Jeremiah 31–32

¹At that time, an affirmation of Jehovah, I am for God to all families of Israel, And they—they are to Me for a people. ²Thus said Jehovah: Found grace in the wilderness Hath a people remaining from the sword Going to cause it to rest—Israel. ³From afar Jehovah hath appeared to me, With love age-during I have loved thee, Therefore I have drawn thee with kindness. ⁴Again do I build thee, And thou hast been built, O virgin of Israel, Again thou puttest on thy tabrets, And hast gone out in the chorus of the playful. ⁵Again thou dost plant vineyards In mountains of Samaria, Planters have planted, and made common. ⁶For there is a day, Cried have watchmen on mount Ephraim, ‘Rise, and we go up to Zion, unto Jehovah our God; ⁷For thus said Jehovah: Sing, O ye to Jacob, with joy, And cry aloud at the head of the nations, Sound ye, praise ye, and say, Save, O Jehovah, thy people, the remnant of Israel. ⁸Lo, I am bringing them in from the north country, And have gathered them from the sides of the earth, Among them are blind and lame, Conceiving and travailing one—together, A great assembly—they turn back hither. ⁹With weeping they come in, And with supplications I bring them, I cause them to go unto streams of waters, In a right way—they stumble not in it, For I have been to Israel for a father, And Ephraim—My first-born is he.

¹⁰Hear a word of Jehovah, O nations, And declare ye among isles afar off, and say: He who is scattering Israel doth gather him, And hath kept him as a shepherd doth his flock, ¹¹For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob, And redeemed him from a hand stronger than he. ¹²And they have come in, And have sung in the high place of Zion, And flowed unto the goodness of Jehovah, For wheat, and for new wine, and for oil, And for the young of the flock and herd, And their soul hath been as a watered garden, And they add not to grieve any more. ¹³Then rejoice doth a virgin in a chorus, Both young men and old men—together, And I have turned their mourning to joy, And have comforted them, And gladdened them above their sorrow, ¹⁴And satisfied the soul of the priests with fatness, And My people with My goodness are satisfied, An affirmation of Jehovah. ¹⁵Thus said Jehovah, A voice in Ramah is heard, wailing, weeping most bitter, Rachel is weeping for her sons, She hath refused to be comforted for her sons, because they are not. ¹⁶Thus said Jehovah: Withhold thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, For there is a reward for thy work, An affirmation of Jehovah, And they have turned back from the land of the enemy. ¹⁷And there is hope for thy latter end, An affirmation of Jehovah, And the sons have turned back to their border.

¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, ‘Thou hast chastised me, And I am chastised, as a heifer not taught, Turn me back, and I turn back, For thou art Jehovah my God. ¹⁹For after my turning back I repented, And after my being instructed I struck on the thigh, I have been ashamed, I have also blushed, For I have borne the reproach of my youth. ²⁰A precious son is Ephraim to Me? A child of delights? For since My speaking against him, I do thoroughly remember him still, Therefore have My bowels been moved for him, I do greatly love him, An affirmation of Jehovah. ²¹Set up for thee signs, make for thee heaps, Set thy heart to the highway, the way thou wentest, Turn back, O virgin of Israel, Turn back unto these thy cities. ²²Till when dost thou withdraw thyself, O backsliding daughter? For Jehovah hath prepared a new thing in the land, Woman doth compass man. ²³Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, Still they say this word in the land of Judah, And in its cities, In My turning back to their captivity, Jehovah doth bless thee, habitation of righteousness, Mountain of holiness. ²⁴And dwelt in Judah have husbandmen, and in all its cities together, And they have journeyed in order. ²⁵For I have satiated the weary soul, And every grieved soul I have filled.’ ²⁶On this I have awaked, and I behold, and my sleep hath been sweet to me.

²⁷Lo, days are coming, an affirmation of Jehovah, And I have sown the house of Israel, And the house of Judah, With seed of man, and seed of beast. ²⁸And it hath been, as I watched over them to pluck up, And to break down, and to throw down, And to destroy, and to afflict; So do I watch over them to build, and to plant, An affirmation of Jehovah. ²⁹In those days they do not say any more: Fathers have eaten unripe fruit, And the sons’ teeth are blunted. ³⁰But—each for his own iniquity doth die, Every man who is eating the unripe fruit, Blunted are his teeth. ³¹Lo, days are coming, an affirmation of Jehovah, And I have made with the house of Israel And with the house of Judah a new covenant, ³²Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers, In the day of My laying hold on their hand, To bring them out of the land of Egypt, In that they made void My covenant, And I ruled over them—an affirmation of Jehovah. ³³For this is the covenant that I make, With the house of Israel, after those days, An affirmation of Jehovah, I have given My law in their inward part, And on their heart I do write it, And I have been to them for God, And they are to me for a people. ³⁴And they do not teach any more Each his neighbour, and each his brother, Saying, Know ye Jehovah, For they all know Me, from their least unto their greatest, An affirmation of Jehovah; For I pardon their iniquity, And of their sin I make mention no more.

³⁵Thus said Jehovah, Who is giving the sun for a light by day, The statutes of moon and stars for a light by night, Quieting the sea when its billows roar, Jehovah of Hosts is His name: ³⁶If these statutes depart from before Me, An affirmation of Jehovah, Even the seed of Israel doth cease From being a nation before Me all the days. ³⁷Thus said Jehovah: If the heavens above be measured, And the foundations of earth below searched, Even I kick against all the seed of Israel, For all that they have done, An affirmation of Jehovah. ³⁸Lo, days are coming, an affirmation of Jehovah, And the city hath been built to Jehovah, From the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner. ³⁹And gone out again hath the measuring line Over-against it, unto the height of Gareb, And it hath compassed to Goah. ⁴⁰And all the valley of the carcases and of the ashes, And all the fields unto the brook Kidron, Unto the corner of the horse-gate eastward, Are holy to Jehovah, it is not plucked up, Nor is it thrown down any more to the age!

Chapter 32

¹The word that hath been unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah—it is the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, ²And then the forces of the king of Babylon are laying siege against Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet hath been shut up in the court of the prison that is in the house of the king of Judah, ³Where Zedekiah king of Judah hath shut him up, saying, ‘Wherefore art thou prophesying, saying, Thus said Jehovah, Lo, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he hath captured it; ⁴And Zedekiah king of Judah doth not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but is certainly given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and his mouth hath spoken with his mouth, and his eyes see his eyes, ⁵And to Babylon he leadeth Zedekiah, and there he is till My inspecting him,—an affirmation of Jehovah—because ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye do not prosper.’ ⁶And Jeremiah saith, ‘A word of Jehovah hath been unto me saying, ⁷Lo, Hanameel son of Shallum, thine uncle, is coming unto thee, saying, Buy for thee my field that is in Anathoth, for thine is the right of redemption—to buy. ⁸And Hanameel, my uncle’s son, cometh in unto me, according to the word of Jehovah, unto the court of the prison, and saith unto me, ‘Buy, I pray thee, my field that is in Anathoth, that is in the land of Benjamin, for thine is the right of possession, and thine of redemption—buy for thee.’ And I know that it is the word of Jehovah, ⁹And I buy the field, that is in Anathoth, from Hanameel, my uncle’s son, and I weigh to him the money—seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰And I write in a book, and seal, and cause witnesses to testify, and weigh the silver in balances; ¹¹And I take the purchase-book, the sealed one, according to law and custom, and the open one. ¹²And I give the purchase-book unto Baruch son of Neriah, son of Maaseiah, before the eyes of Hanameel, my uncle’s son, and before the eyes of the witnesses, those writing in the purchase-book, before the eyes of all the Jews who are sitting in the court of the prison. ¹³And I charge Baruch before their eyes, saying,

¹⁴‘Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, Take these books, this purchase-book, both the sealed one and the open one, and thou hast put them in an earthen vessel, that they may remain many days; ¹⁵For thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, Again are houses and fields and vineyards bought in this land.’

¹⁶And I pray unto Jehovah—after my giving the purchase-book unto Baruch son of Neriah—saying, ¹⁷‘Ah, Lord Jehovah, lo, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power, and by Thy stretched-out arm; there is nothing too wonderful for Thee: ¹⁸Doing kindness to thousands, and recompensing iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their sons after them; God, the great, the mighty, Jehovah of Hosts is His name, ¹⁹Great in counsel, and mighty in act, in that Thine eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of Adam, to give to each according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings: ²⁰In that thou hast done signs and wonders in the land of Egypt unto this day, and in Israel, and among men, and Thou dost make for Thee a name as at this day.

²¹‘And Thou bringest forth Thy people Israel from the land of Egypt, with signs and with wonders, and by a strong hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by great fear, ²²And thou givest to them this land that thou didst swear to their fathers to give to them, a land flowing with milk and honey, ²³And they come…