Jeremiah 31:21 · Bible study
Jeremiah 31:21 Commentary: Waymarks for the Return Journey
Hebrew · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Explore how Jeremiah 31:21 calls Israel to set up waymarks, blending human responsibility with God's certain restoration.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God commands exiled Israel to mark their path of exile as a sign of hope and preparation for the promised return.
- Key words: “waymarks” (tsiyyunim, signposts), “guideposts” (tamrurim, markers), “set your heart” (direct your mind and will).
- Main debate: Whether the waymarks are literal physical markers or a metaphor for remembering the past and turning the heart toward God.
- Theological theme: Human responsibility in response to divine promise; repentance as preparation for restoration.
- Best use: Preaching on hope, repentance, and active faith in waiting for God’s deliverance.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
“Set up the roadmarks, establish the signposts. Keep the highway in mind, the road you have traveled. Return, O Virgin Israel, return to these cities of yours.
WEB World English Bible 2000
“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.
KJV King James Version 1769
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.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
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.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
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.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
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.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
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.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Establécete señales, ponte majanos altos; nota atentamente la calzada, el camino por donde viniste: vuélvete, virgen de Israel, vuélvete á estas tus ciudades.
Levanta para ti sinais, põe para ti marcos altos; presta atenção à vereda, ao caminho por onde vieste; volta-te, ó virgem de Israel, volta-te para estas tuas cidades.
Dresse des signes, place des poteaux,
Richte dir Denkmale auf, setze dir Zeichen und richte dein Herz auf die gebahnte Straße, darauf du gewandelt hast; kehre wieder, Jungfrau Israel, kehre dich wieder zu diesen deinen Städten!
Richt u merktekenen op, stel u spitse pilaren, zet uw hart op de baan, op den weg, dien gij gewandeld hebt; keer weder, o jonkvrouw Israels, keer weder tot deze uw steden!
Rizza delle pietre miliari, fatti de’ pali indicatori, poni ben mente alla strada, alla via che hai seguìta. Ritorna, o vergine d’Israele, torna a queste città che son tue!
Wystaw sobie pamiątki; nakładź sobie gromad kamieni; pamiętaj na ten gościniec, i na drogę, którąś chodziła: nawróć się, panno Izraelska! nawróć się do tych miast swoich.
Поставь себе путевые знаки, поставь себе столбы, обрати сердце твое на дорогу, на путь, по которому ты шла; возвращайся, дева Израилева, возвращайся в сии города твои.
以色列民（原文是處女）哪，你當為自己 設立 指路碑， 豎起 引路柱。你要留心 向大路，就是你所去 的原路；你當回轉，回轉 到 你這些 城邑。
Put up guiding pillars, make road signs for yourself: give attention to the highway, even the way in which you went: be turned again, O virgin of Israel, be turned to these your towns.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Jeremiah 31:21
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that this verse commands exiled Israel to mark their path of exile in anticipation of a certain return. Calvin notes that the people had given up hope and forgotten the way, so God commands them to set up signposts, a concrete act of preparing for restoration. Barnes emphasizes that the waymarks serve both as a literal reminder of the route and as a spiritual symbol of repentance: Israel must 'set her heart' (turn her intellect and will) toward the highway of return. Matthew Henry and Wesley echo this, connecting the physical markers to the inward turning of the heart. The double command 'return, virgin of Israel' stresses the certainty of restoration: God promises, so the people are to act on that promise. The call to remember the way they came is not mere nostalgia but active hope, a human response to a divine decree.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The verse commands Israel to mark their path of exile and return, emphasising both human responsibility to prepare for restoration and the certainty of God’s promise.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning of waymarks and guideposts | All agree they are markers to remember the path of exile and return. | Some interpreters (e.g., Clarke, Wesley) take them as literal heaps of stones. Others (Calvin, Cambridge Bible) read them as metaphors for intellectual and spiritual focus, since the Hebrew term tamrurim is rare and its precise meaning uncertain. |
| Role of human action | The command implies that human cooperation is required; God does not restore apart from the people's response. | Traditions differ on whether the ability to respond comes solely from God’s grace or involves a cooperative human will. Reformed readings stress God’s sovereign work in prompting the action; Arminian readings emphasize the free choice to turn. |
| Identity of 'virgin of Israel' | The title refers to the nation personified as a young woman, indicating the covenant relationship. | Some interpret this as a literal reference to the ten tribes of the northern kingdom and their future restoration to the land. Others see it as typological, applying to the Church as the new Israel of God. |
| Timing of fulfillment | The primary historical reference is the return from Babylonian exile. | Some traditions (premillennial) also see a future fulfillment for ethnic Israel in the end times. Amillennial and postmillennial views apply the promise more directly to the Church’s spiritual journey and the ongoing gathering of God’s people. |
Historical & Cultural Context
This verse sits within a larger promise of restoration for the northern tribes of Israel, often called Ephraim. The preceding verses (Jer 31:15, 20) depict Rachel weeping for her children at Ramah, a dramatic image of the exile’s grief. Then God responds with comfort: 'There is hope for your latter end' (v.17), and Ephraim confesses his sin and repentance. Against this backdrop of sorrow turned to hope, verse 21 issues a command.
The waymarks (tsiyyunim) and guideposts (tamrurim) were real objects: pillars or heaps of stones used by desert caravans to mark routes. Adam Clarke compares them to stones that travelers in the desert set up 'to ascertain the way, that they may know how to return.' By commanding the exiles to set these markers now, even while still in exile, God declares that their current location is not permanent. The highway (mesillah) is a raised road, often associated in Isaiah with the way of the Lord (Isa 35:8). The phrase 'set your heart' uses the Hebrew lev, the seat of intellect and will, so the command is to focus the mind and purpose on the road that led them into exile, because they will travel it again in reverse.
Calvin explains that the exiles had made peace with permanent displacement, like someone moving to a new country who no longer cares to remember the way back. They needed a tangible reminder that God had not abandoned them. The call to 'turn again, virgin of Israel' uses the title 'virgin', a term of endearment that implies the covenant relationship still stands, however unworthy the nation has been. Cross-references like Isaiah 48:20 ('Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!') reinforce that the return is both a divine act and a human movement.
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for this verse. The slight differences among English translations (waymarks, heaps, signposts, guideposts) reflect the translator’s choices for the rare Hebrew terms tsiyyunim and tamrurim, but the underlying text is stable across manuscripts.
Reception History
In Christian reception, this verse has been read as an encouragement for exiles to prepare for return, both physically and spiritually. Calvin used it to show that God’s mercy revives hope even in despairing hearts. Matthew Henry applied it to personal repentance: sinners must mark the path of their sin and return to God. The Geneva Bible notes emphasize the assurance of restoration. Some early interpreters saw a typological foreshadowing of Christ leading His people out of bondage. More broadly, the verse has been used in worship settings as a call to remember God’s faithfulness and to actively prepare for the restoration He promises, whether that is a return from physical displacement or a spiritual homecoming.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- Remember the way you came. God calls Israel to set up markers along the path of their exile, not to dwell in the past, but to recognize that the same road leads back. Repentance begins with honest memory.
- Set your heart toward the highway. The heart in Hebrew thinking is the center of decision and intent. To 'set your heart' is to direct your whole being toward God’s promise, not just to feel hopeful but to act in faith.
- Return to your cities. The command is repeated twice: 'turn again.' Human responsibility meets divine certainty. God has promised restoration; the people must walk into it.
Five-point outline
- God provides a way of return even when exile seems permanent.
- We are called to mark the path, to remember God’s faithfulness in past judgments and mercies.
- The journey begins with the heart: directing our thoughts, intentions, and will toward God’s highway.
- The call is urgent and repeated, showing that God is patient but serious.
- Restoration is both promise and command: we receive what God gives, but we must actively go.
Illustration hooks
- A family forced to evacuate their home in a disaster. As they leave, they mark the driveway with spray paint so they can find their way back when the crisis ends. The markers represent hope that return is possible.
- A hiker who gets lost in the woods uses a GPS to set waypoints on the trail, then retraces the route to safety. The act of marking the path is what makes the return possible.
- A person recovering from addiction places reminders around their home, photos, a journal, a verse on the wall, as ‘waymarks’ that recall the pain of the past and point toward healing.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Why does God command us to do something if He has already promised to do it? How does preparation express faith?
- What ‘waymarks’ has God given us to remember His faithfulness, in Scripture, in our own history, in the sacraments?
- How do I set my heart on a promise I cannot yet see fulfilled?
Leading a Discussion
This verse calls us to remember God’s faithfulness in the past as we prepare for His promised future. The waymarks are both physical and spiritual, reminders of where we have been and guides for where we are going. Israel was commanded to set up signs while still in exile, which required faith that the return would actually happen. In the same way, we are called to live in hopeful preparation for God’s restoration in our own lives.
Discussion questions
- Why do you think God tells Israel to set up waymarks? What does this reveal about His character and expectations?
- What does it mean to 'set your heart' on the highway? How is this different from simply hoping for the best?
- How does this command balance human action and divine promise? Where do you see both elements in your own faith journey?
- In what ways is the address 'virgin of Israel' hopeful, even after the nation’s unfaithfulness? What does it say about God’s view of His people?
- What ‘waymarks’ has God placed in your life, specific moments, verses, people, or practices that remind you of His faithfulness and point you forward?
- How does remembering your past journey, including the difficult parts, help you trust God for the future?
- How can the Church today ‘set up waymarks’ that help others find their way back to God?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Deuteronomy 32:46 | He said to them, “Set your heart to all the words which I testify to you today, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. |
| I Chronicles 29:3 | In addition, because I have set my affection on the house of my God, since I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, I give it to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house: |
| II Chronicles 11:16 | After them, out of all the tribes of Israel, those who set their hearts to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their fathers. |
| II Chronicles 20:3 | Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. |
| Psalms 62:10 | Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them. |
| Psalms 84:5 | Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on a pilgrimage. |
| Proverbs 24:32 | Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction: |
| Isaiah 48:20 | Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! With the sound of joyful shouting announce this, tell it even to the end of the earth; say, “Yahweh has redeemed his servant Jacob!” |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke explains that the "waymarks" are stones or piles set up in the desert by travelers to guide their return. His distinctive point is the double certainty: the people will go to Babylon, but they will also return, just as such markers enable a traveler both to go and to find the way back.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes reads this passage as a poetic drama of repentance and restoration: Israel’s suffering under judgment leads to genuine turning back to God, and on that basis God decrees their return. He sees the final sign of a woman protecting a man as the promise of a radically new covenant relationship, which the early church understood as a prophecy of Christ’s virgin birth.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin stresses that the exiles had given up all hope of returning and had even forgotten the road home. The command to set up waymarks is God's way of forcing them to recognize and remember the route, because only His sheer mercy, not any merit of theirs, opened the way back.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The Cambridge Bible identifies these verses as uniquely stamped with Jeremiah's personal style. It explains that Israel as a nation is told to mark the way back from exile, perhaps through advance pioneers, and that the Hebrew word for guide-posts appears only here. The phrase set thine heart means to focus attention intellectually, recalling the route taken into captivity.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note reads this verse as a direct instruction for Israel to mark the route of their past exile so they can find their way back. The heaps and signs are physical reminders of the road they once took, and they are told to set their heart on that same path. The tender address "virgin of Israel" underscores the call to return home.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill interprets the way marks and high heaps as literal stone pillars or markers erected to guide the return journey from exile. He sees the verse as calling Israel to remember the path they took to Babylon and to prepare their hearts to travel the same route back home, pointing both to the historical return and a future gathering in the latter days.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB highlights the specific imagery of caravans setting up stone pillars to mark a desert route for the return journey. By this same principle, Israel is instructed to mark the way they were taken into exile, because that very path will be the route of their promised return.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch argues that Rachel's weeping is heard at Ramah not because her tomb lies there, but because Ramah was the highest border town of the two kingdoms, making the wailing carry far and wide. Rachel represents the maternal love of all Israel mourning her lost children. They also stress that Matthew's quotation of this verse is typological, not a direct prophecy of the Bethlehem massacre.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange emphasizes that this passage shifts from addressing both Israel and Judah to speaking specifically to the ten tribes, the most ruined part of the nation. He reads the promise as involving both outward restoration and inward conversion: Israel's return to the land depends on and mirrors their return to God. The "new thing" is that the weak, rejected wife (Israel) draws her strong husband (God) back to her, a reversal of all expectation.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley urges the exiles to carefully mark the path of their deportation, because the very same road that leads them away will later bring them home. He reads God's promise of return as so certain that it changes how they should experience the journey itself.