Jeremiah 31–32

31“At that time,” declares^a Yahweh,

“I will be the God of all the clans^b of Israel,

and they will be to me a people.”

²Thus says Yahweh:

“The people of the survivors of the sword found grace in the desert;^c

Israel going to find their rest.”

³From afar Yahweh appeared to me, saying,

“I have loved you with an everlasting love.

Therefore^d I have drawn you with loyal love.

⁴I will again build you,

and you will be built, O virgin Israel.

You will again adorn yourself with your tambourines,

and you will go forth in the dancing in a ring of the merrymakers.

⁵You will again plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria.

The planters will plant, and they will enjoy it.^e

⁶For there will be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim,

‘Stand up, and let us go up to Zion, to Yahweh our God.’ ”

⁷For thus says Yahweh,

“Sing for joy for Jacob with gladness,

and shout out for the head of the nations.

Proclaim, praise, and say,

‘Save, O Yahweh, your people, the remnant of Israel.’

⁸Look, I am going to bring them from the land of the north,

and I will gather them from the remotest part of the earth.

Among them the blind, and the lame,

those who are pregnant, and those who give birth,

together, a great assembly,

they will return here.

⁹With weeping they will come,

and with pleas for mercy I will bring them;

I will let them walk by streams of water in a straight path.

They will not stumble in it,

for I have become to Israel a father,

and Ephraim, he is my firstborn.”

¹⁰Hear the word of Yahweh, O nations,

and declare in the coastlands from afar, and say,

“The scatterer of Israel will gather him,

and he will keep him as a shepherd his flock.

¹¹For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob,

and he has redeemed him from the hand of the person stronger^f than he.

¹²And they will come,

and they will sing for joy on the height of Zion,

and they will be radiant over the goodness of Yahweh,

over the grain, and over the wine, and over the olive oil,

and over the young ones of the flock, and over the cattle.

And their life will become like a well-watered garden,

and they will never languish again.”

¹³“Then the young woman will rejoice in the dancing in a ring,

and the young men and the old men together.

And I will turn their mourning to jubilation,

and I will comfort them,

and I will gladden them from their sorrow.

¹⁴And I will saturate the appetite of the priests with fatness,

and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” declares^g Yahweh.

¹⁵Thus says Yahweh,

“A voice is heard in Ramah,

lamentation, the weeping of bitterness.

Rachel is weeping for her children;

she refuses to be comforted because of her children,

for they are no more.”

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh:

“Restrain your voice from weeping,

and your eyes from tears,

for there is a reward for your work,” declares^h Yahweh,

“and they will return from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷And there is hope for your future,” declaresⁱ Yahweh,

“and your children will return to their territory.

¹⁸Indeed I heard Ephraim pitying themselves,

‘You disciplined me, and I was disciplined,

like a calf that is not trained.

Bring me back and let me return,

for you are Yahweh my God.

¹⁹For after my turning back I repented,

and after coming to understand I struck my thigh.

I was ashamed and also humiliated,

because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

²⁰Is Ephraim my dear son,

or the child of my delight?

For as often as^j I have earnestly spoken against him,

I still remember him.

Therefore^k my bowels are turbulent for him,

surely I will have compassion on him,” declares^l Yahweh.

²¹“Set up for yourself road markers,

make for yourself signposts,

set your mind^m to the main road,

the road by which you went.

Return, O virgin of Israel,

return to these your cities.

²²How longⁿ will you waver, O unfaithful daughter?

For Yahweh has created a new thing on the earth,

a woman, she shelters a man.”

²³Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “They will again say these words^o in the land of Judah and in its towns at my restoring their fortunes,^p

‘Yahweh bless you, O settlement of righteousness,

O hill of holiness.’

²⁴And Judah and all of its towns together will live in it,

farmers and those who travel with the flocks.^q

²⁵For I will saturate the thirst of the weary,

and every person who languishes I will replenish.”

²⁶At this I awoke and looked,

and my sleep was pleasant to me.

The New Covenant

²⁷“Look, the days are coming,” declares^r Yahweh, “and I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humankind, and with the seed of animals.^{s 28}And then^t as I have watched over them to pull up, and to tear down, and to annihilate, and to destroy, and to do evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares^u Yahweh. ²⁹“In those days they will say no longer, ‘Parents^v have eaten unripe fruit, and the teeth of the children are set on edge^w.’ ³⁰But^x each will die because of his iniquity, everyone^y who eats the unripe fruit, their teeth will be set on edge.^z

³¹Look, the days are coming,” declares^a Yahweh, “and I will make^b a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ³²not like the covenant that I made^c with their ancestors^d on the day of my grasping them^e by their hand, bringing them out from the land of Egypt, my covenant that they themselves broke, though I myself was a master over them,” declares^f Yahweh. ³³“But this is the covenant that I will make^g with the house of Israel after those days,” declares^h Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts and on their heartsⁱ I will write it, and I will be to them God, and they themselves will be to me people. ³⁴And they will no longer teach each one his neighbor, or each one his brother, saying,^j ‘Know Yahweh,’ for all of them will know me, from their smallest^k and up to their greatest,”^l declares^m Yahweh, “for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will no longer remember.”

³⁵Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for light by day, the regulations of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar—Yahweh of hosts is his name. ³⁶“If these rules would cease from before me,”ⁿ declares^o Yahweh, “also the offspring of Israel would cease from being a nation before me^p forever.”^{q 37}Thus says Yahweh, “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, also I will reject all the offspring of Israel because of all that they have done,” declares^r Yahweh. ³⁸“Look, days are coming,” declares^s Yahweh, “and the city will be rebuilt for Yahweh, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹And the measuring line^t will still go out immediately in front of it to the hill of Gareb, and it will turn to Goah. ⁴⁰And the whole of the valley of the corpses, and the ashes, and all the cultivated fields up to the wadi of Kidron, up to the corner of the Gate of the Horses toward the east will be holy to Yahweh. It will not be uprooted, and it will not be overthrown again forever.”^u

Jeremiah Buys a Field

32The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah the king of Judah, that was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ²Now at that time the army of the king of Babylon was laying siege to Jerusalem and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, ³where Zedekiah, the king of Judah, had confined him, saying,^a “Why are you prophesying, saying,^b ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Look, I am going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it, ⁴and Zedekiah, the king of Judah, will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but surely he will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will speak face to face with him^c and he will see him eye to eye,^{d 5}and to Babylon he will bring Zedekiah, and there he will be until my attending to him,” declares^e Yahweh. “If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not be successful” ’?”

⁶And Jeremiah said, “The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,^{f 7}‘Look, Hanamel, the son of Shallum, your uncle, is going to come to you, saying,^g “Buy for yourself my field that is at Anathoth, for you have^h the right of redemption to buy it.” ’^{i 8}Then Hanamel, the son of my uncle, came to me, to the courtyard of the guard according to^j the word of Yahweh, and he said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is at Anathoth, that is in the land of Benjamin, for to you is the claim of possession, and to you the redemption; buy it^k for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of Yahweh.

⁹And I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle, that was at Anathoth. And I weighed out to him the money, seventeen silver shekels. ¹⁰And I signed on the letter^l and sealed it,^m and I called witnesses as witness, and I weighed out the money on a set of scales. ¹¹Then I took the deedⁿ of the purchase, the sealed copy containing the commandments^o and the rules, together with the one that was open. ¹²And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of^p Hanamel, the son of my uncle, and in the presence of^q the witnesses who signed the deed of the purchase, in the presence of^r the Judeans^s who were sitting in the courtyard of the guard. ¹³And I commanded Baruch in their presence,^t saying,^{u 14}‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Take these deeds,^v this deed of the purchase, the sealed one, and this opened deed, and you must put them in an earthenware jar^w so that they may be kept preserved many days.” ¹⁵For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.” ’

¹⁶And I prayed to Yahweh—after giving my deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah—saying,^{x 17}‘Ah Lord Yahweh! Look, you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing^y is too difficult for you, ¹⁸showing loyal love to the thousands, and repaying the guilt of parents^z into the laps^a of…