Jeremiah 31:1–32:44
31 “At athe same time,” says the Lord, b“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”
“The people who survived the sword
Found grace in the wilderness—
Israel, when cI went to give him rest.”
3 The Lord has appeared 1of old to me, saying:
“Yes, dI have loved you with ean everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have fdrawn you.
4 Again gI will build you, and you shall be rebuilt,
O virgin of Israel!
You shall again be adorned with your htambourines,
And shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.
5 iYou shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria;
The planters shall plant and 2eat them as ordinary food.
When the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim,
j‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
To the Lord our God.’ ”
k“Sing with gladness for Jacob,
And shout among the chief of the nations;
Proclaim, give praise, and say,
‘O Lord, save Your people,
The remnant of Israel!’
8 Behold, I will bring them lfrom the north country,
And mgather them from the ends of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame,
The woman with child
And the one who labors with child, together;
A great throng shall return there.
9 nThey shall come with weeping,
And with supplications I will lead them.
I will cause them to walk oby the rivers of waters,
In a straight way in which they shall not stumble;
For I am a Father to Israel,
And Ephraim is My pfirstborn.
10 “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
And declare it in the 3isles afar off, and say,
‘He who scattered Israel qwill gather him,
And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’
11 For rthe Lord has redeemed Jacob,
And ransomed him sfrom the hand of one stronger than he.
12 Therefore they shall come and sing in tthe height of Zion,
Streaming to uthe goodness of the Lord
For wheat and new wine and oil,
For the young of the flock and the herd;
Their souls shall be like a vwell-watered garden,
wAnd they shall sorrow no more at all.
13 “Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance,
And the young men and the old, together;
For I will turn their mourning to joy,
Will comfort them,
And make them rejoice rather than sorrow.
14 I will 4satiate the soul of the priests with abundance,
And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord.”
15 Thus says the Lord:
x“A voice was heard in yRamah,
Lamentation and bitter zweeping,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted for her children,
Because athey are no more.”
“Refrain your voice from bweeping,
And your eyes from tears;
For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord,
And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17 There is chope in your future, says the Lord,
That your children shall come back to their own border.
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:
‘You have dchastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained bull;
eRestore me, and I will return,
For You are the Lord my God.
19 Surely, fafter my turning, I repented;
And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh;
I was gashamed, yes, even humiliated,
Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
Is he a pleasant child?
For though I spoke against him,
I earnestly remember him still;
hTherefore My 5heart yearns for him;
iI will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.
Make landmarks;
jSet your heart toward the highway,
The way in which you went.
6Turn back, O virgin of Israel,
Turn back to these your cities.
22 How long will you kgad about,
O you lbacksliding daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—
A woman shall encompass a man.”
23 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: m‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and nmountain of holiness!’ 24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and oin all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. 25 For I have 7satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
26 After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was psweet to me.
27 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that qI will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass, that as I have rwatched over them sto pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them tto build and to plant, says the Lord. 29 uIn those days they shall say no more:
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 vBut every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31 “Behold, the wdays are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that xI took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, 8though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 yBut this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: zI will put My law in their minds, and write it on their 9hearts; aand I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for bthey all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For cI will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
dWho gives the sun for a light by day,
The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,
Who disturbs ethe sea,
And its waves roar
f(The Lord of hosts is His name):
36 “If gthose ordinances depart
From before Me, says the Lord,
Then the seed of Israel shall also cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”
h“If heaven above can be measured,
And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
I will also icast off all the seed of Israel
For all that they have done, says the Lord.
38 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord—jfrom the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 kThe surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. 40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, lto the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, mshall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”
32 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord—ain the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up bin the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house. 3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you cprophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: d“Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; 4 and Zedekiah king of Judah eshall not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him 1face to face, and see him feye to eye; 5 then he shall glead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall be huntil I visit him,” says the Lord; i“though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed” ’?”
6 And Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 7 ‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the jright of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’ 8 Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. 9 So I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle who was in Anathoth, and kweighed out to him the money—seventeen shekels of silver. 10 And I signed the 2deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales. 11 So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open; 12 and I gave the purchase deed to lBaruch the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the mwitnesses who signed the purchase deed, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison.
13 “Then I charged nBaruch before them, saying, 14 ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.” 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be opossessed again in this land.” ’
Jeremiah Prays for Understanding
16 “Now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: 17 ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, pYou have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. qThere is nothing too 3hard for You. 18 You show rlovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them—the Great, sthe Mighty God, whose name is tthe Lord of hosts. 19 You are ugreat in counsel and mighty in 4work, for your veyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, wto give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. 20 You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day, and in Israel and among other men; and You have made Yourself xa name, as it is this day. 21 You yhave brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an …