Jeremiah 31–32

Chapter 31

¹At that time, saith Jehovah, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. ²Thus saith Jehovah: The people that were left of the sword have found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I go to give him rest. ³Jehovah hath appeared from afar unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. ⁴I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel! Thou shalt again be adorned with thy tambours, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. ⁵Thou shalt again plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall eat the fruit. ⁶For there shall be a day, when the watchmen upon mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion, unto Jehovah our God. ⁷For thus saith Jehovah: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and shout at the head of the nations; publish ye, praise ye, and say, Jehovah, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. ⁸Behold, I bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth; and among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great assemblage shall they return hither. ⁹They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them; I will cause them to walk by water-brooks, in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble; for I will be a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

¹⁰Hear the word of Jehovah, ye nations, and declare it to the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd his flock. ¹¹For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of one stronger than he. ¹²And they shall come and sing aloud upon the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of Jehovah, for corn, and for new wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not languish any more at all. ¹³Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and old together; for I will turn their mourning into gladness, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice after their sorrow. ¹⁴And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith Jehovah. ¹⁵Thus saith Jehovah: A voice hath been heard in Ramah, the wail of very bitter weeping, —Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are not. ¹⁶Thus saith Jehovah: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for there is a reward for thy work, saith Jehovah; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. ¹⁷And there is hope for thy latter end, saith Jehovah, and thy children shall come again to their own border.

¹⁸I have indeed heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock not trained: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art Jehovah my God. ¹⁹Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after I knew myself, I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, for I bear the reproach of my youth. ²⁰Is Ephraim a dear son unto me? is he a child of delights? For whilst I have been speaking against him, I do constantly remember him still. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him: I will certainly have mercy upon him, saith Jehovah. ²¹Set up waymarks, make for thyself signposts; set thy heart toward the highway, the way by which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. ²²How long wilt thou wander about, thou backsliding daughter? For Jehovah hath created a new thing on the earth, a woman shall encompass a man. ²³Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: They shall again use this speech, in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall turn their captivity: Jehovah bless thee, O habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness! ²⁴And therein shall dwell Judah, and all the cities thereof together, the husbandmen, and they that go about with flocks. ²⁵For I have satiated the weary soul, and every languishing soul have I replenished. ²⁶—Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.

²⁷Behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸And it shall come to pass, as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to overthrow, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them to build, and to plant, saith Jehovah. ²⁹In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge: ³⁰for every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eateth the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. ³¹Behold, days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: ³²not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day of my taking them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah. ³³For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and will write it in their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will pardon their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

³⁵Thus saith Jehovah, who giveth the sun for light by day, the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for light by night, who stirreth up the sea so that the waves thereof roar, —Jehovah of hosts is his name: ³⁶If those ordinances depart from before me, saith Jehovah, the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. ³⁷Thus saith Jehovah: If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off the whole seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith Jehovah. ³⁸Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the city shall be built to Jehovah, from the tower of Hananeel unto the corner-gate. ³⁹And the measuring line shall yet go forth before it unto the hill Gareb, and shall turn toward Goath. ⁴⁰And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the torrent Kidron, unto the corner of the horse-gate toward the east, shall be holy unto Jehovah: it shall not be plucked up, nor overthrown any more for ever.

Chapter 32

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah: that year was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. ²And the king of Babylon’s army was then besieging Jerusalem; and the prophet Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah’s house. ³For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why dost thou prophesy and say, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; ⁴and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans; for he shall certainly be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes; ⁵and he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith Jehovah: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper? ⁶And Jeremiah said, The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ⁷Behold, Hanameel, the son of Shallum thine uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, Buy for thyself my field which is in Anathoth; for thine is the right of redemption, to buy it. ⁸And Hanameel, mine uncle’s son, came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of Jehovah, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine: buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of Jehovah. ⁹And I bought of Hanameel, mine uncle’s son, the field which is in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰And I subscribed the writing, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed the money in the balances. ¹¹And I took the writing of the purchase, that which was sealed according to the law and the statutes, and that which was open; ¹²and I gave the writing of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Nerijah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses that had subscribed the writing of purchase, before all the Jews that were sitting in the court of the guard. ¹³And I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, ¹⁴Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these writings, this writing of the purchase, both that which is sealed and this writing which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may remain many days. ¹⁵For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be purchased in this land.

¹⁶And after I had given the writing of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Nerijah, I prayed unto Jehovah saying, ¹⁷Alas, Lord Jehovah! Behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and stretched-out arm; there is nothing too hard for thee: ¹⁸who shewest mercy unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them, thou, the great, the mighty •God, —Jehovah of hosts is his name; ¹⁹great in counsel and mighty in work, whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the children of men, to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings: ²⁰who hast displayed signs and wonders unto this…