Jeremiah 31:21-22
God calls His wandering people to return while promising a new and astonishing work of restoration.
21 “Set up road signs. Make guideposts. Set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went. Turn again, virgin of Israel. Turn again to these your cities.
22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”
God calls His wandering people to return while promising a new and astonishing work of restoration.
To call the people of Israel to prepare for their return from exile and to announce that the LORD will accomplish a surprising and unprecedented act in the land.
Jeremiah 31:21–22 follows Ephraim’s repentance and God’s compassionate response (31:18–20). The narrative now moves toward the practical call for the people to return. The imagery of setting up road markers emphasizes the deliberate nature of repentance and restoration. The passage transitions from repentance to renewed covenant direction and anticipates the new work God will accomplish among his people.
Jeremiah calls the exiled Israelites to prepare for a future return from captivity. The imagery reflects both literal return from exile and spiritual repentance toward covenant obedience.
Everlasting Love, Restored Joy, and the New Covenant
The LORD who scattered Israel will gather, comfort, forgive, renew, and bind his people to himself through a New Covenant written on the heart.