Matthew Poole and continuators on Jeremiah 31:9

9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them : I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters , in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble : for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born .

Some think that it had been better Translated, they went weeping, for though the Verb be the future tense in the Hebrew, yet that tense hath often the signification of the praeterperfect tense, thus it answereth, Psal. 126.5, 6. He that goeth forth weeping, carrying precious seed, shall doubtless come again rejoycing, &c. but there is no need of it here, for there is a weeping for joy, as well as for sorrow, as we have it in the instances both of Iacob and Ioseph, Gen. 29.11. and 43.30. and thus the Textcorrespondeth with that, Z[illegible: 1 letter]ch. 12.10. I will pour upon them the spirit of grace and supplication, and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn. Weeping also here may be understood for their past sins.

And they shall have no want as they had when they came out of Egypt, through the Wilderness, where they often wanted water.

Neither shall they have any rough wayes, nor turn backward and forward, as God made them to do in their passage through the Wilderness.

For as I have the affection of a Father for all Israel, so will I shew the care and kindness of a Father to them, and use them as a man useth his first born; so God anciently called the Iews, Exod. 4.22. they being the first of all Nations, whom God owned, and took into Covenant, and who owned God, and Worshipped the true and living God only.

Marginal references: with favours.