Jeremiah 31:15 (WEB)
The LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
As quoted in the map (KJV)
Jeremiah 31:15 (KJV)
Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
Key words
- רָמָהRamah · Hebrew
- the town north of Jerusalem where the exiles were gathered for deportation (Jeremiah 40:1); near it, by one tradition, lay Rachel's tomb.
- רָחֵל מְבַכָּהRachel mevakkah · Hebrew
- 'Rachel weeping' — the long-dead matriarch weeps from her grave for the children of Israel going into exile.
- מֵאֲנָה לְהִנָּחֵםme'anah lehinnachem · Hebrew
- 'refuseth to be comforted' — inconsolable grief.
Why it matters
Jeremiah pictures Rachel weeping from the grave for her exiled children, and God answers her tears with a promise of return (vv. 16–17). Pitre notes that Jewish tradition made much of this: Rachel became the mother who intercedes for Israel and whose prayer God cannot refuse. Matthew places this very lament at the slaughter of the Bethlehem infants, drawing Mary, the Bethlehem mother, into Rachel's role.