Jeremiah 31:15-17

31:15 The Lord says,

“A sound is heard in Ramah, ¹ 

a sound of crying in bitter grief.

It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children

and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.” ² 

31:16 The Lord says to her, ³ 

“Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears! ⁴ 

For your heartfelt repentance ⁵  will be rewarded.

Your children will return from the land of the enemy.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁶ 

31:17 Indeed, there is hope for your posterity. ⁷ 

Your children will return to their own territory.

I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁸ 

Romans 11:11-17

11:11 I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, ⁹  did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel ¹⁰  jealous. 11:12 Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration ¹¹  bring?

11:13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 11:14 if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them. 11:15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 11:16 If the first portion ¹²  of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches. ¹³ 

11:17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in ¹⁴  the richness of the olive root,

Romans 11:24

11:24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?

Galatians 3:29

3:29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, ¹⁵  heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 4:26-29

4:26 But the Jerusalem above is free, ¹⁶  and she is our mother. 4:27 For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; ¹⁷ 

break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains,

because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous

than those of the woman who has a husband.” ¹⁸ 

4:28 But you, ¹⁹  brothers and sisters, ²⁰  are children of the promise like Isaac. 4:29 But just as at that time the one born by natural descent ²¹  persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, ²²  so it is now.

[31:15]  ¹ sn Ramah is a town in Benjamin approximately five miles (8 km) north of Jerusalem. It was on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem. Traditionally, Rachel’s tomb was located near there at a place called Zelzah (1 Sam 10:2). Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin and was very concerned about having children because she was barren (Gen 30:1-2) and went to great lengths to have them (Gen 30:3, 14-15, 22-24). She was the grandmother of Ephraim and Manasseh which were two of the major tribes in northern Israel. Here Rachel is viewed metaphorically as weeping for her “children,” the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, who had been carried away into captivity in 722 b.c.

[31:15]  ² tn Or “gone into exile” (cf. v. 16), though some English versions take this as meaning “dead” (e.g., NCV, CEV, NLT), presumably in light of Matt 2:18.

[31:16]  ³ tn The words “to her” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[31:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “Refrain your voice from crying and your eyes from tears.”

[31:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “your work.” Contextually her “work” refers to her weeping and refusing to be comforted, that is, signs of genuine repentance (v. 15).

[31:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:17]  ⁷ tn For this nuance for the Hebrew word אַחֲרִית (’akharit) see BDB 31 s.v. אַחֲרִית d and compare usage in Pss 37:38; 109:13. Others translate “your future” but the “future” lies with the return of her descendants, her posterity.

[31:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[11:11]  ⁹ tn Grk “that they might fall.”

[11:11]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “them”; the referent (Israel, cf. 11:7) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:12]  ¹¹ tn Or “full inclusion”; Grk “their fullness.”

[11:16]  ¹² tn Grk “firstfruits,” a term for the first part of something that has been set aside and offered to God before the remainder can be used.

[11:16]  ¹³ sn Most interpreters see Paul as making use of a long-standing metaphor of the olive tree (the root…the branches) as a symbol for Israel. See, in this regard, Jer 11:16, 19. A. T. Hanson, Studies in Paul’s Technique and Theology, 121-24, cites rabbinic use of the figure of the olive tree, and goes so far as to argue that Rom 11:17-24 is a midrash on Jer 11:16-19.

[11:17]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “became a participant of.”

[3:29]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “seed.” See the note on the first occurrence of the word “descendant” in 3:16.

[4:26]  ¹⁶ sn The meaning of the statement the Jerusalem above is free is that the other woman represents the second covenant (cf. v. 24); she corresponds to the Jerusalem above that is free. Paul’s argument is very condensed at this point.

[4:27]  ¹⁷ tn The direct object “children” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied for clarity. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[4:27]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “because more are the children of the barren one than of the one having a husband.”

[4:28]  ¹⁹ tc Most mss (א A C D² Ψ 062 Ï lat sy bo) read “we” here, while “you” is found in Ì⁴⁶ B D* F G 0261^vid 0278 33 1739 al sa. It is more likely that a copyist, noticing the first person pronouns in vv. 26 and 31, changed a second person pronoun here to first person for consistency.

[4:28]  ²⁰ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:11.

[4:29]  ²¹ tn Grk “according to the flesh”; see the note on the phrase “by natural descent” in 4:23.

[4:29]  ²² tn Or “the one born by the Spirit’s [power].”