Jeremiah 31

1At that time, declares Yahweh, I will be the God of every clan of Israel, and they will be my people.

2This is what Yahweh says: “A people who escaped the sword found favor in the wilderness, when Israel went looking for rest.

3From far away Yahweh appeared to me: With everlasting love I have loved you; so with steadfast love I have drawn you to myself.

4Once more I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, Virgin Israel. Once more you will deck yourself out with your tambourines and go out in the dancing of those who make merry.

5Once more you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; those who plant them will plant and will enjoy their yield.

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

7For this is what Yahweh says: “Ring out with joy for Jacob; shout aloud for the head of the nations. Announce it, praise, and say, ‘Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel.’

8Look, I am bringing them from the northern land and collecting them from the remotest parts of the earth, with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the one giving birth, all together; a vast assembly will come back here.

9In tears they will come, and amid their pleading I will bring them along. I will lead them to streams of water on a straight road where they will not trip, for I have become Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

10Listen to Yahweh’s word, you nations, and announce it in the far-off coastlands; say, ‘The one who scattered Israel will gather him and guard him the way a shepherd guards his flock.’

11For Yahweh has set Jacob free by ransom; he has redeemed him from the power of one mightier than he.

12They will come and sing out on the height of Zion and beam with joy over the good gifts of Yahweh: over grain, new wine, and fresh oil, over lambs and calves. Their soul will be like a garden with plenty of water, and they will not waste away anymore.

13Then young women will delight in the dance, and so will young men and old men together. I will change their grief into joy; I will console them and make them glad after their sorrow.

14I will saturate the priests’ souls with richness, and my people will have their fill of my good gifts, declares Yahweh.”

15This is what Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

16This is what Yahweh says: “Hold back your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your labor has its reward, declares Yahweh; they will return from the enemy’s land.

17Your future holds hope, declares Yahweh; your children will return to their own territory.”

18I have indeed heard Ephraim lamenting: “You corrected me, and I was corrected, like a calf not yet trained. Turn me back, and I will turn back, for you are Yahweh my God.

19For after I turned away, I was sorry; after I was made to understand, I beat my thigh in grief. I felt shame, and humiliation too, for I carried the reproach of my youth.”

20Is Ephraim a precious son to me, a child who delights me? For whenever I speak against him, I still keep remembering him. That is why my heart is stirred for him; I will surely show him compassion, declares Yahweh.

21Put up signposts for yourself; set up waymarks for yourself. Fix your attention on the highway, the road you walked. Turn back, Virgin Israel; turn back to these towns of yours.

22How long will you turn this way and that, wayward daughter? For Yahweh has created something new on the earth: a female will encircle a man.

23This is what Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Once more they will say these words in the land of Judah and in its towns, when I turn their fortunes around: ‘Yahweh bless you, home of righteousness, holy mountain!’

24Judah and all its towns will settle there together, the farmers and those who set out with the flocks.

25For I will give the weary soul plenty to drink, and I will fill every soul that is pining.”

26With that I woke and looked around; my sleep had been sweet to me.

27Look, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of people and the seed of animals.

28As I kept close watch over them to pull up and to break down, to demolish, to wipe out, and to do harm, so I will keep close watch over them to build and to plant, declares Yahweh.

29In those days no one will say anymore, “Fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

30Rather, each person will die for his own guilt; anyone who eats the unripe grapes will have his own teeth set on edge.

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

32It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant of mine, even though I was a husband to them, declares Yahweh.

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

34No longer will they teach one another, each his neighbor and each his brother, saying, “Know Yahweh,” because all of them will know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares Yahweh. For I will forgive their guilt and will no longer remember their sin.

35This is what Yahweh says, he who gives the sun as light for the day and the fixed laws of moon and stars as light for the night, who churns the sea until its waves roar—Yahweh of Armies is his name:

36“If these laws ever pass away from before me, declares Yahweh, then Israel’s offspring will also stop being a nation before me for all time.”

37This is what Yahweh says: “If anyone can measure the heavens above and search out the foundations of the earth beneath, then I will also reject the whole offspring of Israel because of all they have done, declares Yahweh.”

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

39The measuring line will go out again, straight ahead over the hill of Gareb, and will circle around to Goah.

40The entire valley of corpses and ashes, and all the fields out to the Kidron Valley, as far as the corner of the Horse Gate on the east, will be holy to Yahweh. It will never again be pulled up or demolished.