Jeremiah 31:9-10

31:9 They will come back shedding tears of contrition.

I will bring them back praying prayers of repentance. ¹ 

I will lead them besides streams of water,

along smooth paths where they will never stumble. ² 

I will do this because I am Israel’s father;

Ephraim ³  is my firstborn son.’”

31:10 Hear what the Lord has to say, O nations.

Proclaim it in the faraway lands along the sea.

Say, “The one who scattered Israel will regather them.

He will watch over his people like a shepherd watches over his flock.”

Ezra 3:12-13

3:12 Many of the priests, the Levites, and the leaders ⁴  – older people who had seen with their own eyes the former temple while it was still established ⁵  – were weeping loudly, ⁶  and many others raised their voice in a joyous shout. 3:13 People were unable to tell the difference between the sound of joyous shouting and the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people were shouting so loudly ⁷  that the sound was heard a long way off.

Psalms 126:4-6

126:4 O Lord, restore our well-being,

just as the streams in the arid south are replenished. ⁸ 

126:5 Those who shed tears as they plant

will shout for joy when they reap the harvest. ⁹ 

126:6 The one who weeps as he walks along, carrying his bag ¹⁰  of seed,

will certainly come in with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves of grain. ¹¹ 

Joel 2:12

An Appeal for Repentance

2:12 “Yet even now,” the Lord says,

“return to me with all your heart –

with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

Tear your hearts, ¹² 

not just your garments!”

Zechariah 12:10

12:10 “I will pour out on the kingship ¹³  of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, ¹⁴  the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. ¹⁵ 

James 4:9

4:9 Grieve, mourn, ¹⁶  and weep. Turn your laughter ¹⁷  into mourning and your joy into despair.

¹ tn Heb “They will come with weeping; I will bring them with supplication.” The ideas of contrition and repentance are implicit from the context (cf. vv. 18-19) and are supplied for clarity.

² sn Jer 31:8-9 are reminiscent of the “New Exodus” motif of Isa 40-66 which has already been referred to in Jer 16:14-15; 23:7-8. See especially Isa 35:3-10; 40:3-5, 11; 41:17-20; 42:14-17; 43:16-21; 49:9-13. As there, the New Exodus will so outstrip the old that the old will pale in comparison and be almost forgotten (see Jer 23:7-8).

³ sn Ephraim was the second son of Joseph who was elevated to a place of prominence in the family of Jacob by the patriarch’s special blessing. It was the strongest tribe in northern Israel and Samaria lay in its territory. It is often used as a poetic parallel for Israel as here. The poetry is not speaking of two separate entities here; it is a way of repeating an idea for emphasis. Moreover, there is no intent to show special preference for northern Israel over Judah. All Israel is metaphorically God’s son and the object of his special care and concern (Exod 4:22; Deut 32:6).

⁴ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

⁵ sn The temple had been destroyed some fifty years earlier by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.

⁶ tn Heb “with a great voice.”

⁷ tn Heb “a great shout.”

⁸ tn Heb “like the streams in the Negev.”

⁹ sn O. Borowski says regarding this passage: “The dependence on rain for watering plants, the uncertainty of the quantity and timing of the rains, and the possibility of crop failure due to pests and diseases appear to have kept the farmer in a gloomy mood during sowing” (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 54). Perhaps the people were experiencing a literal drought, the effects of which cause them to lament their plight as they plant their seed in hopes that the rain would come. However, most take the language as metaphorical. Like a farmer sowing his seed, the covenant community was enduring hardship as they waited for a new outpouring of divine blessing. Yet they are confident that a time of restoration will come and relieve their anxiety, just as the harvest brings relief and joy to the farmer.

¹⁰ tn The noun occurs only here and in Job 28:18 in the OT. See HALOT 646 s.v. I מֶשֶׁךְ which gives “leather pouch” as the meaning.

¹¹ tn The Hebrew noun אֲלֻמָּה (’alummah, “sheaf”) occurs only here and in Gen 37:7 in the OT.

¹² sn The figurative language calls for genuine repentance, and not merely external ritual that goes through the motions.

¹³ tn Or “dynasty”; Heb “house.”

¹⁴ tc Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next, many mss read אַלֵי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ale ’et ’asher, “to the one whom,” a reading followed by NAB, NRSV) rather than the MT’s אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ela ’et ’asher, “to me whom”). The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear – they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable – and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT.

¹⁵ tn The Hebrew term בְּכוֹר (bÿkhor, “firstborn”), translated usually in the LXX by πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos), has unmistakable messianic overtones as the use of the Greek term in the NT to describe Jesus makes clear (cf. Col 1:15, 18). Thus, the idea of God being pierced sets the stage for the fatal wounding of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God (cf. John 19:37; Rev 1:7). Note that some English translations supply “son” from the context (e.g., NIV, TEV, NLT).

¹⁶ tn This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

¹⁷ tn Grk “let your laughter be turned.”