Commentaries
31:35-40 As surely as the heavenly bodies will continue their settled course, according to the will of their Creator, to the end of time, and as the raging sea obeys him, so surely will the Jews be continued a separate people. Words can scarcely set forth more strongly the restoration of Israel. The rebuilding of Jerusalem, and its enlargement and establishment, shall be an earnest of the great things God will do for the gospel church. The personal happiness of every true believer, as well as the future restoration of Israel, is secured by promise, covenant, and oath. This Divine love passes knowledge; and to those who take hold upon it, every present mercy is an earnest of salvation.
40. valley of … dead—Tophet, where the bodies of malefactors were cast (Isa 30:33), south of the city.
fields … Kidron—so 2Ki 23:4. Fields in the suburbs reaching as far as Kidron, east of the city.
horse gate—Through it the king's horses were led forth for watering to the brook Kidron (2Ki 11:16; Ne 3:28).
for ever—The city shall not only be spacious, but both "holy to the Lord," that is, freed from all pollutions, and everlasting (Joe 3:17, 20; Re 21:2, 10, 27).