Jeremiah 31:21
 Jeremiah 31:21 
New International Version (©2011)
"Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take. Return, Virgin Israel, return to your towns.

New Living Translation (©2007)
Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Mark well the path by which you came. Come back again, my virgin Israel; return to your towns here.

English Standard Version (©2001)
“Set up road markers for yourself; make yourself guideposts; consider well the highway, the road by which you went. Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Set up for yourself roadmarks, Place for yourself guideposts; Direct your mind to the highway, The way by which you went. Return, O virgin of Israel, Return to these your cities.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Set up road markers for yourself; establish signposts! Keep the highway in mind, the way you have traveled. Return, Virgin Israel! Return to these cities of yours.

International Standard Version (©2012)
Set up markers for yourselves. Erect signposts for yourselves. Pay attention to the highway, to the road you traveled. Return, virgin Israel, return to these cities of yours.

NET Bible (©2006)
I will say, 'My dear children of Israel, keep in mind the road you took when you were carried off. Mark off in your minds the landmarks. Make a mental note of telltale signs marking the way back. Return, my dear children of Israel. Return to these cities of yours.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Set up landmarks! Put up road signs! Remember the highway, the road on which you traveled. Come back, my dear people Israel, come back to your cities.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Set up signposts, make yourself landmarks: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

American King James Version
Set you up markers, make you high heaps: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

American Standard Version
Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy heart toward the highway, even the way by which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Set thee up a watchtower, make to thee bitterness: direct thy heart into the right way, wherein thou hast walked: return, O virgin of Israel, return to these thy cities.

Darby Bible Translation
Set up waymarks, make for thyself signposts; set thy heart toward the highway, the way by which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

English Revised Version
Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way by which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

Webster's Bible Translation
Set thee up way-marks, make thee high heaps: set thy heart towards the highway, even the way which thou wentest; turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

World English Bible
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.

Young's Literal Translation
Set up for thee signs, make for thee heaps, Set thy heart to the highway, the way thou wentest, Turn back, O virgin of Israel, Turn back unto these thy cities.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

31:21-26 The way from the bondage of sin to the liberty of God's children, is a high-way. It is plain, it is safe; yet none are likely to walk in it, unless they set their hearts towards it. They are encouraged by the promise of a new, unheard-of, extraordinary thing; a creation, a work of Almighty power; the human nature of Christ, formed and prepared by the power of the Holy Ghost: and this is here mentioned as an encouragement to the Jews to return to their own land. And a comfortable prospect is given them of a happy settlement there. Godliness and honesty God has joined: let no man think to put them asunder, or to make the one atone for the want of the other. In the love and favour of God the weary soul shall find rest, and the sorrowful shall find joy. And what can we see with more satisfaction than the good of Jerusalem, and peace upon Israel?


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - Set thee up waymarks. The "virgin of Israel" is addressed. She is directed to mark out the road for the returning exiles. The command is obviously the. torical in form; the general sense is that the Israelites are to call to mind the road so familiar to their forefathers, though only known to themselves by tradition. The word rendered "waymarks" occurs again in 2 Kings 33:17 and Ezekiel 39:15. It apparently means a stone pillar, which might be used either as a waymark or a sepulchral monument. The high heaps seem to mean much the same thing; "signposts" would be a better rendering. Set thine heart toward the highway; rather, turn thy thoughts, etc., for the heart is here evidently the symbol of the intellectual rather than the moral life (comp. 1 Kings 10:2, and many other passages). A passage in the Psalms (Psalm 84:6) will occur to every one, in which a psalmist, longing at a distance for the services of the temple, pronounces blessed the man "in whose heart are the highways [to Zion];" here, it is true, "heart" has the double meaning of "mind" and "affections," but "highway" has almost exactly the same sense as in the passage before us. To these thy cities. The unseen speaker is supposed to be in Palestine.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Set thee up way marks, make thee high heaps,.... Of stones, raised up as pillars, or like pyramids; or upright, as palm trees, which signification the word (z) has; to be marks and signs, to know the way again upon a return. The Targum is,

"O congregation of Israel, remember the right works of thy fathers; pour out supplications; in bitterness set thy heart.''

And so the Vulgate Latin version interprets the last clause, "put on bitternesses", without any sense; so Cocceius. The design of the words is to put the Jews upon thoughts of returning to their own land, and to prepare for it;

set thine heart towards the highway, even the way which thou wentest; from Judea to Babylon, or into other countries; think of going the same way back again; for, as there was a highway from Judea, there is one to it; let thine heart be upon returning that way. Jarchi reads, "the way which I went"; that is, the way in which the Lord went with the people; the right way in which he guided and directed them; and in which following him, they could not err; see Isaiah 35:8. The Targum is,

"consider the works which thou hast done, whether they are fight, when thou goest in a way afar off;''

turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities; an invitation and encouragement to the Jews to turn again to their own land; as from the Babylonish captivity, so from all lands in the latter day; which is yet to be fulfilled, and to which the prophecy more properly belongs.

(z) "columnulas", Schmidt; "pyramidas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "palmulas", Tigurine version, "a palma".


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. waymarks—pillars to mark the road for the returning exiles. Caravans set up pillars, or pointed heaps of stones, to mark the way through the desert against their return. So Israel is told by God to mark the way by which they went in leaving their country for exile; for by the same way they shall return.

highway—(Isa 35:8, 10).


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Mourning Turned to Joy
20Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy on him, said the LORD. 21Set you up markers, make you high heaps: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities. 22How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter? for the LORD has created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man. …

Isaiah 48:20 Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob."
Isaiah 52:11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the LORD's house.
Jeremiah 6:16 This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'
Jeremiah 46:11 "Go up to Gilead and get balm, Virgin Daughter Egypt. But you try many medicines in vain; there is no healing for you.
Jeremiah 50:5 They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.