Jeremiah 31

The Remnant of Israel Saved

31“At ^athe same time,” says the Lord, ^b“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”

²Thus says the Lord:

“The people who survived the sword

Found grace in the wilderness—

Israel, when ^cI went to give him rest.”

³The Lord has appeared ¹of old to me, saying:

“Yes, ^dI have loved you with ^ean everlasting love;

Therefore with lovingkindness I have ^fdrawn you.

⁴Again ^gI will build you, and you shall be rebuilt,

O virgin of Israel!

You shall again be adorned with your ^htambourines,

And shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.

⁵ⁱYou shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria;

The planters shall plant and ²eat them as ordinary food.

⁶For there shall be a day

When the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim,

^j‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,

To the Lord our God.’ ”

⁷For thus says the Lord:

^k“Sing with gladness for Jacob,

And shout among the chief of the nations;

Proclaim, give praise, and say,

‘O Lord, save Your people,

The remnant of Israel!’

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

And ^mgather them from the ends of the earth,

Among them the blind and the lame,

The woman with child

And the one who labors with child, together;

A great throng shall return there.

⁹ⁿThey shall come with weeping,

And with supplications I will lead them.

I will cause them to walk ^oby the rivers of waters,

In a straight way in which they shall not stumble;

For I am a Father to Israel,

And Ephraim is My ^pfirstborn.

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

And declare it in the ³isles afar off, and say,

‘He who scattered Israel ^qwill gather him,

And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’

¹¹For ^rthe Lord has redeemed Jacob,

And ransomed him ^sfrom the hand of one stronger than he.

¹²Therefore they shall come and sing in ^tthe height of Zion,

Streaming to ^uthe goodness of the Lord

For wheat and new wine and oil,

For the young of the flock and the herd;

Their souls shall be like a ^vwell-watered garden,

^wAnd they shall sorrow no more at all.

¹³“Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance,

And the young men and the old, together;

For I will turn their mourning to joy,

Will comfort them,

And make them rejoice rather than sorrow.

¹⁴I will ⁴satiate the soul of the priests with abundance,

And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord.”

Mercy on Ephraim

¹⁵Thus says the Lord:

^x“A voice was heard in ^yRamah,

Lamentation and bitter ^zweeping,

Rachel weeping for her children,

Refusing to be comforted for her children,

Because ^athey are no more.”

¹⁶Thus says the Lord:

“Refrain your voice from ^bweeping,

And your eyes from tears;

For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord,

And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷There is ^chope in your future, says the Lord,

That your children shall come back to their own border.

¹⁸“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:

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

Like an untrained bull;

^eRestore me, and I will return,

For You are the Lord my God.

¹⁹Surely, ^fafter my turning, I repented;

And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh;

I was ^gashamed, yes, even humiliated,

Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’

²⁰Is Ephraim My dear son?

Is he a pleasant child?

For though I spoke against him,

I earnestly remember him still;

^hTherefore My ⁵heart yearns for him;

ⁱI will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.

²¹“Set up signposts,

Make landmarks;

^jSet your heart toward the highway,

The way in which you went.

⁶Turn back, O virgin of Israel,

Turn back to these your cities.

²²How long will you ^kgad about,

O you ^lbacksliding daughter?

For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—

A woman shall encompass a man.”

Future Prosperity of Judah

²³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ^m‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and ⁿmountain of holiness!’ ²⁴And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and ^oin all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. ²⁵For I have ⁷satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

²⁶After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was ^psweet to me.

²⁷“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that ^qI 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, that as I have ^rwatched over them ^sto pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them ^tto build and to plant, says the Lord. ^29uIn those days they shall say no more:

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

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

^30vBut every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

A New Covenant

³¹“Behold, the ^wdays are coming, says the Lord, when 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 that ^xI took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, ⁸though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. ^33yBut this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: ^zI will put My law in their minds, and write it on their ⁹hearts; ^aand I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for ^bthey all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For ^cI will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

³⁵Thus says the Lord,

^dWho gives the sun for a light by day,

The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,

Who disturbs ^ethe sea,

And its waves roar

^f(The Lord of hosts is His name):

³⁶“If ^gthose ordinances depart

From before Me, says the Lord,

Then the seed of Israel shall also cease

From being a nation before Me forever.”

³⁷Thus says the Lord:

^h“If heaven above can be measured,

And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,

I will also ⁱcast off all the seed of Israel

For all that they have done, says the Lord.

³⁸“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord—^jfrom the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ^39kThe surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. ⁴⁰And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, ^lto the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, ^mshall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”