Commentary - Jeremiah 31:1-6

Bird's-eye view

Jeremiah is a book that is heavy with judgment, what some might call gloomy. He is the weeping prophet, after all. But right here, in the heart of the book, we find what amounts to one of the brightest promises in all of Scripture. This section is a hinge. After chapters of detailing Judah's covenant infidelity and the coming exile, the prophet turns a corner to describe the glorious restoration God has planned. This is not just a return from Babylon. This is a promise that finds its ultimate fulfillment in the new covenant, established by Jesus Christ. The theme here is God's sovereign, electing love that refuses to let His people go. He wounds, yes, but He also heals. The mourning of exile is going to be turned into the joy of salvation, a joy that echoes down to us today. This is the gospel according to Jeremiah, where judgment gives way to restoration, and sorrow is turned to dancing.

The passage lays out the logic of our salvation. It begins with the covenant relationship restored (v. 1), moves to the historical precedent of God's grace (v. 2), grounds it all in God's eternal love (v. 3), and then paints a vivid picture of the joyful, fruitful, and worshipful life that results from this restoration (vv. 4-6). This is not a picture of a grim, duty-bound religion, but one of tambourines, dancing, planting, and feasting. This is the abundant life that Christ promised, foretold centuries before He walked the dusty roads of Galilee.

Outline

Context In Jeremiah

Jeremiah 31 is the centerpiece of what is often called the "Book of Consolation" (Jeremiah 30-33). After relentlessly prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile due to the nation's persistent idolatry and covenant-breaking, Jeremiah shifts his focus to the glorious future God has in store for His people. This is not a contradiction, but rather the necessary pattern of God's work: judgment and restoration, death and resurrection. The nation had to be torn down before it could be rebuilt. The immediate context is the promise of a return from physical exile, but the language used here swells far beyond that single historical event. Jeremiah is looking down the corridor of time to the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the new covenant, which he will explicitly describe just a few verses later (Jer. 31:31-34). This passage, therefore, must be read with two horizons in view: the return from Babylon and the redemption accomplished in Christ.

Verse by Verse Commentary

Jeremiah 31:1

“At that time,” declares Yahweh, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”

The phrase "At that time" points us to a future day of God's decisive action. This is eschatological language. While it has a near-term application to the end of the 70-year exile, its ultimate fulfillment is in the age of the Messiah. This is the time when God sets everything right.

And what is the first thing He sets right? The covenant relationship. He declares, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel." Notice the scope. Not just the nation as a political entity, but all the families. This is intimate and comprehensive. The division between the northern and southern kingdoms, between Israel and Judah, is erased. In the restoration, God is gathering a unified people. In Christ, there is no Jew or Gentile, no north or south; the dividing walls are broken down. The Church is the true Israel of God, and He is the God of all the families of the earth who are brought into the covenant through faith in His Son.

The classic covenant formula concludes the verse: "and they shall be My people." This is the heart of the Bible. This is what it is all about. God is not saving isolated individuals so they can have a private spiritual experience. He is creating a people, a community, a family. This is a corporate reality. Our identity is found in being His.

Jeremiah 31:2

Thus says Yahweh, “The people who survived the sword Found grace in the wilderness, Israel, when it went to find its relief.”

God now grounds His future promise in His past faithfulness. He reminds them of their history. Who are these people He is promising to restore? They are "the people who survived the sword." This refers to the remnant who endured the Babylonian conquest. But it also echoes the Exodus, when Israel survived the sword of Pharaoh. God's pattern is to preserve a people for Himself through the midst of judgment.

And where did they find this preservation? They "Found grace in the wilderness." The wilderness was a place of testing and judgment, but it was also the place of God's miraculous provision and presence. It was where they were stripped of everything but God. It was in that desperation that they found grace. Grace is not found in our strength, but in our weakness. It is when we have survived the sword, when we are in the wilderness, that God's unmerited favor becomes most apparent. He is reminding them that their national existence has always been a sheer gift of grace.

The final clause, "Israel, when it went to find its relief," points to God's ultimate purpose. He leads His people into the wilderness not to destroy them, but to give them rest. The rest of the promised land was a foretaste of the true Sabbath rest that we find in Christ. The exile, like the wilderness, was a severe mercy designed to lead them to true relief in God alone.

Jeremiah 31:3

Yahweh appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”

Here we get to the bedrock foundation of it all. Why does God show grace? Why does He restore? It is not because of some inherent goodness in Israel. The whole book of Jeremiah testifies to the contrary. The reason is found entirely within God Himself. "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

This is one of the most profound statements in the Old Testament. God's love is not fickle. It is not conditional. It is everlasting. It did not begin at Sinai and it did not end with the exile. It is an eternal, electing love that flows from His own character. This is the love with which the Father has always loved the Son, and it is the love into which we are adopted. It is a love that cannot be broken by our sin, because it was established before we ever had a chance to sin.

Because this love is everlasting, it is effectual. "Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness." The Hebrew word here is hesed, that rich term for covenant loyalty, mercy, and steadfast love. God's love is not a passive sentiment; it is an active, drawing force. He takes the initiative. He pursues us. He draws us out of our bondage, out of our exile, out of our sin. This is irresistible grace, rooted in everlasting love. We love Him because He first loved us and drew us to Himself.

Jeremiah 31:4

Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again you will take up your tambourines And go forth to the dances of those celebrating.

The consequences of this everlasting love now begin to unfold. The first result is restoration. "Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt." The nation was in ruins, but God is the master builder. The ultimate fulfillment of this is the building of the Church, with Christ as the cornerstone.

He addresses the nation as "O virgin of Israel." This is a term of endearment, but it is also a statement of radical renewal. Israel had been a harlot, chasing after other gods. But in His grace, God restores her purity. He makes her a virgin again. This is the miracle of justification. In Christ, we who were spiritually defiled are presented to God as a pure bride.

And this restoration is not to a life of grim austerity. It is a restoration to joy. "Again you will take up your tambourines And go forth to the dances of those celebrating." True worship is celebratory. It is joyful. The tambourines had been silenced by mourning and exile, but God promises they will sound again. This is not the forced, manufactured happiness of the world, but the spontaneous, overflowing joy that comes from being redeemed and rebuilt by God.

Jeremiah 31:5

Again you will plant vineyards On the hills of Samaria; The planters will plant And will enjoy them.

The joy of restoration spills over into daily life and work. "Again you will plant vineyards On the hills of Samaria." Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom, the heartland of the apostasy that led to their destruction by Assyria. The mention of Samaria here is a powerful promise of reunification and complete restoration. The places of greatest sin will become places of greatest fruitfulness.

And this labor will not be in vain. "The planters will plant And will enjoy them." This is a reversal of the covenant curse found in Deuteronomy 28, where God warned that if they disobeyed, they would plant vineyards but not drink the wine. In the restoration, work is blessed. There is security, peace, and the enjoyment of the fruits of one's labor. This is a picture of a flourishing Christian civilization, where God's blessing rests on the economic and cultural life of His people.

Jeremiah 31:6

For there will be a day when watchmen On the hills of Ephraim call out, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, To Yahweh our God.’ ”

The passage culminates in a vision of unified worship. The watchmen, who once stood on the hills to warn of approaching armies, will now become evangelists. Their cry will no longer be one of alarm, but of invitation.

And where do they call from? "On the hills of Ephraim." Ephraim was the dominant tribe of the northern kingdom, often used as a synonym for the whole rebellious nation. For centuries, Ephraim had worshiped at illegitimate centers like Dan and Bethel. But in the day of restoration, Ephraim itself will call people to the true center of worship: "Zion."

The call is, "Arise, and let us go up to Zion, To Yahweh our God." The old rivalries are gone. The schism is healed. All the families of Israel are now streaming to the one true God at the one true place of worship. For us, in the new covenant, Zion is not a physical hill in Jerusalem. It is the heavenly Jerusalem, the assembly of the firstborn, the Church of the living God. This verse is a glorious prophecy of the Great Commission, when watchmen on the hills of all the nations will call people from every tribe and tongue to come to the true Zion, to worship Yahweh our God through Jesus Christ the Lord.

Application

The first thing we must take from this passage is the absolute sovereignty of God's love. Our hope for salvation, for our families, for our nation, does not rest on our performance, but on His promise: "I have loved you with an everlasting love." This is the anchor in every storm. When we see our own sin, or the sin of our culture, we are not to despair. We are to remember that God's love is from everlasting, and His purpose to redeem a people for Himself cannot be thwarted.

Second, this passage shows us that true restoration leads to true joy. The Christian life is not meant to be a dirge. It is a dance. It is filled with the sound of tambourines, the fruit of vineyards, and the glad procession to worship. If our faith has become a grim duty, we need to ask if we have truly grasped the grace that found us in the wilderness. We have been rebuilt as a "virgin of Israel," and our response should be celebratory worship.

Finally, we are to be the watchmen on the hills. The division between Ephraim and Judah is a picture of all the divisions that plague mankind. But the gospel heals these divisions. From our own hills, in our own towns and neighborhoods, we are to issue the great invitation: "Arise, and let us go up to Zion." We are to call people out of their false worship and their fruitless labor, and invite them into the joyful, secure, and worshipful life of the people of God, to Yahweh our God, through His Son.