Jeremiah 31:15
Thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah
Which signifies a high place; hence the Targum paraphrases it,
``in the high place of the world;''
and so the Vulgate Latin version,
``in a high place;''
but it is here the proper name of a place, of a city in the tribe
of Benjamin, (
Joshua 18:25 ) ; and
this voice heard was not a voice of joy and gladness as before, but
of
lamentation [and] bitter weeping;
signifying great sorrow and distress upon some very extraordinary
occasion; and is as follows:
Rachel weeping for her
children;
not really and in person, but by a figurative way of speaking.
Rachel is introduced as representing the Jewish women in those
parts mourning for their slaughtered infants, even those that were
slaughtered some time after the birth of Christ; for to this
barbarous fact are the words applied by the Evangelist Matthew, as
a fulfilment of them, (
Matthew
2:16-18 ) ; and with great propriety and pertinence is Rachel
brought in as the chief, yea, sole mourner, representing all the
sorrowful mothers; since Ramah was in the tribe of Benjamin, a
child of hers, as far as which, it seems, the bloody massacre
referred to reached, from Bethlehem, where it began; and since
Rachel's grave was between these two places, (
Genesis 35:18 Genesis 35:19 ) ; she
is represented as rising out of her grave to act this part; or it
signifies, that could she have been sensible of this inhuman
affair, and could have come out of her grave, she would have done
what she is here represented to do; and the rather is she
mentioned, since she was so affectionately fond and desirous of
children, (
Genesis 30:1 ) ;
refused to be comforted for her children;
by any of her friends, the loss was so great, the affliction so
heavy:
because they [were] not;
or, "because he was not"
F17; the Messiah was not, but was slain
among the rest of the children, as the Jewish mothers, whom Rachel
represented, imagined; and this heightened their distress, and
filled them with more grief and trouble than the loss of their own
children: but as Matthew has the plural number, the Targum, and all
the Oriental versions, it is best to understand it of the children
who "were not"; that is, they were dead; they were not in the land
of the living, as this phrase is used in (
Genesis 37:30 ) (
Genesis 42:13
Genesis 42:36
) ; which shows that this is not to be understood of the Babylonish
captivity, and of the mourning of the Jewish women on that account;
since the cause of this was death, and not captivity; besides,
mourning for so general a calamity as captivity would not have been
confined to mothers, and to some only, and to one particular place;
though so the Jewish writers interpret it; and the Targum, which
is,
``a voice was heard in the high place of the world, the house of
Israel weeping and mourning after Jeremiah the prophet, whom
Nabuzaradan the chief of those that slew, sent from Ramah;
lamentation and weeping with bitterness, Jerusalem weeping for
her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because
they were gone into captivity.''