Jeremiah 31:6

For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God. THE WATCHMEN ... SHALL CRY. The watchmen, stationed on eminences (types of the preachers of the Gospel) shall summon the 10 tribes to go up to the annual feasts at Jerusalem ("Zion"), as they used to do before the revolt and the setting up of the idol calves at Dan and Beersheba (Ezekiel 37:21). MOUNT EPHRAIM - not one single mountain, but the whole mountainous region of the ten tribes. LET US GO UP ... UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD - from whom we formerly revolted, but who is now our God. A guarantee of that good time to come is given in the partial success of the Gospel in its first preaching in Samaria ...

The Prophet here amplifies the kindness of God, because he would not only restore the tribe of Judah, but also the ten tribes, who had previously been led into exile. He then promises here a full and complete restoration of the Church. The Prophets do not always speak in the same manner of the liberation of the people; sometimes they confine what they say to the tribe of Judah, as though the rest were in a hopeless state, but often they extend their prophecies to the whole body of the people. So in this place Jeremiah includes, together with the tribe of Judah, the ten tribes, and the half tribe of Benjamin, for some of the tribe of Benjamin had remained and had never revolted from the family of David. But they usually call the kingdom of Israel the ten tribes, and denote the kingdom of Judah by the name of that one tribe: thus the tribe of Benjamin, divided into two parts, is not mentio...

1-9 God assures his people that he will again take them into covenant relation to himself. When brought very low, and difficulties appear, it is good to remember that it has been so with the church formerly. But it is hard under present frowns to take comfort from former smiles; yet it is the happiness of those who, through grace, are interested in the love of God, that it is an everlasting love, from everlasting in the counsels, to everlasting in the continuance. Those whom God loves with this love, he will draw to himself, by the influences of his Spirit upon their souls. When praising God for what he has done, we must call upon him for the favours his church needs and expects. When the Lord calls, we must not plead that we cannot come; for he that calls us, will help us, will strengthen us. The goodness of God shall lead them to repentance. And they shall weep for sin with more bitte...

Verse Jeremiah 31:6. _FOR THERE SHALL BE A DAY_] Literally, _for this is the_ _day_, or _the day is come_. The _watchmen_-the prophets. _ARISE YE, AND LET US GO UP TO ZION_] Let both _Israelites_ and _Jews_ join together in the worship of the Lord....

This verse anticipates a time when the schism caused by Jeroboam is over. Ephraimite watchmen equally with the tribe of Judah watch for the new moon that they may go up to Jerusalem to keep the appointed Feasts....

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 31:1 The promise of Jeremiah 30:22 is expressly declared to apply to both sections of the nation. Jehovah thus solemnly declares his purpose of mercy, and dwells with special Madness on the happy future of Ephraim. JEREMIAH 31:2 THE PEOPLE which were LEFT OF THE SWORD, etc.; literally, _the people of those left of the sword. _The expression clearly implies that the Jews at the time spoken of had escaped, or were about to escape, in some great battle or some other kind of slaughter. Hence the finding grace in the wilderness cannot refer to the sequel of the passage through the Red Sea, an

FOR THERE SHALL BE A DAY,.... The whole Gospel dispensation is "a day", made so by the bright rising of the sun of righteousness; here it seems to design some certain fixed period of time in that dispensation, when the light of the Gospel will break out most gloriously, and it will be a clear day; as it will be when the Jews will be converted: [THAT] THE WATCHMEN UPON THE MOUNT EPHRAIM; the same with the mountains of Samaria; for Samaria was the head or metropolis of Ephraim, Isaiah 7:9; and these are the watchmen that kept the vines there, Jeremiah 31:5; for the allusion is not to watchmen of states and cities, but to watchers of vineyards, and to such the ministers of the Gospel are compared, Song

Jeremiah 31:1. _At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people._ During the Israelites' banishment to Babylon, God's covenant with them had been as it were in abeyance, but in this promise of their restoration he brings it to the front again, and he gives a peculiarly gracious turn to it: «I will be the God of all the families of Israel.» What a mercy it is to have a family God, and to have our whole family in Christ! Brethren, you have a family Bible, and you have, I hope, a family altar; may your whole family belong to God! Jeremiah 31:2. _Thus saith the LORD, the people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest._ Pharaoh tried to kill

CHAPTER 31 _ 1. The home-going of the nation (Jeremiah 31:1) _ 2. The joy of salvation (Jeremiah 31:10) 3. The preceding tribulation, sorrow and repentance (Jeremiah 31:15) 4. Assurance (Jeremiah 31:22) 5. The new covenant (Jeremiah 31:27) 6. The everlasting nation (Jeremiah 31:35) Jeremiah 31

This prophecy of the restoration of the northern kingdom may belong, like ch. 3, to Jeremiah's early period. The northern Israelites shall be gathered from exile (the wilderness). Yahweh will appear from Zion (Jeremiah 31:3, _mg._ 1 ;_ cf._ Jeremiah 51:50), declaring His enduring love (Hosea 11:4), and will restore general happiness; in the security of tenure the vineyards (which require time for their development) will be replanted, and their keepers (watchmen, Jeremiah 31:6) will call man to Zion (thus marking the union of the _two_ kingdoms)....