Jeremiah 31:22

How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.

How long wilt thou go about - namely, after human helps (Jeremiah 2:18; Jeremiah 2:23; Jeremiah 2:36). Why not return immediately to me? Maurer and Michaelis translate, as in Song of Solomon 5:6, 'How long wilt thou withdraw thyself?' Let thy past backslidings suffice thee, now that a new era approaches. Lee translates, 'How long wilt thou act undecidedly?' The English version, "How long wilt thou go about?" accords with the Hebrew [chamaq] (Gesenius, Winer); but may be explained as Lee and Henderson do. What God finds fault with in them is, that they looked here and there, 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 make the "woman" the Jewish Church, and the "man" Yahweh, her husband, whose love she will again seek (Hosea 2:6). Maurer, A woman shall compass about so as to protect (Deuteronomy 32:10, margin; Psalms 32:10) a Man 1:-1 :e., You need fear no foes in returning, because 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 almost unanimously (Augustine, etc.) interpreted it of the Virgin Mary compassing Christ in her womb. The objection is alleged that caabab (H5437) is not elsewhere used to mean gestation in the womb. But it does mean to surround; and also to be the cause, occasion, or starting-point of a thing (cf. 1 Kings 12:15, "The cause was from the Lord"). This was "the new thing in the earth," a woman, without a man, should bear in her womb a man; not that she created the child, but that she was the divinely-appointed vehicle and starting-point of the child's birth. This view is favoured,

(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 Spirit for the second Adam, such as was exerted in creating the first Adam (Luke 1:35; Hebrews 10:5, "A body hast thou prepared me").

(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 Spirit without man.

(4) The specification 'in the land' (not "earth," as the English version), namely, of Judah, where probably Christ was conceived, in Hebron (cf. Luke 1:39; Luke 1:41; Luke 1:44, with Joshua 21:11); or else in Nazareth, 'in the territory' of Israel, to whom Jeremiah 31:5; Jeremiah 31:15; Jeremiah 31:18; Jeremiah 31:21 refer; His birth was at Bethlehem (Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:5). As the place of His nativity, and that of His being reared (Matthew 2:23), and that of His preaching (the temple, Haggai 2:7; Malachi 2:1), are specified, so it is likely the Holy Spirit designated the place of His being conceived.

(5) The Hebrew for "woman" [ nªqeebaah (H5347)] 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 (cf. 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) - i:e., 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 Jeremiah 31:15 (cf. Matthew 2:17); His birth would repair the evil caused by their death. The Hebrew [ gaaber (H1397)] for "man" is properly 'mighty man,' a term applied to God, Deuteronomy 10:17; and to Christ, Zechariah 13:7 (cf. Psalms 45:3; Isaiah 9:6). (Calovius.)