Jeremiah 31:22

_ _ go about — namely, after human helps (Jeremiah 2:18, Jeremiah 2:23, Jeremiah 2:36). Why not return immediately to me? Maurer translates, as in Song of Songs 5:6, “How long wilt thou withdraw thyself?” Let thy past backslidings suffice thee now that a new era approaches. What God finds fault with in them is, that they looked hither and thither, leaning on contingencies, instead of at once trusting the word of God, which promised their restoration. To assure them of this, God promises to create a new thing in their land, A woman shall compass a man. Calvin explains this: Israel, who is feeble as a woman, shall be superior to the warlike Chaldeans; the captives shall reduce their captors to captivity. Hengstenberg makes the “woman” the Jewish Church, and the “man” Jehovah, her husband, whose love she will again seek (Hosea 2:6, Hosea 2:7). Maurer, A woman shall protect (Deuteronomy 32:10, Margin; Psalms 32:10) a man, that is, You need fear no foes in returning, for all things shall be so peaceful that a woman would be able to take man’s part, and act as his protector. But the Christian fathers (Augustine, etc.) almost unanimously interpreted it of the Virgin Mary compassing Christ in her womb. This view is favored: —

_ _ (1) By the connection; it gives a reason why the exiles should desire a return to their country, namely, because Christ was conceived there.

_ _ (2) The word “created” implies a divine power put forth in the creation of a body in the Virgin’s womb by the Holy Ghost for the second Adam, such as was exerted in creating the first Adam (Luke 1:35; Hebrews 10:5).

_ _ (3) The phrase, “a new thing,” something unprecedented; a man whose like had never existed before, at once God and man; a mother out of the ordinary course of nature, at once mother and virgin. An extraordinary mode of generation; one conceived by the Holy Ghost without man.

_ _ (4) The specification “in the land” (not “earth,” as English Version), namely, of Judah, where probably Christ was conceived, in Hebron (compare Luke 1:39, Luke 1:42, Luke 1:44, with Joshua 21:11) or else in Nazareth, “in the territory” of Israel, to whom Jeremiah 31:5, Jeremiah 31:6, Jeremiah 31:15, Jeremiah 31:18, Jeremiah 31:21 refer; His birth was at Beth-lehem (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:5, Matthew 2:6). As the place of His nativity, and of His being reared (Matthew 2:23), and of His preaching (Haggai 2:7; Malachi 3:1), are specified, so it is likely the Holy Spirit designated the place of His being conceived.

_ _ (5) The Hebrew for “woman” implies an individual, as the Virgin Mary, rather than a collection of persons.

_ _ (6) The restoration of Israel is grounded on God’s covenant in Christ, to whom, therefore, allusion is naturally made as the foundation of Israel’s hope (compare Isaiah 7:14). The Virgin Mary’s conception of Messiah in the womb answers to the “Virgin of Israel” (therefore so called, Jeremiah 31:21), that is, Israel and her sons at their final restoration, receiving Jesus as Messiah (Zechariah 12:10).

_ _ (7) The reference to the conception of the child Messiah accords with the mention of the massacre of “children” referred to in Jeremiah 31:15 (compare Matthew 2:17).

_ _ (8) The Hebrew for “man” is properly “mighty man,” a term applied to God (Deuteronomy 10:17); and to Christ (Zechariah 13:7; compare Psalms 45:3; Isaiah 9:6) [Calovius].