John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 31:5

"Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy [the fruit thereof]." — Jeremiah 31:5 (ASV)

The verb חלל, chelal, means to profane, but it also means to apply to common use. The expression is taken from the Law, for it was not lawful to eat the fruit of the vine until after the fourth year, because its uncircumcision, so to speak, remained in the vine, so that its fruit was unclean. Then its first-fruits were offered to God; afterwards, everyone enjoyed his vintage (Leviticus 19:23–25). But at the same time, Jeremiah also had in mind the curses that we read of elsewhere:

You shall plant a vineyard, and others shall eat its fruit (Deuteronomy 28:30).

What then did he mean by these words? He meant that the country would, for a time, be so deserted that there would be no vines on the richest and most fertile mountains. The mountains of Samaria were rich in vines, and when vines on these were cut down, there was a dreadful desolation. When, therefore, the Prophet says, they shall yet plant a vineyard, he intimates that the land would be desolate for a time. So also when he says, I will yet build you, he reminds the Jews that they were to bear God’s judgment with resignation while they could see nothing but desolation throughout the whole land.

This, then, is what the word yet intimates. When he promised that there would be vines again on the mountains of Samaria, he added that those who planted them would enjoy the fruit. Here, then, is an additional blessing: it would have profited them nothing to plant or set vines unless this blessing of God was added, for it is a very grievous thing to be deprived of a possession that we have cultivated, and on which we have spent much labor.

He who has diligently planted vines and cultivated his land, if driven into exile, feels deeply wounded in his mind when he sees that his vines and his land are in the possession of strangers. Hence the Prophet here intimates that God’s favor would be certain, because He would not only give the Jews, when they returned, the opportunity to plant vines, but would also cause them to enjoy the fruit in peace and quietness. They shall then profane, that is, apply to their own use in the fifth year the fruit produced by the vines, as if he had said, “They shall dwell, without disturbance, in their own inheritance, once they have returned to it.”

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as you have once testified that you are a Father to us through your only-begotten Son, we may not only taste that promise but also be wholly satisfied with it, and remain in it constantly, until, having gone through all evils, we may at last attain to its full manifestation when you gather us into that blessed rest, which is the fruit of your eternal adoption, through the same Christ Jesus our Lord. — Amen.