“Set up the roadmarks, establish the signposts. Keep the highway in mind, the road you have traveled. Return, O Virgin Israel, return to these cities of yours.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.
- KJV Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
- NKJV “Set up signposts, Make landmarks; Set your heart toward the highway, The way in which you went. Turn back, O virgin of Israel, Turn back to these your cities.
- NASB ¶“Set up roadmarks for yourself, Place guideposts for yourself; Direct your mind to the highway, The way by which you went. Return, O virgin of Israel, Return to these your cities.
- NLT Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Mark well the path by which you came. Come back again, my virgin Israel; return to your towns here.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God calls Israel to set up markers and return home along the way she went into exile. The path of restoration is the way back to God.
Overview
Using imagery of road signs and guideposts, God urges the 'virgin of Israel' to retrace her steps and return to her cities. The repeated call to 'turn again' is a summons to repentance and homecoming. It pictures the gracious invitation God extends to wandering people to come back to Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Jer 50:5They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.
- Isa 62:10Go out, go out through the gates; prepare the way for the people! Build it up, build up the highway; clear away the stones; raise a banner for the nations!
- Isa 48:20Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare it with a shout of joy, proclaim it, let it go out to the ends of the earth, saying, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!”
- Jer 3:14“Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.
- Ezek 40:4“Son of man,” he said to me, “look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Report to the house of Israel everything you see.”
- Hag 1:5Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.
- Zech 2:6–7“Get up! Get up! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the LORD, “for I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven,” declares the LORD.
- Jer 31:4Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out in joyful dancing.
- Isa 57:14And it will be said, “Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, take every obstacle out of the way of My people.”
- Isa 52:11–12Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
- Jer 51:50You who have escaped the sword, depart and do not linger! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to mind.”
- Ps 84:5Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
- 2 Chr 20:3Jehoshaphat was alarmed and set his face to seek the LORD. And he proclaimed a fast throughout Judah.
- 2 Chr 11:16Those from every tribe of Israel who had set their hearts to seek the LORD their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers.
- Ps 62:10Place no trust in extortion, or false hope in stolen goods. If your riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.
- Zech 10:9Though I sow them among the nations, they will remember Me in distant lands; they and their children will live and return.
- 1 Chr 29:3Moreover, because of my delight in the house of my God, I now give for it my personal treasures of gold and silver, over and above all that I have provided for this holy temple:
- Prov 24:32I observed and took it to heart; I looked and received instruction:
- Deut 32:46he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I testify among you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.
- Jer 51:6Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives! Do not be destroyed in her punishment. For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 31:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.