The blind and the lame come home

Blind people among the crowd and at the table. No change in sight is described. Jeremiah 31:7-9.

What led up to it

Jeremiah has spent years warning that Jerusalem will fall. In these chapters he speaks of what comes after: God will bring His scattered people back.

What happens

The LORD says He will gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, and He names who will be in the company: the blind and the lame, pregnant women and women in labour. He will lead them on a level path where they will not stumble.

In their shoes

A long journey on foot is hardest for exactly the people listed. God names them first, and then describes the road He will make for them: level, beside water, with no stumbling. The pace of the whole company is set by those who travel slowest.

The place and the time

What the old books and the archaeologists can add. Each paragraph names its source.

Jeremiah 30 to 33 is often called the Book of Comfort. The 1915 encyclopedia notes that Jeremiah's promises of restoration grew more frequent during and after the siege of Jerusalem, when the city's fall was certain. Matthew Henry dates this chapter to about 594 BC and heads it "Joyful Return from Captivity."

Source: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), entry "Jeremiah"; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Jeremiah 31.

Matthew Henry takes the blind and the lame in verse 8 as real travellers on a real road, and notices that God names the people least fit for a long journey as the ones He will bring. He expects two kinds of help on the way: companions who will be "eyes to the blind and legs to the lame," and God Himself as guide. The companions are Henry's addition; verse 9 names only God.

Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Jeremiah 31; compare Job 29:15.

Henry reads verse 9 as an answer to each danger of the road home: if the country is dry, streams of water; if there is no track, a straight way they cannot miss; if the ground is rough, they will not stumble. He also draws a lesson that the blind and lame did not plead their condition as an excuse. That last point is a preacher's, and a blind reader may hear it differently from how he meant it.

Source: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706-1721), on Jeremiah 31.

The passage

Jeremiah 31:7-9

7 For this is what the LORD says: “Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations! Make your praises heard, and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’

8 Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, including the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor. They will return as a great assembly!

9 They will come with weeping, and by their supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk beside streams of waters, on a level path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”