Weeping and Restoration: The Use of Jeremiah 31:15-17 in Matthew 2:18

While studying the book of Jeremiah, I came across the passage 31:15-17:

“Thus says the Lord, ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded,’ declares the Lord, ‘and they will return from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future,’ declares the Lord, ‘and your children will return to their own territory.’”

The first verse (v. 15) is famous got its inclusion by Matthew in his account of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. In seeking to kill the child Jesus, Herod sends forces into Bethlehem to kill all the children under the age of 2 years (Matthew 2:16-17). Matthew crowns this episode with the following:

“Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more’” (2:18).

One of the questions people have is what Matthew is doing inserting these verses into this particular story. When Jeremiah wrote this oracle he was specifically referring to those from the Kingdom of Israel who were deported by the Assyrians in 760 BCE. This is indicated by the references to Ephraim in verses 18 and 20 of this chapter and the surrounding mentions of Israel and Jacob in both chapters 30 and 31. Jeremiah’s specific intention was to point to the calamity of the Exile and not to predict Herod’s slaughter in 6-4 BCE. But if this is the case, then what is Matthew’s point in including these verses from Jeremiah in his account? I think the answer lies in the second half of the original passage in Jeremiah, verses 16-17:

“‘Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded,’ declares the Lord, ‘and they will return from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future,’ declares the Lord, ‘and your children will return to their own territory.’”

I think in quoting verse 15 and linking it with his narrative, Matthew was pointing to the idea of the overall passage and, indeed, to the surrounding chapters (30-33) in which God promises restoration from Exile for his people. I’ve written before that the Exile was the one of the defining events in the history of Israel. God’s people had been deported from the Promise Land, the Temple destroyed and God’s presence left, the Davidic line ended, and pagans ruled – and all because God’s people had repeatedly sinned, rejected the prophets, and refused offers of forgiveness for repentance. But even after the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE when the exiled Jews were permitted to return to their homeland, there was still a belief that the full exile had not ended. Yahweh had not returned to Zion. The land was still being ruled by pagans. The Spirit had not been poured out. God had not yet forgiven the sins. One of the main arguments of the New Testament writers is that the coming of Jesus, his mission, death and resurrection meant the end of Exile and the forgiveness of sins, that God had turned to Zion, that evil had been defeated.

Therefore, when Matthew is quoting Jeremiah 31:15-17, he is not stating that Jeremiah predicted Herod’s slaughter of the children. Instead, he is pointing to the entire idea of the passage, indicating that, yes, God’s people have wept over the loss of their children before, but now the comfort that Jeremiah predicted has come true. God is truly restoring his people. Yahweh has returned to Zion. Sins are forgiven. The Spirit is poured out. The prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled.