The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 31

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 31

1 At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the generations of Israel, and they will be my people.

2 This is what the Lord says: “The people who escaped the sword found favor in the wilderness, Israel, when I give them rest.”

3 The Lord appeared to me long ago, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.

4 Again I will build you up, and you will be rebuilt, Virgin Israel! Again you will take up your tambourines and go out with the joyful dance.

5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters will plant and enjoy the fruit.

6 For there will be a day when watchmen will cry out on the mountains of Ephraim, ‘Arise, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.’” 7 For thus says the Lord: Sing with joy for Jacob, and shout for the Chief of the nations; proclaim, give praises, and say, “O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel.”

8 Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the ends of the earth; and with them the blind and the lame, pregnant women and those in labor together; a great company shall return here.

9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them; I will guide them to streams of water, on a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the distant isles, and say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”

11 For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and delivered him out of the hand of him that was stronger than he.

12 So they shall come and sing on the height of Zion, and shall run to the goodness of the Lord, to the grain, and to the wine, and to the oil, to the lambs and to the calves; and their soul shall be like a watered garden, and they shall be no more sorrowful.

13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and also the young men and the old: and I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and turn their sorrow into rejoicing.

14 And I will satisfy the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be filled with my goodness, saith the Lord.

15 Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children, and shall not receive comfort for them, because they are not.

16 This is what the Lord says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord, “and they will return from the land of the enemy.”

17 “There is hope for your descendants in the end,” declares the Lord, “for your children will return to their own land.”

18 I have surely heard Ephraim lamenting: “You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained calf. Turn me back, and I will be restored, for you are the Lord my God.”

19 “Surely after I turned back, I repented; after I understood myself, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, yes, I was confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.”

20 “Is not Ephraim my precious son, the child of my delight?” Because after I speak against him, I still remember him intently; therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have compassion on him, declares the Lord.

21 Set up road signs for yourself, raise up pillars for yourself; consider the highway, the road by which you went; return, Virgin Israel, return to your cities.

22 How long will you wander, rebellious daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing on earth: a woman will embrace a man.

23 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “They will again say this in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes: ‘The Lord bless you, O dwelling place of righteousness, O holy mountain!’”

24 Judah and all its cities will live there together, along with the farmers and those who tend the flocks.

25 For I satisfy the weary soul, and I replenish every sorrowful soul.

26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was sweet to me.

27 Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of men and with the seed of animals.

28 And it shall come to pass, that as I watched over them to pluck up, and to break down, and to overthrow, and to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord.

29 In those days they shall no more say, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

30 But every man shall die for his own iniquity; the teeth of every man that eateth sour grapes shall be set on edge.

31 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘I have known the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.

35 This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun for light by day and decrees the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord Almighty is his name:

36 “If these decrees depart from before me,” declares the Lord, “then the descendants of Israel will cease to be a nation before me forever.”

37 This is what the Lord says: “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will reject all the descendants of Israel because of all that they have done,” declares the Lord.

38 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

39 The measuring line shall extend forward to the hill of Gareb and turn toward Goah.

40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord; they shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”