What does Jeremias Chapter 31 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Gathering and abundance precede Rachel’s comfort and Ephraim’s penance. Return instructions retain this edition’s watchtower and bitterness. New covenant and cosmic comparisons precede named city boundaries.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 31 promises belonging for Israel's families, grace for sword-survivors in desert, rest and everlasting love. Rebuilt virgin Israel has timbrels and dances; Samaria vineyards are not gathered before time. Ephraim watchmen call ascent to Sion. Joy and a saving plea precede return from north and earth's ends including blind, lame, pregnant and laboring women. Weeping return through water torrents follows a right way without stumbling, with fatherhood and firstborn Ephraim. Nations and distant islands hear gathering shepherd imagery, rescue from stronger hands, corn, wine, oil, cattle, watered soul, no hunger, reversed mourning and priests' fatness.

A voice on high names Rachel's uncomforted weeping; reward and children's border return bring hope. Ephraim recalls chastisement, conversion, penance, thigh-striking and youthful shame; the Lord remembers his tender son with troubled bowels and pity. Watchtower, bitterness and directed heart precede return, a wandering daughter's question and a woman compassing a man. Blessing Juda's holy mountain, husbandmen and flock-drivers, and filled weary and hungry souls precede waking as from sweet sleep.

Human and beast seed replace former uprooting with planting. Sour-grape speech gives way to death for one's own iniquity. New covenant with Israel and Juda differs from the voided Egypt covenant: law in bowels and heart, reciprocal belonging, all knowing the Lord and forgiven sin remembered no more. Conditional comparisons to cosmic ordinances, measurable heavens and searchable foundations address Israel's seed. City's line names Hanameel tower, corner gate, Gareb, Goatha, dead-body and ash valley, death country, Cedron and eastern horse gate, holy and never uprooted. Rama, road markers, mind substitution, immediate universal mercy and a causal link from Ephraim's penance to Rachel's comfort are not added. The heading's church interpretation remains edition material.

The story inside

Opening: Gathering and abundance precede Rachel’s comfort and Ephraim’s penance. Development: Return instructions retain this edition’s watchtower and bitterness. Conclusion: New covenant and cosmic comparisons precede named city boundaries.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Gathering and abundance precede Rachel’s comfort and Ephraim’s penance.
2
Return instructions retain this edition’s watchtower and bitterness.
3
New covenant and cosmic comparisons precede named city boundaries.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 87188–87194
31:3. The Lord hath appeared from afar to me. Yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee. 31:4. And I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy timbrels, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
Lines 87236–87245
31:15. Thus saith the Lord: A voice was heard on high of lamentation, of mourning, and weeping, of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted for them, because they are not. 31:16. Thus saith the Lord: Let thy voice cease from weeping, and thy eyes from tears: for there is a reward for thy work, saith the Lord: and they shall return out of the land of the enemy. 31:17. And there is hope for thy last end, saith the Lord: and the children shall return to their own borders.
Lines 87256–87259
31:20. Surely Ephraim is an honourable son to me, surely he is a tender child: for since I spoke of him, I will still remember him. Therefore are my bowels troubled for him: pitying I will pity him, saith the Lord.
Lines 87297–87313
31:31. Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda: 31:32. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, the covenant which they made void, and I had dominion over them, saith the Lord. 31:33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 31:34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord: for all shall know me from the least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Lines 87315–87327
31:35. Thus saith the Lord, who giveth the sun for the light of the day, the order of the moon and of the stars, for the light of the night: who stirreth up the sea, and the waves thereof roar, the Lord of hosts is his name. 31:36. If these ordinances shall fail before me, saith the Lord: then also the seed of Israel shall fail, so as not to be a nation before me for ever. 31:37. Thus saith the Lord: If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I also will cast away all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the Lord.