Please explain Jeremiah 31:16.
To answer your good question, let’s read Jeremiah 31:15-17, “Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.”
Jeremiah 31:15 is quoted in the New Testament concerning the children who were slaughtered around the time of the birth of Christ. We read in Matthew 2:16-18, “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”
Rachel’s children were Joseph and Benjamin (Genesis 35:24). Joseph had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 41:51-52), so we see that Rachel was the grandmother of Manasseh and Ephraim. Oftentimes in the Old Testament, the name of refers to the ten tribes that comprised the northern kingdom of Israel. For example, we read in Ezekiel 37:16, “Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions.”
Rachel weeping for her children speaks of the scattering of the nation of Israel because they “walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.” (Jeremiah 9:14). The Lord declared in Jeremiah 9:16, “I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.”
The Lord instructed Rachel to “refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine ears from tears” because, “they shall come again from the land of the enemy.” This could not be said of the murdered innocents at Bethlehem; they never came again. However, the Jews, who had gone into captivity, did come again from the land of their enemy to their own border.
The complete fulfillment of this prophesy has not yet been realized. Hosea 1:11 speaks of a yet future day. “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.” The coming day of the Lord’s return to the earth to establish His earthly kingdom will cause this promise to come to pass.
Of that day of the restoration of Israel, we read in Leviticus 26:12, “And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” We also read in Jeremiah 30:22, “And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.” There will be a future restoration of the true remnant of Israel. While it has not happened yet, Rachel was instructed to cease her grief because “thy children shall come again to their own border.” (384.2)