THE NEW COVENANT

31 “Look, the days are coming”v—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenantw with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”G,x—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’a for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”b—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquityc and never again remember their sin.

35 “This is what the Lord says:

The one who gives the sun for light by day,

the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night,

who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roard—

the Lord of Armies is his name:

36 If this fixed order departs from before me—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

only then will Israel’s descendants cease

to be a nation before me forever.e

37 “This is what the Lord says:

Only if the heavens above can be measured

and the foundations of the earth below explored,

will I reject all of Israel’s descendants

because of all they have done—

this is the Lord’s declaration.

38 “Look, the days are coming”—the Lord’s declaration—“when the cityA from the Tower of Hananelf to the Corner Gateg will be rebuilt for the Lord. 39 A measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Garebh and then turn toward Goah. 40 The whole valley—the corpses, the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valleyi to the corner of the Horse Gatej to the east—will be holy to the Lord. It will never be uprooted or demolished again.”