Jeremiah 31

1At that time, declares Yahweh, I will be God to all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.

2Thus says Yahweh: The people who survived the sword found favor in the wilderness; Israel, when it went to find rest for him.

3From far away Yahweh appeared to me: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with steadfast love.”

4Again I will build you, and you will be built, O virgin Israel; again you will adorn yourself with your tambourines and go out in the dance of those who celebrate.

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

6For there will be a day when watchmen will call out on the hill country of Ephraim, ‘Rise up, and let us go up to Zion, to Yahweh our God.’

7For thus says Yahweh: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and shout at the head of the nations; proclaim, praise, and say, “Save, Yahweh, your people, the remnant of Israel.”

8Behold, I am bringing them from the land of the north, and I will gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. Among them are the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and the woman in labor, together; a great assembly will return here.

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

10Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”

11For Yahweh has redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he.

12They will come and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will stream to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil, and to the young of the flock and the herd. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and they will never again waste away.

13Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, and young men and old men together; and I will turn their mourning into gladness, and I will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

14I will satisfy the priests with abundance, and my people will be filled with my goodness, declares Yahweh.

15Thus says Yahweh: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping—Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

16Thus says Yahweh: Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares Yahweh, and they will return from the land of the enemy.

17There is hope for your future, declares Yahweh, and your children will return to their own territory.

18I have surely heard Ephraim grieving: ‘You disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf. Restore me, and I will return, for you are Yahweh my God.’

19For after I turned back, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, and also humiliated, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.

20Is Ephraim a precious son to me, a child of delight? For as often as I speak of him, I still surely remember him. Therefore my inward parts are stirred for him; I will surely have compassion on him, declares Yahweh.

21Set up road markers for yourself; place guideposts for yourself. Set your heart toward the highway, the way you went. Return, virgin Israel; return to these your cities.

22How long will you waver, faithless daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the land: a woman will surround a man.

23Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: They will yet say this word in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes: “May Yahweh bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O holy mountain.”

24And Judah and all its cities will dwell there together, farmers and those who journey with the flock.

25For I have satisfied the weary soul, and every faint soul I have filled.

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

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

28And it shall be that, just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear down and to overthrow and to destroy and to bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares Yahweh.

29In those days they will no longer say, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the sons’ teeth are set on edge.’

30But each man will die for his own iniquity; every person who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.

31Look, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

32not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they themselves broke, though I was their husband, declares Yahweh.

33For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Yahweh: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

34And they will no longer teach, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

35Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for light by day, the fixed order of the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—Yahweh of hosts is his name:

36If these fixed ordinances depart from before me, declares Yahweh, then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.

37Thus says Yahweh: If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be searched out, then I also will reject all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares Yahweh.

38Behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when the city will be rebuilt for Yahweh, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

39And the measuring line will go out farther, straight ahead to the hill of Gareb, and then it will turn toward Goah.

40And the whole valley of the corpses and the ashes, and all the terraces as far as the Kidron Valley, as far as the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh. It shall not be uprooted or overthrown again forever.