Jeremiah 31:21

21 statue tibi speculam pone tibi amaritudines dirige cor tuum in viam directam in qua ambulasti revertere virgo Israhel revertere ad civitates tuas istas

Jeremiah 31:21 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 31:21

Set thee up way marks, make thee high heaps
Of stones, raised up as pillars, or like pyramids; or upright, as palm trees, which signification the word F26 has; to be marks and signs, to know the way again upon a return. The Targum is,

``O congregation of Israel, remember the right works of thy fathers; pour out supplications; in bitterness set thy heart.''
And so the Vulgate Latin version interprets the last clause, "put on bitternesses", without any sense; so Cocceius. The design of the words is to put the Jews upon thoughts of returning to their own land, and to prepare for it; set thine heart towards the highway, [even] the way [which] thou
wentest;
from Judea to Babylon, or into other countries; think of going the same way back again; for, as there was a highway from Judea, there is one to it; let thine heart be upon returning that way. Jarchi reads, "the way which I went"; that is, the way in which the Lord went with the people; the right way in which he guided and directed them; and in which following him, they could not err; see ( Isaiah 35:8 ) . The Targum is,
``consider the works which thou hast done, whether they are fight, when thou goest in a way afar off;''
turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities;
an invitation and encouragement to the Jews to turn again to their own land; as from the Babylonish captivity, so from all lands in the latter day; which is yet to be fulfilled, and to which the prophecy more properly belongs.
FOOTNOTES:

F26 (Myrwrmt) "columnulas", Schmidt; "pyramidas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "palmulas", Tigurine version, "a (rmt) palma".

Jeremiah 31:21 In-Context

19 postquam enim convertisti me egi paenitentiam et postquam ostendisti mihi percussi femur meum confusus sum et erubui quoniam sustinui obprobrium adulescentiae meae
20 si filius honorabilis mihi Ephraim si puer delicatus quia ex quo locutus sum de eo adhuc recordabor eius idcirco conturbata sunt viscera mea super eum miserans miserebor eius ait Dominus
21 statue tibi speculam pone tibi amaritudines dirige cor tuum in viam directam in qua ambulasti revertere virgo Israhel revertere ad civitates tuas istas
22 usquequo deliciis dissolveris filia vaga quia creavit Dominus novum super terram femina circumdabit virum
23 haec dicit Dominus exercituum Deus Israhel adhuc dicent verbum istud in terra Iuda et in urbibus eius cum convertero captivitatem eorum benedicat tibi Dominus pulchritudo iustitiae mons sanctus
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.