the execution. Did He not discipline us, we should never learn discipline. Did He not lead back our thoughts to our Fathers house which we have left (Luke 15) we should never think of returning.
18. On Jer 31:19. The children of God are ashamed their life long, they cannot raise their heads for humiliation. For their sins always seem great to them, and the grace of God always remains something incomprehensible to them.Zinzendorf. The farther the Christian advances in his consciousness of sonship and in sanctification, the more brilliantly rises the light of grace, the more distinctly does he perceive in this light, how black is the night of his sins from which God has delivered him. [It is the ripest and fullest ears of grain which hang their heads the lowest.S. R. A.]
19. On Jer 31:19. The use of the dear cross is to make us blush (Dan 9:8) and not regard ourselves as innocent (Jer 30:11). And as it pleases a father when a child soon blushes, so also is this tincture a flower of virtue well-pleasing to God. Cramer. Deus oleum miserationis su non nisi in vas contritum et contribulatum infundit. Bernhard.Frster.
20. On Jer 31:19. The reproach of my youth. The sins of youth are not easily to be forgotten (Psa 25:7; Job 31:18). Therefore we ought to be careful so to act in our youth as not to have to chew the cud of bitter reflection in our old age. It is a comfort that past sins of youth will not injure the truly penitent. Non nocent peccata prterita, cum non placent prsentia. Augustine. To transgress no more is the best sign of repentance. Cramer.
21. On Jer 31:20. Comforting and weighty words, which each one should lay to heart. God loves and caresses us as a mother her good child. He remembers His promise. His heart yearns and breaks, and it is His pleasure to do us good. Cramer. lpsius proprium est, misereri semper et parcere. Augustine.Major est Dei misericordia quam omnium hominum miseria. Idem.
22. On Jer 31:23. The Lord bless thee, thou dwelling-place of righteousness, thou holy mountain. Certainly no greater honor was ever done to the Jewish mountains than that the womans seed prayed and wept on them, was transfigured, killed and ascended above all heaven. Zinzendorf. It cannot be denied that a church sanctifies a whole place . Members of Jesus are real guardian angels, who do not exist in the imagination, but are founded on Gods promise (Mat 25:40). Idem.
23. On Jer 31:29-30. The so-called family curse has no influence on the servants of God; one may sleep calmly nevertheless. This does not mean that we should continue in the track of our predecessors, ex. gr., when our ancestors have gained much wealth by sinful trade, that we should continue this trade with this wealth with the hope of the divine blessing. If this or that property, house, right, condition be afflicted with a curse, the children of God may soon by prudent separation deliver themselves from these unsafe circumstances. For nothing attaches to their persons, when they have been baptized with the blood of Jesus and are blessed by Him. Zinzendorf.
24. On Jer 31:29-30. In testamento novo per sarguinem mediatoris deleto paterno chirographo incipit homo paternis debitis non esse obnoxius renascendo, quibus nascendo fuerat obligatus, ipso Mediatore di cente: Ne vobis patrem dicis in terra (Mat 23:9). Secundum hoc utique, quod alios natales, quibus non patri succederemus, sed cum patre semper viveremus, invenimus. Augustine, contra Julian, VI. 12, in Ghisler.
25. On Jer 31:31. In veteribus libris aut nusquam aut difficile prter hunc propheticum locum legitur facta commemoratio testamenti novi, ut omnino ipso nomine appellaretur. Nam multis locis hoc significalur et prnuntiatur futurum, sed non ita ut etiam nomen lega ur expressum. Augustine, de Spir. et Lit. ad Marcellin, Cap. 19 (where to Cap. 29 there is a detailed discussion of this passage) in Ghisler.In the whole of the Old Testament there is no passage, in which the view is so clearly and distinctly expressed as here that the law is only . And though some commentators have supposed that the passage contains only a censure of the Israelites and not of the Old Covenant, they only show thus that they have not understood the simple meaning of the words. Ebrard. Comm. zum Hebrerbr. S. 275.
26. On Jer 31:31, sqq. Propter veteris hominis noxam, qu per literam jubentem et minantem minime sanabatur, dicitur illud testamentum vetus; hoc antem novum propter novitatem spiritus, qu hominem novum sanat a vitio vetustatis. Augustine, c. Lit. Cap. 19.
27. On Jer 31:33. Quid sunt ergo leges Dei ab ipso Deo script in cordibus, nisi ipsa prsentia Spiritus sancti, qui est digitus Dei, quo prsente diffunditur charitas in cordibus nostrio, qu plenitudo legis est et prcepti finis? Augustine, l. c. Cap. 20.
28. On Jer 31:34. Quomodo tempus est novi testamenti, de quo propheta dixit: et non docebit unusquisque civem suum, etc. nisi quia rjusdem testamenti novi ternam mercedem, id est ipsius Dei beatissimam contemplationem promittendo conjunxit? Augustine, l. c. Cap. 24.
29. On Jer 31:33-34. This is the blessed difference between law and Gospel, between form and substance. Therefore are the great and small alike, and the youths like the elders, the pupils more learned than their teachers, and the young wiser than the ancients (1Jn 2:20 sqq.). Here is the cause:For I will forgive their iniquities. This is the occasion of the above; no one can effect this without it. Forgiveness of sins makes the scales fall from peoples eyes, and gives them a cheerful temper, clear conceptions, a clear head.Zinzendorf.
30. On Jer 31:35-37. Etsi particulares ecclesi intotum deficere possunt, ecclesia tamen catholica nunquam defecit aut deficiet. Obstant enim Dei amplissim promissiones, inter quas non ultimum locum sibi vindicut qu hic habetur Jer 31:37. Frster.
31. On Jer 31:38-40. Jerusalem will one day be much greater than it has ever been. This is not to be understood literally but spiritually. Jerusalem will be wherever there are believing souls, its circle will be without end and comprise all that has been hitherto impure and lost. This it is of which the prophet is teaching, and which he presents in figures, which were intelligible to the people in his time. The hill Gareb, probably the residence of the lepers, the emblem of the sinner unmasked and smitten by God, and the cursed valley of Ben-Hinnom will be taken up into the holy city. Gods grace will one day effect all this, and Israel will thus be manifested as much more glorious than ever before. Diedrich.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 30:5-9. Sermon on one of the last Sundays after Trinity or the second in Advent. The day of the judgment of the world a great day. For it is, (1) a day of anxiety and terror for all the world; (2) a day of deliverance from all distress for the church of the Lord; (3) a day of realization of all the happiness set in prospect before it.
2. On Jer 30:10-12. Consolation of the church in great trial. 1. It has well deserved the trial (Jer 30:12); 2. it is therefore chastised, but with moderation; 3. it will not perish but again enjoy peace.
3. On Jer 30:17. [The Restorer of mankind. 1. Faith in the Christian Sacrament and its attendant revelation of divine character alone answer the demand of the heart and reason of man for a higher state of moral perfection. 2. Christianity offers to maintain a communication between this world and that eternal world of holiness and truth. 3. It commends itself to our wants in the confirmation and direction of that principle of hope, which even in our daily and worldly life, we are perpetually forced to substitute for happiness, and 4. By the adorable object, which it presents to our affections. Archer ButlerS. R. A.]
4. On Jer 31:1-2. Gesetz and Zeugniss (Law and Testimony) 1864, Heft. 1. Funeral sermon of Ahlfeld.
5. On Jer 31:2-4. lb. 1865. Heft 1. Funeral sermon of Besser, S. 32 ff.
6. On Jer 31:3. C. Fr. Hartmann (Wedding, School, Catechism and Birth-day sermons, ed. C. Chr. Eberh. Ehemann. Tb. 1865). Wedding sermon. 1. A grateful revival in the love of God already received. 2. Earnest endeavor after a daily enjoyment of this love. 3. Daily nourishment of hope.
7. On Jer 31:3. Florey. Comfort and warning at graves. I. Bndchen, S. 253. On the attractions of Gods love towards His own children. They are, 1. innumerable and yet so frequently overlooked; 2. powerful and yet so frequently resisted; 3. rich in blessing and yet so frequently; unemployed. [For practical remarks on this text see also Tholuck, Stunden der Andacht, No. 11.S. R. A.]
8. On Jer 31:9. Confessional sermon by Dekan V. Biarowsky in Erlangen (in Palmers Evang. Casual-Reden, 2 te Folge, 1 Band. Stuttgart, 1850.) Every partaking of the Lords supper is a return to the Lord in the promised land, and every one who is a guest at the supper rises and comes. 1. How are we to come? (weeping and praying). 2. What shall we find? (Salvation and blessing, power and life, grace and help).
9. On Jer 31:18-20. Comparison of conversion with the course of the earth and the sun. 1. The man who has fallen away is like the planet in its distance from the sun; he flees from God as far as he Song of Solomon 2. Love however does not release him: a. he is chastened (winter, cold, long nights, short days); b. he accepts the chastening and returns to proximity to the sun (summer, warmth, light, life). Comp. Brandt, Altes und Neues in i extemporirbaren Entwrfen. Nremberg, 1829, II. 5. [The stubborn sinner submitting himself to God. I. A description of the feelings and conduct of an obstinate, impenitent sinner, while smarting under the rod of affliction: He is rebellioustill subdued. II. The new views and feelings produced by affliction through divine grace: (a) convinced of guilt and sinfulness; (b) praying; (c) reflecting on the effects of divine grace in his conversion. III. A correcting but compassionate God, watching the result, etc., (a) as a tender father mindful of his penitent child; (b) listening to his complaints, confessions and petitions; (c) declaring His determination to pardon. Payson.S. R. A.]
10. On Jer 31:31-34. Sermon on 1 Sunday in Advent by Pastor Diechert in Grningen, S. Stern aus Jakob. I. Stuttg. 1867.
11. On Jer 31:33-34. Do we belong to the people of God? 1. Have we holiness? 2. Have we knowledge? 3. Have we the peace promised to this people? (Caspari in Predigtbuch von Dittmar, Erlangen, 1845).
12. On Jer 31:33-34. By the new covenant in the bath of holy baptism all becomes new. 1. What was dead becomes alive 2. What was obscure becomes clear. 3. What was cold becomes warm. 4. What was bound becomes free (Florey, 1862).
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
Perhaps, in allusion to the flourishing state of Christ’s church, under the latter day dispensation, this prophesy had respect. But what I particularly desire the Reader to remark with me is, the different features which are here drawn between the Old Testament Church and the New, on this subject. The covenant under the law entailed all the effects of the breaches of it upon the children. But in Christ Jesus, the new nature from him and in him, as the covenant himself, entails all his blessings on all his seed. Compare Exo 20:5 with Isa 59:21 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 31:27 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
Ver. 27. I will sow the house of Israel. ] I will repeople the country, and raise up many believers to Christ.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 31:27-30
27Behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. 28As I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD.
29In those days they will not say again,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
Jer 31:27 The verse is using abundance imagery from Lev 26:1-13 and Deu 28:1-14; Deu 30:1-10. The fruitfulness of humans, animals, and crops will be restored (cf. Eze 36:9; Eze 36:11; Hos 2:23).
Notice that Jer 31:27; Jer 31:31; Jer 31:38 all begin with the same introductory formula, Behold, days are coming, which denotes the new Messianic age, the age of the Spirit, the age of the New (see note at Jer 31:31).
Jer 31:28 This is a series of INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTS that describe YHWH’s activities of judgment and restoration. This is the prophetic mandate that was given to Jeremiah in Jer 1:10.
Jer 31:29 The fathers have eaten sour grapes This was a proverb (cf. Eze 18:2; Lam 5:7) that tried to blame the parent’s actions for God’s current judgments. Ezekiel 18 was written to help explain Deu 5:9. Yes, families are affected by sin, but God’s forgiveness relates to the individual’s faith and obedience (cf. Jer 31:30 b; Deu 7:9; Deu 24:16).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the house of Israel. See note on Jer 2:4.
the house of Judah. See note on Jer 3:18. Here we have the union of the two houses. Israel is always named first, for this was the name of the whole nation, which Judah was not.
man. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 31:27-33. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and replant, saith the Lord. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the childrens teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape. his teeth shall be set on edge. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
This is the central truth of all Scripture, it is the basis of all Scripture. When Paul desires to set forth the covenant of grace, he appeals to this passage. Twice, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he bases an argument upon it, and after quoting it, adds, Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. Brethren and sisters in Christ, under the first covenant we are ruined; there is no salvation for us but under this new covenant, wherefore let us read to our joy and comfort what the promises and provisions of that new covenant are.
Jer 31:34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Pardoned sin, as well as the change of nature, is implied in the writing of the law upon the heart. Oh, what a privilege it is to be among these covenanted people! How shall we know whether we belong to them? The seal of the covenant is faith in Christ; I mean the personal seal upon the heart and conscience. Thou believest in Jesus Christ as thy Saviour, thou art trusting alone to his atoning sacrifice, then God is in covenant with thee, for Jesus is the Mediator of the new covenant, and he who hath Christ hath the Surety of the covenant, and he shall have in due time every blessing which that covenant guarantees.
Jer 31:35-37. Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
Now Israel still standeth as a people separate from all others, and there is still before the literal seed of Israel a great and glorious future; but as for the spiritual Israel, who worship God in the Spirit, and have no confidence in the flesh, God will sooner blot out the sun and moon than cast away his people, or any one of them. They shall all be his people, and he shall be their God; he will preserve them, and he will keep his covenant with them for ever and for ever, blessed be his holy name, the name of Jehovah, the God of the covenant which cannot be broken!
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
the days: Jer 31:31
that I: Jer 30:19, Eze 36:9, Hos 2:23, Zec 10:9
Reciprocal: Gen 8:17 – breed 1Ki 8:34 – forgive the sin 2Ch 30:9 – so that they shall Jer 3:16 – when Jer 23:5 – the days Jer 30:3 – the days Jer 31:38 – the days Jer 33:14 – General Eze 36:10 – I will Eze 36:11 – I will multiply Eze 36:38 – the waste Eze 37:26 – multiply Zec 2:4 – Jerusalem Zec 8:5 – playing Heb 8:8 – the days
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A GOOD TIME COMING
The days come.
Jer 31:27
I. The hopefulness of Gods message to Israel.The kingdom was doomed, but yet there were good times coming. The characteristic of true religion is that it has always more future than past. An ill day for a people, a church, or any one person when they look back. Henceforth, said St. Paul (2Ti 4:8); our Golden Age is ahead of us
For tho from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.
Jeremiah looked beyond the Captivity; Jesus looked beyond the Cross. Notice, that two great blessings would mark the happy future. The people would be numerous and prosperous. This is suggested under the figure of a sowing; a land sown thick with people and with beasts used for agricultural purposes. No blessing has ever been promised by God to a people afraid of having a large population. Lands suffer more from under-populating than from the reverse. So do people and families. The richest blessings are promised, and have come, to large households.
II. Personal responsibility.Proverbs are good or bad as they are applied. There is no end of meanness and worldliness and sin of other sorts which trades on proverbs and finds in them apologies for evil, and incentives to wrong. Now this proverb carries a certain amount of truth in it. There is a law of heredity, and we do all suffer from the sins, as we profit by the virtues, of our ancestors. Yet the moral aspect of this universal law must be limited somewhere. We are not responsible for inheriting infirmities of temper, or predisposition to bad habits, any more than we are responsible for inheriting a tendency to weakness in the lungs, or an inclination to stammer. But if a man knows his parents were consumptive, he is responsible for his treatment of his chest; and if his father stammer, the son should make voice culture a special study. Here, as in many other places, we are treated as free and responsible agents; and the fact of this personal responsibility is insisted on: Every one shall die for his own iniquity.
Illustrations
(1) The prophet catches a glimpse of blessing in the future. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord. The Lord sees hope for us when we can see none. This suggests the value of the Divine promises. They are always glimpses into the future. They are given to cheer us in our present darkness. There is no hour so full of gloom in the life of any child of God, but if he will only open his Bible he will see gleams of light bursting through the overshadowing clouds. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. What a blessed thing is hope! Behold, the days come. Yes; it will not be always dark and sad. We can say this in every time of misfortune, adversity, or sorrow. Better days are coming. We ought to learn this truth well. We ought never to grieve inconsolably, however bitter the sorrow; we ought never to despair, however hopeless the circumstances appear. God calls down to us in His words of promise, telling of light that already gilds the far-away hill-tops.
(2) Fathers may well beware of eating sour grapes, and so setting the childrens teeth on edge. I wish, says Bunyan, writing of the time when, as a young man, he was reproved for profanity, that I might be a little child again, that my father might learn me to speak without this wicked way of swearing; for, thought I, I am so accustomed to it that it is in vain to think of a reformation, for that could never be.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Jer 31:27. Sow . . , with man . . . with beast means the land will again increase its population and they will be permitted to have their needed beasts of service. Israel and Judah are mentioned because after the cap-tivity the 12 tribes were ail to return to Palestine and live together as one nation.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 31:27-28. I will sow the house of Israel Under the captivity the land lay desolate, without man and beast, Jer 33:12; but here it is promised that it should be again inhabited and replenished with both. And like as I have watched over them to pluck up, &c. I will show the same care and diligence in restoring them as I have formerly done in destroying them, according to the promise made to them upon their repentance and reformation. See Jer 18:7-10.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 31:27-30. Yahweh will replenish the scanty populations of both kingdoms, and will establish them (for the terms, cf. Jer 1:10). In the future, individual responsibility for sin will replace the old doctrine of corporate personality, by which children suffered for the sins of their fathers (e.g. Achans, Jos 7:24), and Israel seemed to be suffering for the sins of past generations (Lam 5:7; cf. Deu 24:16, and the notes on Eze 18:2 ff.).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
31:27 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah {f} with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
(f) I will multiply and enrich them with people and cattle.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Future fruitfulness 31:27-30
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Days would come when the Lord would fill the Promised Land with people and animals once again. The land had become desolate because of the exiles.