Jeremiah 31:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 31:9
They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
walk
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
rivers
נַ֣חֲלֵיNa.cha.lei
H5158
a stream · noun, common masculine plural construct
waters
מַ֔יִםMa.yim
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
straight
יָשָׁ֔רya.Shar
H3477
straight (literally or figuratively) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
way
בְּדֶ֣רֶךְbe.De.rekh
H1870
a road (as trodden) · preposition + noun, common both genders singular absolute
stumble
יִכָּשְׁל֖וּyi.ka.she.Lu
H3782
to totter or waver (through weakness of the legs · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
father
לְאָ֔בle.'Av
H1
father · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Israel
לְיִשְׂרָאֵל֙le.Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · preposition + proper noun, a place name
Ephraim
וְאֶפְרַ֖יִםve.'ef.Ra.yim
H669
Ephrajim · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
firstborn
בְּכֹ֥רִיbe.Kho.ri
H1060
firstborn · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 4:22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
Jeremiah 3:4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?
Jeremiah 31:20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are tr…
Jeremiah 50:4 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weepi…
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Jeremiah 3:19 But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, T…
Deuteronomy 32:6 Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 31:1-9
God here assures his people,
I. That he will again take them into a covenant relation to himself, from which they seemed to be cut off. At the same time, when God's anger breaks out against the wicked (Jer 30:24), his own people shall be owned by him as the children of his love: I will be the God (that is, I will show myself to be the God) of all the families of Israel (Jer 31:1), - not of the two tribes only, but of all the tribes, - not of the house of Aaron only, and the families of Levi, but of all their families; not only their state in general, but their particular families, and the interests of them, shall have the benefit of a special relation to God. Note, The families of good peopl…
weeping--for their past sins which caused their exile (Psa 126:5-6). Although they come with weeping, they shall return with joy (Jer 50:4-5).
supplications--(Compare Jer 31:18-19; Jer 3:21-25; Zac 12:10). Margin translates "favors," as in Jos 11:20; Ezr 9:8; thus God's favors or compassions are put in opposition to the people's weeping; their tears shall be turned into joy. But English Version suits the parellelism best.
I will cause . . . to walk by . . . waters . . . straight way-- (Isa 35:6-8; Isa 43:19; Isa 49:10-11). God will give them waters to satisfy their thirst as in the wilderness journey from Egypt. So spiritually (Mat 5:6; Joh 7:37).
Ephraim--the ten tribes no longer seve…
They shall come with weeping,.... For joy, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; of which there are instances, Genesis 29:11; so the Jews will come to Christ, and to the Gospel church, as well as into their own land, with joy that they have found the Messiah, and are brought under his government, and into the enjoyment of the privileges of the Gospel, and the possession of their own land; or with tears of repentance for all their sins, original and actual, especially for their sin of unbelief, and rejection of the Messiah; they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn, when a spirit of grace and supplication is poured out upon them, Zechariah 12:10; with which agrees what follows:…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 9) In their weeping they will come (or go); I will lead them in mercy, and bring them by the torrents of water in a straight path, and they will not stumble (or wander) in it. For I have become the father of Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. If we read according to the Hebrew, they will come in weeping: for this indicates Job (); we will say that sometimes, the weeping of excessive joy is a sign, according to that: I weep with joy. But according to the Seventy who said: 'He will go out in weeping, and I will lead them in mercy or consolation,' we understand that it is also said in the Psalms: 'They went forth weeping and cast their seeds, but they will come with joy, carrying their bundles' (Ps. 125:6-7). For they wept when they were led away captive, but they received great consolation when they were brought back by the mercy of the Lord. And the Lord brought them through the apostles and apostolic men, full of waters and of a most abundant river, on the straight path, namely the path of faith, not in the deceit of the Jews. And they will not stumble in it, he says, because the blind have ceased to be blind, to whom it was once said: If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now, because you say: we see, your sin remains. We can understand the straight path, and Christ, in which whoever walks will not stumble. I have become, he says, the father of Israel, who has been brought back, and Ephraim is my firstborn. For where sin once abounded, grace has superabounded. But Scripture testifies that Ephraim is a type of the people gathered from the nations. For he was the younger son of Joseph, and he took the birthright from Manasseh, who was by nature the firstborn (Gen. XLVIII); but in the mystery of the cross, with crossed hands, he stood at the left side of Jacob and received the blessing from his right hand. And he who had stood on the right, blessed with the left, was reduced to the second rank. And just as Jacob took the birthright from Esau, so Ephraim took the firstborn position from Manasseh. And the entire people of the ten tribes were called Ephraim, because Jeroboam the son of Nebat, from this tribe, was the first to obtain the kingdom in Samaria (Ibid., 27).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Father — A name applied (1) to any ancestor (Deut. 1:11; 1 Kings 15:11; Matt. 3:9; 23:30, etc.); and (2) as a title of respect to a chief, ruler, or elder, etc. (Judg. 17:10; 18:19; 1 Sam. 10:12; 2 Kings…
Adoption · SPIRITUAL — SPIRITUAL
Birthright · An honorable title — An honorable title
Ephraim, Tribe Of · The leading tribe of the kingdom of Israel — The leading tribe of the kingdom of Israel
First Born, The · Objects of special love — Objects of special love
Firstborn · .Honorable distinction of — .Honorable distinction of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Jeremiah 31:9
9. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.
9. Cum fletu venient, et in precationibus (vel, miserationibus) addiscam cos; deducam ad fluvios aquarum, in viam rectam, ubi non impingent (non impingent in ea, ad verbum, sed vh debet resolvi in relativum) quoniam ero Israeli in Patrem, et Ephraim primogenitus meus ipse.
The Prophet still pursues the same subject; but he adds, that though they went with weeping into exile, yet that would be no impediment, that God should not restore them again…
The restoration of Israel. - Jer 31:7. "For thus saith Jahveh: Shout for joy over Jacob, and cry out over the head of the nations! Make known, praise, and say, I Jahveh, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel! Jer 31:8. Behold, I will bring them out of the land of the north, and will gather them from the sides of the earth. Among them are the blind and lame, the woman with child and she that hath born, together; a great company shall they return hither. Jer 31:9. With weeping shall they come, and with supplications will I lead them: I will bring them to streams of water, by a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born. Jer…
Those returning to their homeland would cry for joy, knowing the Lord as their shepherd (Ps 23:1-3) and feeling secure (see Isa 35:10) with God as their father.
Rashi on Jeremiah 31:9
With weeping will they come Through prayer and repentance.
