Jeremiah 31–32

The Lord Will Turn Mourning to Joy

31^z“At that time, declares the Lord, ^aI will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

²Thus says the Lord:

“The people who survived the sword

found grace in the wilderness;

^bwhen Israel sought for rest,

³the Lord appeared to him¹ from far away.

^cI have loved you with an everlasting love;

therefore ^dI have continued ^emy faithfulness to you.

^4fAgain I will build you, and you shall be built,

O virgin Israel!

^gAgain you shall adorn yourself with tambourines

and shall go forth in ^hthe dance of the merrymakers.

⁵ⁱAgain you shall plant vineyards

on the mountains of Samaria;

the planters shall plant

and shall enjoy the fruit.

⁶For there shall be a day when watchmen will call

in ^jthe hill country of Ephraim:

^k‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,

to the Lord our God.’ ”

⁷For thus says the Lord:

^l“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,

and raise shouts for ^mthe chief of the nations;

proclaim, give praise, and say,

ⁿ‘O Lord, save your people,

the remnant of Israel.’

⁸Behold, I will bring them ^ofrom the north country

and ^pgather them from ^qthe farthest parts of the earth,

among them ^rthe blind and the lame,

the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;

a great company, they shall return here.

^9sWith weeping they shall come,

^tand with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,

I will make them ^uwalk by brooks of water,

^vin a straight path in which they shall not stumble,

for ^wI am a father to Israel,

and Ephraim is ^xmy firstborn.

¹⁰“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,

and declare it in the coastlands far away;

say, ‘He who scattered Israel will ^pgather him,

and will keep him ^yas a shepherd keeps his flock.’

^11zFor the Lord has ransomed Jacob

and has redeemed him from ^ahands too strong for him.

¹²They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,

^band they shall be radiant ^cover the goodness of the Lord,

^dover the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and over the young of the flock and the herd;

^etheir life shall be like a watered garden,

^fand they shall languish no more.

^13gThen shall the young women rejoice in the dance,

and the young men and the old shall be merry.

^hI will turn their mourning into joy;

I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

¹⁴ⁱI will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,

and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,

declares the Lord.”

¹⁵Thus says the Lord:

^j“A voice is heard in ^kRamah,

lamentation and bitter weeping.

^lRachel is weeping for her children;

she refuses to be comforted for her children,

^mbecause they are no more.”

¹⁶Thus says the Lord:

“Keep your voice from weeping,

and your eyes from tears,

for there is a reward for your work,

declares the Lord,

and ⁿthey shall come back from the land of the enemy.

^17oThere is hope for your future,

declares the Lord,

and your children shall come back to their own country.

¹⁸I have heard ^pEphraim grieving,

‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,

like an untrained calf;

^qbring me back that I may be restored,

for you are the Lord my God.

¹⁹For after ^rI had turned away, I relented,

and after I was instructed, ^sI struck my thigh;

^tI was ashamed, and I was confounded,

because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

^20pIs Ephraim my dear son?

^uIs he my darling child?

For as often as I speak against him,

I do remember him still.

^vTherefore my heart² yearns for him;

I will surely have mercy on him,

declares the Lord.

^21w“Set up road markers for yourself;

make yourself guideposts;

^xconsider well the highway,

^wthe road by which you went.

Return, O virgin Israel,

return to these your cities.

^22yHow long will you waver,

^zO faithless daughter?

For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:

a woman encircles a man.”

²³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, ^awhen I restore their fortunes:

^b“ ‘The Lord bless you, ^cO habitation of righteousness,

^dO holy hill!’

^24eAnd Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and ^ethe farmers and those who wander with their flocks. ²⁵For I will ^fsatisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

²⁶At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

^27g“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when ^hI will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with ⁱthe seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸And it shall come to pass that ^jas I have watched over them ^kto pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, ^jso I will watch over them ^lto build and to plant, declares the Lord. ²⁹In those days they shall no longer say:

^m“ ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰ⁿBut everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

The New Covenant

^31o“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make ^pa new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³²not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when ^qI took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, ^rthough I was their husband, declares the Lord. ^33sFor this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: ^sI will put my law within them, and I will write it ^ton their hearts. ^uAnd I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ ^vfor they shall all know me, ^wfrom the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For ^xI will forgive their iniquity, and ^yI will remember their sin no more.”

³⁵Thus says the Lord,

who ^zgives the sun for light by day

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

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—

^bthe Lord of hosts is his name:

^36c“If this fixed order departs

from before me, declares the Lord,

then shall the offspring of Israel cease

from being a nation before me forever.”

³⁷Thus says the Lord:

“If the heavens above can be measured,

and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,

^dthen I will cast off all the offspring of Israel

for all that they have done,

declares the Lord.”

^38e“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord ^ffrom the Tower of Hananel to ^gthe Corner Gate. ^39hAnd the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. ⁴⁰ⁱThe whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the ^jbrook Kidron, to the corner of ^kthe Horse Gate toward the east, ^lshall be sacred to the Lord. ^mIt shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

Jeremiah Buys a Field During the Siege

32The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord ⁿin the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, ^owhich was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ²At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet ^pwas shut up in ^qthe court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. ³For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^rBehold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; ^4sZedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, ^rbut shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. ⁵And ^the shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. ^uThough you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”

⁶Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: ⁷Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ^v‘Buy my field that is at ^wAnathoth, ^xfor the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ ⁸Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in ^qthe court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at ^wAnathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

⁹“And I bought the field at ^wAnathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and ^yweighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. ^10zI signed the deed, ^asealed it, ^bgot witnesses, and ^yweighed the money on scales. ¹¹Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. ¹²And I gave the deed of purchase to ^cBaruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of ^dthe witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in ^qthe court of the guard. ¹³I charged ^cBaruch in their presence, saying, ¹⁴‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. ¹⁵For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and ^efields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’

Jeremiah Prays for Understanding

¹⁶“After I had given the deed of purchase to ^fBaruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: ¹⁷‘Ah, Lord God! It is ^gyou who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by ^hyour outstretched arm! ⁱNothing is too hard for you. ^18jYou show steadfast love to thousands, ^jbut you repay the guilt of fathers ^kto their children after them, O great and ^lmighty God, whose name is the ^mLord of hosts, ¹⁹ⁿgreat in counsel and ^omighty in deed, ^pwhose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, ^qrewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. ²⁰You have shown ^rsigns and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, ^sand have made a name for yourself, as at this day. ^21tYou brought your people…