Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 31:3

"Jehovah appeared of old unto me, [saying], Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." — Jeremiah 31:3 (ASV)

The Lord has appeared of old to me ... —The Hebrew adverb more commonly refers to distance than to time. From afar the Lord appeared to me. The thought is that of a deliverer who hears the cry of his people in the distance, and then draws near to help them. Jehovah enthroned in Zion, or in the heaven of heavens, hears the cry of the exiles by the waters of Babylon or Nineveh.

Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. —Some translators render I have preserved (or respited) you, others I have continued my loving kindness to you, as in Psalm 36:10; Psalms 109:12; but the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Luther agree with the English Version, and it finds sufficient support in the meaning of the Hebrew verb and in the parallel of Hosea 11:4.