Thus says the LORD: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more." (Jeremiah 31:15 ESV)
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when recently six-year-old Yaakov Israel Paley and his brother eight-year-old Asher Menachem Paley were murdered in a Jerusalem terror attack?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass was killed by a Palestinian sniper in Hebron?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when 3-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun was killed by a Palestinian terrorist in a car ramming attack?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when 9-month-old Avia Malk was killed by grenades and gunfire in Netanya by Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades terrorists?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when 5-month-old Yehuda Shoham was killed in a stoning attack of the family's car near Shiloh?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when 5-year-old Ido Abigail of Sderot was killed in a Hamas rocket attack?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when 4-day old baby Amiad Israel was killed by Palestinian gunfire at a bus stop outside Ofra?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel was stabbed to death in her bed in Kiryat Arba by a Palestinian terrorist?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when hitchhiking teenagers Naftali Frankel, Gilad Shaar, and Eyal Yifracah were murdered by Palestinian terrorists?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when 13-year-old Shlomo Nativ was murdered by an axe-wielding terrorist in Bat Ayin?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when the Fogel family of five, including three young children, were stabbed to death by Palestinian terrorists inside their home in the village of Itamar?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
How many of us also wept, when dozens of children and others were killed in numerous bus bombings and restaurant bombings by Palestinian terrorists?
Rachel is weeping for her children.
Jeremiah saw this.
What Jeremiah saw, and spoke of, was a massacre. It was a massacre of children.
But the immediate context of Jeremiah's declaration is, at first glance, perplexing. It is one of exuberant happiness - the celebration of the regathering of the people of Israel to the land of Israel. "They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion" (Jer 31:7 NIV)
However, in the midst of that celebration, Jeremiah abruptly shifts to the scene of extreme sorrow.
Some Christian readers might rejoin, "Doesn't the book of Matthew interpret this verse differently?"
Yes, in the New Testament, Matthew interprets this prophecy as to referring to Herod's massacre of the children near Bethlehem shortly after Jesus' birth. And of course this is an accurate and inspired interpretation, but is it the only one?
The context of Jeremiah's prophecy indicates it is not. Or more precisely, the massacre Jeremiah sees is not restricted to one event only, but a continuous effort by Jacob's enemies to kill Rachel's children.
Rachel represents the mothers of the nation of Israel mourning the murder of their children, just as they did when King Herod murdered the toddlers near Bethlehem.
And how many times have we also seen that sorrow on the news in recent years, the sorrow in Israel over young people cut down by terrorists? The phrase in Jeremiah 31:15 could also be translated as 'A cry is heard in the heights - deep anguish and bitter weeping'. Because many of the terror attacks have occurred in Judea and Samaria regions, (the hill country of Israel), "in the heights" could be a direct reference to lamenting terror attacks in that specific area.
So if the context of Jeremiah's prophecy is about murder of children, apparently also in the modern regathered nation, how do we reconcile that with Matthew's interpretation?
Perhaps it is because Jeremiah is referring not only to a single incident, but to the same extended, ongoing case - the hatred of God's chosen and the fanatical desire to destroy them. There is no contradiction between the contextual interpretation and Matthew's application of that interpretation.
King Herod was granted, by the Roman Empire which placed him in power, the official title of "The King of The Jews". He desperately desired the validation of that title from his Jewish subjects, which did not and could not happen. And he jealousy guarded, to the point of murderous rage, that inauthentic title. For Herod was not authentically Jewish. He was an Idumean - an Edomite.
Who was Edom? Edom was another name for Esau, Jacob's brother. In the prophetic Scriptures, Edom represents those who are obsessed with annihilating the Jews. Edom is frequently denounced by the prophets for their fierce and cruel violence - the "violence against your brother Jacob." (Obadiah 1:10)
So symbolically, Edom represents those who hate Israel - Esau hating Jacob. In a broader sense, Jeremiah was viewing the grief and suffering of the entire scope of Jewish history. The overall message of Jeremiah chapter 31 is the expression of God's compassion and comfort to finally restore Israel to their land after that long, painful exile.
In the modern, final scene context, Edom is identified by the Biblical prophets with the following characteristics in their hatred of Israel: extreme blood-lust, villainous slander and defamation, unthinkable violence, and a nefarious conspiracy with the nations to steal the covenant land granted by God to Jacob's descendants.
Just as Herod the Edomite had degenerated in his final days into a homicidal raving madman, due to his all-consuming spite and hatred, so also have the modern Edomites likewise degenerated to murderous, insane rage.
And Rachel continues to weep for her children. However, let us remember the overarching theme of Jeremiah 31 is one of favor, comfort, love, and triumph. It is the message that, despite momentary sorrow, despite the hatred of Israel's enemies, the God of Israel is continuously active on their behalf, for restoration, and redemption.