Waymarks - See 2 Kings 23:17 note.

High heaps - Or, signposts, pillars to point out the way.

Set thine heart - Not set thy affection, but turn thy thoughts and attention (in Hebrew the heart is the seat of the intellect) to the highway, even the way by which thou wentest.

Set thee up waymarks - Alluding to stones, or heaps of stones, which travelers in the desert set up to ascertain the way, that they may know how to return. Mark the way to Babylon: thither ye shall certainly go; but from it ye shall as certainly return.

Set thee up way marks, make thee high heaps,.... Of stones, raised up as pillars, or like pyramids; or upright, as palm trees, which signification the word (z) has; to be marks and signs, to know the way again upon a return. The Targum is,

"O congregation of Israel, remember the right works of thy fathers; pour out supplications; in bitterness set thy heart.''

And so the Vulgate Latin version interprets the last clause, "put on bitternesses", without any sense; so Cocceius. The design of the words is to put the Jews upon thoughts of returning to their own land, and to prepare for it;

set thine heart towards the highway, even the way which thou wentest; from Judea to Babylon, or into other countries; think of going the same way back again; for, as there was a highway from Judea, there is one to it; let thine heart be upon returning that way. Jarchi reads, "the way which I went"; that is, the way in which the Lord went with the people; the right way in which he guided and directed them; and in which following him, they could not err; see Isaiah 35:8. The Targum is,

"consider the works which thou hast done, whether they are fight, when thou goest in a way afar off;''

turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities; an invitation and encouragement to the Jews to turn again to their own land; as from the Babylonish captivity, so from all lands in the latter day; which is yet to be fulfilled, and to which the prophecy more properly belongs.

(z) "columnulas", Schmidt; "pyramidas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "palmulas", Tigurine version, "a palma".

Set thee up {c} waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thy heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

(c) Mark by what way you went into captivity and you will turn again by the same.

31:21 Set up - Thou shalt return to these cities which thou now leavest, therefore take good notice of the way, set up marks by which thou mayest know it again, make thee pillars or some high heaps of stones in the way, mind well the way that the Assyrians and the Babylonians carried thee, for thou shalt come back the same way.

21. waymarks-pillars to mark the road for the returning exiles. Caravans set up pillars, or pointed heaps of stones, to mark the way through the desert against their return. So Israel is told by God to mark the way by which they went in leaving their country for exile; for by the same way they shall return.

highway-(Isa 35:8, 10).

31:21-26 The way from the bondage of sin to the liberty of God's children, is a high-way. It is plain, it is safe; yet none are likely to walk in it, unless they set their hearts towards it. They are encouraged by the promise of a new, unheard-of, extraordinary thing; a creation, a work of Almighty power; the human nature of Christ, formed and prepared by the power of the Holy Ghost: and this is here mentioned as an encouragement to the Jews to return to their own land. And a comfortable prospect is given them of a happy settlement there. Godliness and honesty God has joined: let no man think to put them asunder, or to make the one atone for the want of the other. In the love and favour of God the weary soul shall find rest, and the sorrowful shall find joy. And what can we see with more satisfaction than the good of Jerusalem, and peace upon Israel?