Jeremiah 31

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

²Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness ; when Israel sought for rest ,

³the Lord appeared to him from far away . I have loved you with an everlasting love ; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

⁴Again I will build you, and you shall be built , O virgin Israel ! Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers .

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

⁶For there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim : Arise , and let us go up to Zion , to the Lord our God .

⁷For thus says the Lord: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob , and raise shouts for the chief of the nations ; proclaim , give praise , and say , O Lord, save your people , the remnant of Israel .

⁸Behold , I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth , among them the blind and the lame , the pregnant woman and she who is in labor , together ; a great company , they shall return here .

⁹With weeping they shall come , and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water , in a straight path in which they shall 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 the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

¹²They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion , and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain , the wine , and the oil , and over the young of the flock and the herd ; their life shall be like a watered garden , and they shall languish no more .

¹³Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance , and the young men and the old shall be merry . I will turn their mourning into joy ; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow .

¹⁴I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance , and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness , declares the Lord.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah , lamentation and bitter weeping . Rachel is weeping for her children ; she refuses to be comforted for her children , because they are no more .

¹⁶Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping , and your eyes from tears , for there is a reward for your work , declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy .

¹⁷There is hope for your future , declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country .

¹⁸I have heard Ephraim grieving , You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined , like an untrained calf ; bring me back that I may be restored , for you are the Lord my God .

¹⁹For after I had turned away , I relented , and after I was instructed , I struck my thigh ; I was ashamed , and I was confounded , because I bore the disgrace of my youth .

²⁰Is Ephraim my dear son ? Is he my darling child ? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still . Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.

²¹Set up road markers for yourself; make yourself guideposts ; consider well the highway , the road by which you went . Return , O virgin Israel , return to these your cities .

²²How long will you waver , O faithless daughter ? For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth : a woman encircles a man .

²³Thus says the Lord of hosts , the God of Israel : Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities , when I restore their fortunes : The Lord bless you, O habitation of righteousness , O holy hill !

²⁴And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together , and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks .

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

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

²⁷Behold , the days are coming , declares the Lord, 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 come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down , to overthrow , destroy , and bring harm , so I will watch over them to build and to plant , declares the Lord.

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

³⁰But everyone shall die for his own iniquity . Each man who eats sour grapes , his teeth shall be set on edge .

³¹Behold , the days are coming , declares the Lord, 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 when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt , my covenant that they broke , though I was their husband , declares the Lord.

³³For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days , declares the Lord: 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 no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother , saying , Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest , declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity , and I will remember their sin no more .

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

³⁶If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever .

³⁷Thus says the Lord: If the heavens above can be measured , and the foundations of the earth below can be explored , then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done , declares the Lord.

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

³⁹And the measuring line shall go out farther , straight to the hill Gareb , and shall then turn to Goah .

⁴⁰The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes , and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron , to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east , shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever .