Jeremiah 31–32

Chapter 31

Hope for Restoration

“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people. ²This is what the Lord says:

“Those who survive the coming destruction

will find blessings even in the barren land,

for I will give rest to the people of Israel.”

³Long ago the Lord said to Israel:

“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.

With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

⁴I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel.

You will again be happy

and dance merrily with your tambourines.

⁵Again you will plant your vineyards on the mountains of Samaria

and eat from your own gardens there.

⁶The day will come when watchmen will shout

from the hill country of Ephraim,

‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem

to worship the Lord our God.’ ”

⁷Now this is what the Lord says:

“Sing with joy for Israel.

Shout for the greatest of nations!

Shout out with praise and joy:

‘Save your people, O Lord,

the remnant of Israel!’

⁸For I will bring them from the north

and from the distant corners of the earth.

I will not forget the blind and lame,

the expectant mothers and women in labor.

A great company will return!

⁹Tears of joy will stream down their faces,

and I will lead them home with great care.

They will walk beside quiet streams

and on smooth paths where they will not stumble.

For I am Israel’s father,

and Ephraim is my oldest child.

¹⁰“Listen to this message from the Lord,

you nations of the world;

proclaim it in distant coastlands:

The Lord, who scattered his people,

will gather them and watch over them

as a shepherd does his flock.

¹¹For the Lord has redeemed Israel

from those too strong for them.

¹²They will come home and sing songs of joy on the heights of Jerusalem.

They will be radiant because of the Lord’s good gifts—

the abundant crops of grain, new wine, and olive oil,

and the healthy flocks and herds.

Their life will be like a watered garden,

and all their sorrows will be gone.

¹³The young women will dance for joy,

and the men—old and young—will join in the celebration.

I will turn their mourning into joy.

I will comfort them and exchange their sorrow for rejoicing.

¹⁴The priests will enjoy abundance,

and my people will feast on my good gifts.

I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Rachel’s Sadness Turns to Joy

¹⁵This is what the Lord says:

“A cry is heard in Ramah—

deep anguish and bitter weeping.

Rachel weeps for her children,

refusing to be comforted—

for her children are gone.”

¹⁶But now this is what the Lord says:

“Do not weep any longer,

for I will reward you,” says the Lord.

“Your children will come back to you

from the distant land of the enemy.

¹⁷There is hope for your future,” says the Lord.

“Your children will come again to their own land.

¹⁸I have heard Israel saying,

‘You disciplined me severely,

like a calf that needs training for the yoke.

Turn me again to you and restore me,

for you alone are the Lord my God.

¹⁹I turned away from God,

but then I was sorry.

I kicked myself for my stupidity!

I was thoroughly ashamed of all I did in my younger days.’

²⁰“Is not Israel still my son,

my darling child?” says the Lord.

“I often have to punish him,

but I still love him.

That’s why I long for him

and surely will have mercy on him.

²¹Set up road signs;

put up guideposts.

Mark well the path

by which you came.

Come back again, my virgin Israel;

return to your towns here.

²²How long will you wander,

my wayward daughter?

For the Lord will cause something new to happen—

Israel will embrace her God.”

²³This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, the people of Judah and its towns will again say, ‘The Lord bless you, O righteous home, O holy mountain!’ ²⁴Townspeople and farmers and shepherds alike will live together in peace and happiness. ²⁵For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.”

²⁶At this, I woke up and looked around. My sleep had been very sweet.

²⁷“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will greatly increase the human population and the number of animals here in Israel and Judah. ²⁸In the past I deliberately uprooted and tore down this nation. I overthrew it, destroyed it, and brought disaster upon it. But in the future I will just as deliberately plant it and build it up. I, the Lord, have spoken!

²⁹“The people will no longer quote this proverb:

‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,

but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste.’

³⁰All people will die for their own sins—those who eat the sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker.

³¹“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³²This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.

³³“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

³⁵It is the Lord who provides the sun to light the day

and the moon and stars to light the night,

and who stirs the sea into roaring waves.

His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,

and this is what he says:

³⁶“I am as likely to reject my people Israel

as I am to abolish the laws of nature!”

³⁷This is what the Lord says:

“Just as the heavens cannot be measured

and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored,

so I will not consider casting them away

for the evil they have done.

I, the Lord, have spoken!

³⁸“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when all Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹A measuring line will be stretched out over the hill of Gareb and across to Goah. ⁴⁰And the entire area—including the graveyard and ash dump in the valley, and all the fields out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the Horse Gate—will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be captured or destroyed.”

Chapter 32

Jeremiah’s Land Purchase

The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah. This was also the eighteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. ²Jerusalem was then under siege from the Babylonian army, and Jeremiah was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace. ³King Zedekiah had put him there, asking why he kept giving this prophecy: “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will take it. ⁴King Zedekiah will be captured by the Babylonians and taken to meet the king of Babylon face to face. ⁵He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and I will deal with him there,’ says the Lord. ‘If you fight against the Babylonians, you will never succeed.’ ”

⁶At that time the Lord sent me a message. He said, ⁷“Your cousin Hanamel son of Shallum will come and say to you, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else.’ ”

⁸Then, just as the Lord had said he would, my cousin Hanamel came and visited me in the prison. He said, “Please buy my field at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else, so buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that the message I had heard was from the Lord.

⁹So I bought the field at Anathoth, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces of silver for it. ¹⁰I signed and sealed the deed of purchase before witnesses, weighed out the silver, and paid him. ¹¹Then I took the sealed deed and an unsealed copy of the deed, which contained the terms and conditions of the purchase, ¹²and I handed them to Baruch son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. I did all this in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the deed, and all the men of Judah who were there in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

¹³Then I said to Baruch as they all listened, ¹⁴“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Take both this sealed deed and the unsealed copy, and put them into a pottery jar to preserve them for a long time.’ ¹⁵For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.’ ”

Jeremiah’s Prayer

¹⁶Then after I had given the papers to Baruch, I prayed to the Lord:

¹⁷“O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you! ¹⁸You show unfailing love to thousands, but you also bring the consequences of one generation’s sin upon the next. You are the great and powerful God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ¹⁹You have all wisdom and do great and mighty miracles. You see the conduct of all people, and you give them what they deserve. ²⁰You performed miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt—things still remembered to this day! And you have continued to do great miracles in Israel and all around the world. You have made your name famous to this day.

²¹“You brought Israel out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders, with a strong hand and powerful arm, and with overwhelming terror. ²²You gave the people of Israel this land that you had promised their ancestors long before—a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³Our ancestors came and conquered it and lived in it, but they refused to obey you or follow your word. They have not done anything you commanded. That is why you have sent this terrible disaster upon them.

²⁴“See how the siege ramps have been built against the…