Jeremiah 31:21

“Set thee up way marks, make thee high heaps, etc.] Of stones, raised up as pillars, or like pyramids; or upright, as palm trees, which signification the wordf603 has; to be marks and signs, to know the way again upon a return. The Targum is, “O congregation of Israel, remember the right works of thy fathers; pour out supplications; in bitterness set thy heart.” And so the Vulgate Latin version interprets the last clause, “put on bitternesses”, without any sense; so Cocceius. The design of the words is to put the Jews upon thoughts of returning to their own land, and to prepare for it; set thine heart towards the highway, [even] the way [which] thou wentest; from Judea to Babylon, or into…”

“waymarks--pillars to mark the road for the returning exiles. Caravans set up pillars, or pointed heaps of stones, to mark the way through the desert against their return. So Israel is told by God to mark the way by which they went in leaving their country for exile; for by the same way they shall return. highway-- (Isa 35:8, Isa 35:10).”

“The religious character of the restoration of the ten tribes. Chastisement brought repentance, and with it forgiveness; therefore God decrees their restoration. Jeremiah 31:15 Ramah, mentioned because of its nearness to Jerusalem, from which it was distant about five miles. As the mother of three tribes, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh, Rachel is regarded as the mother of the whole ten. This passage is quoted by Matthew (marginal reference) as a type. In Jeremiah it is a poetical figure representing in a dramatic form the miserable condition of the kingdom of Ephraim devastated by the sword of the Assyrians. Jeremiah 31:16 Rachel’s work had been that of bearing and bringing up children, and…”

“Set up - Thou shalt return to these cities which thou now leavest, therefore take good notice of the way, set up marks by which thou mayest know it again, make thee pillars or some high heaps of stones in the way, mind well the way that the Assyrians and the Babylonians carried thee, for thou shalt come back the same way. Jeremiah 31:22”

“31:21 road signs . . . guideposts: The Lord guided his people physically back to the land of Israel and spiritually back to their covenant relationship with him.”

“Set thee: Isa 57:14, Isa 62:10 set thine: Jer 50:5; Deu 32:46; Ch1 29:3; Ch2 11:16, Ch2 20:3; Psa 62:10, Psa 84:5; Pro 24:32 \*marg. Eze 40:4; Hag 1:5 \*marg. turn: Jer 51:6, Jer 51:50; Isa 48:20, Isa 52:11, Isa 52:12; Zac 2:6, Zac 2:7 O: Jer 31:4, Jer 3:14; Zac 10:9 Jeremiah 31:22”