John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 31:21

"Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy heart toward the highway, even the way by which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities." — Jeremiah 31:21 (ASV)

Set you up way marks, make you high heaps
Of stones, raised up as pillars, or like pyramids; or upright, as palm trees, which signification the word ^F26 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 your fathers; pour out supplications; in bitterness set your 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 your heart towards the highway, [even] the way [which] you
went ;
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 your 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 you have done, whether they are right, when you go in a way afar off;"

turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F26: (Myrwrmt) "columnulas", Schmidt; "pyramidas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "palmulas", Tigurine version, "a (rmt) palma".