Jeremiah 31
31
The New Israel
1The Lord says, “At that time I will be God of all Israel’s family groups, and they will be my people.”
2This is what the Lord says:
“The people who were not killed by the enemy’s sword
found help in the desert.
I came to give rest to Israel.”
3And from far away the Lord appeared to his people and said,
“I love you people
with a love that will last forever.
That is why I have continued
showing you kindness.
4People of Israel, I will build you up again,
and you will be rebuilt.
You will pick up your tambourines again
and dance with those who are joyful.
5You will plant vineyards again
on the hills around Samaria.
The farmers will plant them
and enjoy their fruit.
6There will be a time when watchmen in the mountains of Ephraim shout this message:
‘Come, let’s go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord our God!’ ”
7This is what the Lord says:
“Be happy and sing for the people of Jacob.
Shout for Israel, the greatest of the nations.
Sing your praises and shout this:
‘Lord, save your people,
those who are left alive from the nation of Israel!’
8Look, I will soon bring Israel from the country in the north,
and I will gather them from the faraway places on earth.
Some of the people are blind and crippled.
Some of the women are pregnant, and some are ready to give birth.
A great many people will come back.
9They will be crying as they come,
but they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead those people by streams of water
on an even road where they will not stumble.
I am Israel’s father,
and Israel is my firstborn son.
10“Nations, listen to the message from the Lord.
Tell this message in the faraway lands by the sea:
‘The one who scattered the people of Israel will bring them back,
and he will watch over his people like a shepherd.’
11The Lord will pay for the people of Jacob
and will buy them back from people stronger than they were.
12The people of Israel will come to the high points of Jerusalem
and shout for joy.
Their faces will shine with happiness about all the good things from the Lord:
the grain, new wine, oil, young sheep, and young cows.
They will be like a garden that has plenty of water,
and they will not be troubled anymore.
13Then young women of Israel will be happy and dance,
the young men and old men also.
I will change their sadness into happiness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sadness.
14The priests will have more than enough sacrifices,
and my people will be filled with the good things I give them!” says the Lord.
15This is what the Lord says:
“A voice was heard in Ramah
of painful crying and deep sadness:
Rachel crying for her children.
She refused to be comforted,
because her children are dead!”
16But this is what the Lord says:
“Stop crying;
don’t let your eyes fill with tears.
You will be rewarded for your work!” says the Lord.
“The people will return from their enemy’s land.
17So there is hope for you in the future,” says the Lord.
“Your children will return to their own land.
18“I have heard Israel moaning:
‘Lord, you punished me, and I have learned my lesson.
I was like a calf that had never been trained.
Take me back so that I may come back.
You truly are the Lord my God.
19Lord, after I wandered away from you,
I changed my heart and life.
After I understood,
I beat my breast with sorrow.
I was ashamed and disgraced,
because I suffered for the foolish things I did when I was young.’
20“You know that Israel is my dear son,
The child I love.
Yes, I often speak against Israel,
but I still remember him.
I love him very much,
and I want to comfort him,” says the Lord.
21“People of Israel, fix the road signs.
Put up signs to show you the way home.
Watch the road.
Pay attention to the road on which you travel.
People of Israel, come home,
come back to your towns.
22You are an unfaithful daughter.
How long will you wander before you come home?
The Lord has made something new happen in the land:
A woman will go seeking a man.”
23The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “I will again do good things for the people of Judah. At that time the people in the land of Judah and its towns will again use these words: ‘May the Lord bless you, home of what is good, holy mountain.’ 24People in all the towns of Judah will live together in peace. Farmers and those who move around with their flocks will live together in peace. 25I will give rest and strength to those who are weak and tired.”
26After hearing that, I, Jeremiah, woke up and looked around. My sleep had been very pleasant.
27The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will help the families of Israel and Judah and their children and animals to grow. 28In the past I watched over Israel and Judah, to pull them up and tear them down, to destroy them and bring them disaster. But now I will watch over them to build them up and make them strong,” says the Lord.
29“At that time people will no longer say:
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and that caused the children to grind their teeth from the sour taste.’
30Instead, each person will die for his own sin; the person who eats sour grapes will grind his own teeth.
The New Agreement
31“Look, the time is coming,” says the Lord,
“when I will make a new agreement
with the people of Israel
and the people of Judah.
32It will not be like the agreement
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to bring them out of Egypt.
I was a husband to them,
but they broke that agreement,” says the Lord.
33“This is the agreement I will make
with the people of Israel at that time,” says the Lord:
“I will put my teachings in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives
to know the Lord,
because all people will know me,
from the least to the most important,” says the Lord.
“I will forgive them for the wicked things they did,
and I will not remember their sins anymore.”
The Lord Will Never Leave Israel
35The Lord makes the sun shine in the day
and the moon and stars to shine at night.
He stirs up the sea so that its waves crash on the shore.
The Lord All-Powerful is his name.
This is what the Lord says:
36“Only if these laws should ever fail,”
says the Lord,
“will Israel’s descendants ever stop
being a nation before me.”
37This is what the Lord says:
“Only if people can measure the sky above
and learn the secrets of the earth below,
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of what they have done,” says the Lord.
The New Jerusalem
38The Lord says, “The time is coming when Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me—everything from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39The measuring line will stretch from the Corner Gate straight to the hill of Gareb. Then it will turn to the place named Goah. 40The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate—all that area will be holy to the Lord. The city of Jerusalem will never again be torn down or destroyed.”
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Jeremiah 31: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 31
31
1 "In that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people."
2 Thus says the Lord: "The people who had remained after the sword, found grace in the desert. Israel will go to his rest."
3 The Lord appeared to me from a distance: "And I have loved you in perpetual charity. Therefore, showing pity, I have drawn you.
4 And I will build you up again. And you shall be built up, O virgin of Israel. Still shall you be adorned with your timbrels, and still shall you go forth to the singing of those who play.
5 Still shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and they will not gather the vintage until the time arrives.
6 For there will be a day on which the guardians on mount Ephraim will cry out: 'Arise! And let us ascend on Zion to the Lord our God!' "
7 For thus says the Lord: "Exult in the joy of Jacob, and neigh before the head of the Gentiles. Shout, and sing, and say: 'O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel!'
8 Behold, I will lead them from the land of the north, and I will gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, she who is with child, together with she who is giving birth: a great assembly returning to this place.
9 They will approach with weeping. And I will lead them back with mercy. And I will lead them through the torrents of water, by an upright way, and they will not stumble in it. For I have become Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn."
10 Listen to the word of the Lord, O Gentiles, and announce it amid the islands that are far away, and say: "Whoever has scattered Israel will gather him, and he will guard him as a shepherd guards his flock."
11 For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and he has freed him from the hand of one more powerful.
12 And they will arrive and give praise on Mount Zion. And they will flow together, to the good things of the Lord, over grain, and wine, and oil, and the offspring of cattle and herds. And their soul will be like an irrigated garden, and they will no longer be hungry.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice with singing, the young and the old together, and I will turn their mourning into gladness, and I will console them and gladden them after their sorrow.
14 And I will inebriate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be filled with my good things, says the Lord."
15 Thus says the Lord: "A voice has been heard on high: of lamentation, mourning, and weeping; of Rachel crying for her sons and refusing to be consoled over them, because they are not."
16 Thus says the Lord: "Let your voice cease from crying and your eyes from tears. For there is a reward for your work, says the Lord. And they will return from the land of the enemy.
17 And there is hope for your very end, says the Lord. And the sons will return to their own borders.
18 Listening, I heard Ephraim going into captivity: 'You have chastised me, and I was instructed, like a young untamed bull. Convert me, and I shall be converted. For you are the Lord my God.
19 For after you converted me, I did penance. And after you revealed to me, I struck my thigh. I am confounded and ashamed. For I have endured the disgrace of my youth.'
20 Certainly, Ephraim is an honorable son to me; surely, he is a tender child. For I will still remember him, as in the time when I first spoke about him. Because my heart is stirred up over him, surely I will take pity on him, says the Lord.
21 Establish a watchtower for yourself. Place yourself in bitterness. Direct your heart into the upright way, in which you used to walk. Return, return, O virgin of Israel, to these your cities!
22 How long will you be absorbed in delights, O wandering daughter? For the Lord has created something new upon the earth: a woman will encompass a man."
23 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Still they will speak this word in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I will convert their captivity: 'May the Lord bless you, the beauty of justice, the holy mountain.'
24 And they will live in it: Judah together with all its cities, the farmer and those who drive the flocks.
25 For I have inebriated the weary soul, and I have satisfied every hungry soul.
26 Over this, I was awakened, as if from a deep sleep. And I saw, and my sleep became sweet to me.
27 Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and with the offspring of cattle.
28 And just as I have watched over them, so that I may root up, and tear down, and scatter, and destroy, and afflict, so will I watch over them, so that I may build and plant them, says the Lord.
29 In those days, they will no longer say: 'The fathers ate a bitter grape, and the teeth of the sons have been affected.'
30 Instead, each one will die for his own iniquity. Each man who will have eaten a bitter grape, his own teeth will be affected.
31 Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will form a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32 not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand, so as to lead them away from the land of Egypt, the covenant which they nullified, though I was the ruler over them, says the Lord.
33 But this will be the covenant that I will form with the house of Israel, after those days, says the Lord: I will give my law to their inner most being, and I will write it upon their heart. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they will no longer teach, a man his neighbor, and a man his brother, saying: 'Know the Lord.' For all will know me, from the littlest of them even to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will no longer remember their sin.
35 Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun as the light of the day, who puts the moon and the stars in order as the light of the night, who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar: the Lord of hosts is his name.
36 If these laws fail in my sight, says the Lord, then the offspring of Israel will also fail, so that they will not be a people in my sight for all time."
37 Thus says the Lord: "If the heavens above are able to be measured, and if the foundations of the earth beneath can be examined, I also will cast aside all the offspring of Israel, because of all that they have done, says the Lord.
38 Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when a city will be built for the Lord from the tower of Hananel, even to the Gate of the Corner;
39 and the measuring line will go on even further in his sight, over the hill of Gareb, and it will encircle Goah
40 and the entire Valley of dead bodies and ashes, and the entire region of death, even to the torrent of Kedron, and to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east. All this will be the holy place of the Lord. It will not be rooted up, and it will not be torn down, anymore, forever."
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