Jeremiah 31–32

CHAPTER 31

Israel’s Mourning Turned to Joy

¹“At that time,” declares Yahweh, “I will be the ^aGod of all the ^bfamilies of Israel, and they shall be My people.”

²Thus says Yahweh,

“The people who survived the sword

^aFound grace in the wilderness—

Israel, when it went to ^bfind its relief.”

³Yahweh appeared to ¹him from afar, saying,

“I have ^aloved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore I have drawn you with ^blovingkindness.

⁴“^aAgain I will build you, and you will be rebuilt,

O virgin of Israel!

Again you will ¹take up your ^btambourines

And go forth to the dances of those ^ccelebrating.

⁵“Again you will ^aplant vineyards

On the ¹hills of Samaria;

The planters will plant

And will ²enjoy them.

⁶“For there will be a day when watchmen

On the hills of Ephraim call out,

‘Arise, and ^alet us go up to Zion,

To Yahweh our God.’”

⁷For thus says Yahweh,

“^aSing aloud with gladness for Jacob,

And shout among the ^bhead of the nations;

Make it heard, give praise, and say,

‘O Yahweh, ^csave Your people,

The ^dremnant of Israel.’

⁸“Behold, I am ^abringing them from the north country,

And I will ^bgather them from the remote parts of the earth,

Among them the ^cblind and the ^dlame,

The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together;

A great assembly, they will return here.

⁹“^aWith weeping they will come,

And by supplication I will lead them;

I will make them walk by ^bstreams of waters,

On a straight path in which they will ^cnot stumble;

For I am a ^dfather to Israel,

And Ephraim is ^eMy firstborn.”

¹⁰Hear the word of Yahweh, O nations,

And declare in the ^acoastlands far away,

And say, “He who dispersed Israel will ^bgather him

And keep him as a ^cshepherd keeps his flock.”

¹¹For Yahweh has ^aransomed Jacob

And redeemed him from the hand of him who was ^bstronger than he.

¹²“They will ^acome and sing for joy on the ^bheight of Zion,

And they will be ^cradiant over the goodness of Yahweh—

Over the ^dgrain and the new wine and the oil,

And over the young of the ^eflock and the herd;

And their soul will be like a ^fwatered garden,

And they will ^gnever waste away again.

¹³“Then the virgin will be glad in the ^adance,

And the young men and the old, together,

For I will ^bturn their mourning into joy

And will comfort them and give them ^cgladness for their sorrow.

¹⁴“I will ¹fill the soul of the priests with ²richness,

And My people will be ^asatisfied with My goodness,” declares Yahweh.

¹⁵Thus says Yahweh,

“^aA voice is heard in ^bRamah,

Wailing and bitter weeping.

Rachel is weeping for her children;

She ^crefuses to be comforted for her children

Because ^dthey are no more.”

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh,

“^aRestrain your voice from weeping

And your eyes from tears,

For your ^bwork will be rewarded,” declares Yahweh,

“And they will ^creturn from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷“And there is ^ahope for your future,” declares Yahweh,

“And your children will return to their own territory.

¹⁸“I have surely heard Ephraim ^agrieving,

‘You have ^bchastised me, and I was chastised,

Like an untrained ^ccalf;

^dCause me to return that I may return,

For You are Yahweh my God.

¹⁹‘For after I turned away, I ^arepented;

And after I was instructed, I ^bslapped my thigh;

I was ^cashamed and also dishonored

Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’

²⁰“Is ^aEphraim My dear son?

Is he a delightful child?

Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him,

I certainly still remember him;

Therefore My ^1binmost being yearns for him;

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

²¹“Set up roadmarks for yourself,

Place for yourself guideposts;

^aSet your heart to the highway,

The way by which you went.

^bReturn, O virgin of Israel,

Return to these your cities.

²²“How long will you go here and there,

O ^afaithless daughter?

For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth—

A ¹woman will encompass a man.”

²³Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I ^1areturn their ²fortunes,

‘Yahweh bless you, O ^babode of righteousness,

O ^choly hill!’

²⁴“And Judah and all its cities will ^ainhabit it together, the farmer and they who go about with flocks.

²⁵“^aFor I satisfy the weary soul and fill up every soul who wastes away.”

²⁶At this I ^aawoke and looked, and my ^bsleep was pleasant to me.

The New Covenant

²⁷“Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will ^asow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.

²⁸“And it will be that as I have ^awatched over them to ^buproot, to tear down, to pull down, to destroy, and to bring calamity, so I will watch over them to ^cbuild and to plant,” declares Yahweh.

²⁹“In those days they will not say again,

‘^aThe fathers have eaten sour grapes,

And the children’s teeth are ¹set on edge.’

³⁰“But ^aeveryone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be ¹set on edge.

³¹“^aBehold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will cut a ^bnew covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

³²not like the ^acovenant which I cut with their fathers in the day I ^btook them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My ^ccovenant which they broke, but I was a husband to them,” declares Yahweh.

³³“But ^athis is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh: “^bI will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and ^cI will be their God, and they shall be My people.

³⁴“And they will ^anot teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for they will all ^bknow Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares Yahweh, “for I will ^cforgive their iniquity, and their ^dsin I will remember no more.”

³⁵Thus says Yahweh,

Who ^agives the sun for light by day

And the statutes for the moon and the stars for light by night,

Who ^bstirs up the sea so that its waves roar;

^cYahweh of hosts is His name:

³⁶“^aIf these statutes are removed

From before Me,” declares Yahweh,

“Then the seed of Israel also will ^bcease

From being a nation before Me ¹forever.”

³⁷Thus says Yahweh,

“^aIf the heavens above can be measured

And the foundations of the earth searched out below,

Then I will also ^breject all the seed of Israel

For all that they have done,” declares Yahweh.

³⁸“Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when the ^acity will be rebuilt for Yahweh from the ^bTower of Hananel to the ^cCorner Gate.

³⁹“The ^ameasuring line will go out farther, straight ahead to the hill Gareb; then it will turn to Goah.

⁴⁰“And ^athe whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook ^bKidron, to the corner of the ^cHorse Gate toward the east, shall be ^dholy to Yahweh; it will not be uprooted or pulled down anymore forever.”

CHAPTER 32

Jeremiah Imprisoned

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the ^atenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

²Now at that time the military force of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the ^acourt of the guard, which was in the house of the king of Judah,

³because Zedekiah king of Judah had ^ashut him up, saying, “Why do you ^bprophesy, saying, ‘^cThus says Yahweh, “Behold, I am about to ^dgive this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it;

⁴and Zedekiah king of Judah will ^anot escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will ^bspeak with him ¹face to face and see him eye to eye;

⁵and he will ^alead Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I ¹visit him,” declares Yahweh. “If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will ^bnot succeed” ’?”

⁶And Jeremiah said, “The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁷‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying, “Buy for yourself my field which is at ^aAnathoth, for you have the ^blegal judgment for redemption to buy it.” ’

⁸“Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the ^acourt of the guard according to the word of Yahweh and said to me, ‘Buy my field, please, that is at ^bAnathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for you have the legal judgment for possession, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the ^cword of Yahweh.

⁹“I bought the field which was at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle’s son, and I ^aweighed out the silver for him, seventeen ^1bshekels of silver.

¹⁰“And I ^1asigned and ^bsealed the deed and ^ccalled in witnesses and weighed out the silver on the scales.

¹¹“Then I took the deeds of purchase, both the sealed copy containing the ^acommandment and statutes and the open copy,

¹²and I gave the deed of purchase to ^aBaruch the son of ^bNeriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle’s son and in the sight of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, in the sight of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard.

¹³“And I commanded Baruch in their sight, saying,

¹⁴‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Take these deeds—this deed of purchase—that is the sealed one as well as this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, that they may ¹last a long time.”

¹⁵‘For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “^aHouses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.” ’

Jeremiah Prays, Yahweh Responds

¹⁶“After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, then I ^aprayed to Yahweh, saying,

¹⁷‘^aAh Lord Yahweh! Behold, You have ^bmade the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! ^cNothing is too difficult for You,

¹⁸who ^ashows lovingkindness to thousands, but ^brepays the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children after them, O ^cgreat and ^dmighty God. ^eYahweh of hosts is His name,

^19agreat in counsel and abundant in deeds, whose ^beyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, ^cgiving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds,

²⁰who has ^aset signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and…