This week’s “Come, Follow Me” study guide covers Jeremiah 31-33 and 36-39; and Lamentations 1 and 3, which includes the Lord’s promise that He will write His law on the hearts of His people (see Jeremiah 31:33).
Following are a few quotes from past and present leaders and publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about these chapters of scripture.
Jeremiah 31
“‘Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, … and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
“‘And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border’ (Jeremiah 31:16-17). Jesus Christ is the ‘hope in thine end.’ Nothing we have or have not done is beyond the reach of His infinite and eternal sacrifice. He is the reason why it is never the end of our story.”
— Sister Amy A. Wright, then the first counselor in the Primary general presidency, October 2023 general conference, “Abide the Day in Christ”
“In addressing the gathering of Israel in the last days, the Lord Jehovah said, ‘I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people’ (Jeremiah 31:33). I feel eternally grateful that from my young age, the law of the Lord started to be engraved deeply in my heart through sacred ordinances in His holy house. How fundamental it is to know that He is our God, that we are His people, and that whatever circumstances surround us, if we are faithful and obey the covenants we have entered into, we can be ‘encircled about eternally in the arms of his love’ (2 Nephi 1:15).”
— Elder Alan R. Walker, General Authority Seventy, April 2021 general conference, “The Gospel Light of Truth and Love”
“We need to continually deepen our knowledge of and obedience to Heavenly Father. Our relationship with Him is eternal. We are His beloved children, and that will not change. How are we going to wholeheartedly accept His invitation to draw near to Him and thus enjoy the blessings He longs to give us in this life and in the world to come?
“The Lord said to ancient Israel, and He says to us, ‘Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee’ (Jeremiah 31:3). … We are here on this earth to learn and grow, and the most important learning and growing will come from our covenant connection to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. From our faithful relationship with Them come godly knowledge, love, power and capacity to serve.”
— Sister Neill F. Marriott, then the second counselor in the Young Women general presidency, October 2017 general conference, “Abiding in God and Repairing the Breach”
Jeremiah 32
“Miracles have been and will always be an operational part and parcel of a merciful and loving God and His Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, expect to see miracles in your life. …
“I can affirm with certainty that each of you, no matter your situation or circumstance, are also experiencing miracles on a daily basis, even though you may not be aware of many of them. … As Jeremiah rhetorically reminds us, ‘Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?’ (Jeremiah 32:27).”
— Elder Michael A. Dunn, General Authority Seventy, in the June 2021 YA Weekly article, “How to Invite Miracles into Your Life”
Jeremiah 33
“Whenever numerous people with unique talents are given a set of rules or laws, along with the freedom to either obey or disobey and to work at their own speed, a diversity of progress in those individuals will result. When we are dealing with a population as numerous as the ‘sand of the sea,’ we cannot imagine the variety of children our Father in Heaven is dealing with (Genesis 32:12; Jeremiah 33:22). The wonderful thing is that He loves us in our diversity. Our diversity helps Him to bring to pass His purposes here on the earth. With His complete understanding of each of us, He devised a plan for the time and place of our lifework on earth.”
— The late Elder Glenn L. Pace, then a General Authority Seventy, during his January 2005 Brigham Young University devotional, “‘Your Work Is Not Yet Finished’”
Jeremiah 36
“In the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, bidding him commit to writing all the addresses he had previously delivered, that Judah might, if it were possible, still regard the threatenings and return (Jeremiah 36:1-3). In accordance with this command, he got all the words of the Lord written down in a book by his attendant Baruch, with the further instruction that this should be read on the fast-day in the temple to the people who came out of the country into Jerusalem (Jeremiah 36:4-8).
“When, after this, in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, a fast was appointed, Baruch read the prophecies to the assembled people in the chamber of Gemariah in the temple. Michaiah the son of Gemariah mentioned the matter to the princes who were assembled in the royal palace; these then sent for Baruch with the roll, and made him read it to them. But they were so frightened by what was read to them that they deemed it necessary to inform the king regarding it (Jeremiah 36:9-19). At their advice, the king had the roll brought and some of it read before him; but scarcely had some few columns been read, when he cut the roll into pieces and threw them into the pan of coals burning in the room, at the same time commanding that Baruch and Jeremiah should be brought to him; but God hid them (Jeremiah 36:20-26).
“After this roll had been burnt, the Lord commanded the prophet to get all his words written on a new roll, and to predict an ignominious fate for King Jehoiakim; whereupon Jeremiah once more dictated his addresses to Baruch (Jeremiah 36:27-32).”
— C.F. Keil and F. Delitzsch as quoted in the Church’s Old Testament Student Manual Kings-Malachi, chapter 24, “The Babylonian Captivity”
Jeremiah 37-38
“As the Babylonian army laid siege to Jerusalem, Jeremiah relayed the word of the Lord to King Zedekiah and his people that they must surrender. This upset certain officials, who then used Jeremiah’s attempt to leave the city as a pretext to arrest and imprison him for treason (see Jeremiah 37:6-15).
“Jeremiah was cast into a terrible cistern-dungeon to die of starvation. Cisterns are pear-shaped cavities cut out of rock to catch and store water. Sediment had settled in the bowl of this cistern over the years until it was so deep that Jeremiah ‘sunk in the mire’ (Jeremiah 38:6). If not for the courage and Christlike service of Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian servant to the king, Jeremiah would have surely died (see Jeremiah 38:7-13; 1 Nephi 7:14).
“When the Babylonian king overran Jerusalem, Jeremiah chose to remain with his people at Jerusalem, continuing to deliver the word of the Lord to them despite their constant refusal to follow his advice. Jeremiah is believed to have died in Egypt not long after making one more appeal to his people to return to the Lord (see Jeremiah 44).
“The things which Jeremiah suffered were some of the Lord’s most powerful tools for shaping and purifying his life. Likewise, that which we suffer and endure in patience gives us experience and can be for our good (see Doctrine and Covenants 122:7-8).”
— Elder Jean A. Tefan, then an Area Seventy, in the October 2002 Liahona article, “Jeremiah: As Potter’s Clay”
Jeremiah 39
“History shows that some prophets, especially those of the Old Testament, were consecrated by their loneliness as outcasts and even martyrs. Perhaps the saddest of these prophets was Jeremiah, who was Israel’s prophet for nearly 50 years, serving five kings, from Josiah to Zedekiah.
“Jeremiah was inspired and powerfully bold. According to Jewish tradition, he authored the books of Jeremiah, First and Second Kings, and Lamentations. Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah, a priest from the land of Benjamin. The difficulties he encountered, as described especially in the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations, have prompted Bible scholars to refer to him as ‘The Weeping Prophet.’
“According to Old Testament scholars, Jeremiah was called to prophesy of the impending destruction of Jerusalem due to Israel’s worshipping of idols and making human sacrifices. He was guided by God to proclaim that the nation of Judah would suffer famine, foreign conquest, plunder and captivity in a land of strangers.
“Not surprisingly, Jeremiah’s enemies retaliated. King Zedekiah was merciful, declining popular pressure to put Jeremiah to death. Yet Zedekiah’s compromise was almost as bad. Jeremiah was imprisoned in a cistern, where he sank into mud and seemed fated to starve.
“Redemption came, though, from a surprising source. A man named Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian official in Zedekiah’s court, likely risked his life by pleading for Jeremiah’s release. Jeremiah reciprocated with a promise that Ebed-Melech would not fall by the sword during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem (see Jeremiah 39:15-18).”
— Elder Henry J. Eyring, then the president of Brigham Young University-Idaho, in his September 2022 BYU-Idaho devotional, “A Consecrated Life”
Lamentations 1
“Appreciate the responsibility of being an individual in an organized society, a person and a social being with responsibility to others. Avoid, I pray you, that lone-eagle complex that makes some people say, ‘It’s my life and I’m going to live it. I’m going to do what I want to do in spite of what it does to anybody else, what effect it has on anyone else.’ …
“Christ asked, at the end of a story well known to all of us, ‘Which one of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves?’ (Luke 10:36). Six hundred or more years before that Jeremiah had asked, ‘Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?’ (Lamentations 1:12).”
— The late Elder Marion D. Hanks, then an assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in his October 1975 Brigham Young University devotional, “Appreciate Your Opportunities”
Lamentations 3
“The only thing worse than feeling miserable is feeling miserable and knowing it’s your own fault. The Israelites might have felt that way after Jerusalem was destroyed. Jeremiah and other prophets had repeatedly warned them to repent or be conquered, and they had chosen the latter. Now some of them had lived to regret it.
“Though he was righteous himself, Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations to mourn (or lament) along with the city. Those lamentations have a positive side, though, and it’s a good reminder for us:
“‘The Lord will not cast off forever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion … . For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men’ (Lamentations 3:31-33).
“God doesn’t enjoy punishing us. He doesn’t ‘afflict’ us ‘willingly’ — that is, because He wants to — but because it’s necessary. He’s as eager for us to recover and feel better as we are.”
— Eric D. Snider in the November 2026 For the Strength of Youth article, “Tough Trials and Torn Clothes”
“I learned early in life, there is no need to wait for a new year to have a fresh start in my personal life. With every new day, a new dawn comes — not only for the earth but also for you and me. And with every new day comes a new start — a chance to begin again and avoid the danger of procrastination. …
“The scriptures promise, ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning’ (Lamentations 3:22-23, English Standard Version). …
“In these coming days, weeks and months, as stretching as they may be, God’s love and the fruit of the Spirit will enable us to reach out to those around us (family, friends, everyone) and help them to better cope with their challenging circumstances.”
— President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in the January 2023 Liahona article, “Goals, Growth and Progress — Recent Messages from Prophets and Apostles”
