Jeremiah 31
31
The New Israel
1This is what the Lord said, “At that time I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel. And they will be my people.”
2This is what the Lord says:
“The people who escaped the enemy’s sword will find comfort in the desert.
Israel will go there looking for rest.”
3From far away, the Lord
will appear to his people.
The Lord says, “I love you people with a love that continues forever.
That is why I have continued showing you kindness.
4Israel, my bride, I will rebuild you.
You will be a country again.
You will pick up your tambourines again.
You will dance with all the other people who are having fun.
5You farmers of Israel will plant vineyards again.
You will plant the vineyards on the hills around the city of Samaria.
The farmers will enjoy the fruit from the vineyards.
6There will be a time when watchmen#31:6 watchmen This usually means a guard who stands on the city walls watching for people coming to the city. Here, it probably means the prophets. shout this message:
‘Come, let’s go up to Zion to worship the Lord our God!’
Even the watchmen in the hill country of Ephraim#31:6 hill country of Ephraim This was the central part of the land that had been the northern kingdom of Israel. will shout that message.”
7This is what the Lord says:
“Be happy and sing for Jacob!
Shout for Israel, the greatest of the nations!
Sing your praises and shout:
‘Lord, save your people!#31:7 Lord, save your people Or “Lord has saved his people!” This is often a shout of victory.
Save those who are left alive from the nation of Israel.’
8Remember, I will bring Israel
from that country in the north.
I will gather the people of Israel
from the faraway places on earth.
Some of the people will be blind and crippled.
Some of the women will be pregnant and ready to give birth.
But many people will come back.
9They will come back crying,
but I will lead them and comfort them.
I will lead them by streams of water.
I will lead them on an easy road,
where they will not stumble.
I will lead them in that way because I am Israel’s father.
And Ephraim is my firstborn son.
10“Nations, listen to this message from the Lord!
Tell this message in the faraway lands by the sea:
‘God scattered the people of Israel,
but he will bring them back together.
And he will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
11The Lord will bring Jacob back.
He will save his people from those who are stronger.
12The people of Israel will come to the top of Zion,
and they will shout with joy.
Their faces will shine with happiness about the good things the Lord gives them.
He will give them grain, new wine, olive oil, young sheep and cattle.
They will be like a garden that has plenty of water.
And the people of Israel will not be troubled anymore.
13Then the young women of Israel will be happy and dance.
And the men, young and old, will join in the dancing.
I will change their sadness into happiness.
I will comfort my people, making them happy instead of sad.
14I will give the priests plenty of food.
And my people will be filled and satisfied with the good things I give them.”
This message is from the Lord.
15This is what the Lord says:
“A sound is heard in Ramah—
bitter crying and great sadness.
Rachel#31:15 Rachel Jacob’s wife. Here, this means all the women who are crying for their husbands and children who have died in the war with Babylon. cries for her children,
and she refuses to be comforted,
because her children are gone.”
16But the Lord says, “Stop crying.
Don’t fill your eyes with tears.
You will be rewarded for your work.”
This message is from the Lord.
“The people of Israel will come back from their enemy’s land.
17Israel, there is hope for you.”
This message is from the Lord.
“Your children will come back to their own land.
18I have heard Ephraim crying:
‘Lord, you punished me, and I learned my lesson.
I was like a calf that was never trained.
Please stop punishing me,
and I will come back to you.
You really are the Lord my God.
19I wandered away from you.
But I finally realized how wrong I was.
So I changed my heart and life.
I am ashamed and embarrassed
about the foolish things I did when I was young.’”
20The Lord says,
“You know that Ephraim is my dear son.
I love that child.
Yes, I often criticized Ephraim,
but I still think about him.
I love him very much,
and I really do want to comfort him.
21“People of Israel, repair the road signs.
Put up signs that show the way home.
Watch the road.
Remember the road you are leaving on.
Israel, my bride, come home.
Come back to your towns.
22Unfaithful daughter,
how long will you wander around?
“The Lord has created something new in the land:
A woman surrounding a man.#31:22 A woman surrounding a man The Hebrew text here is hard to understand. It might be part of some saying that was familiar to the people in Jeremiah’s time.”
23This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “I will again do good things for the people of Judah. I will bring back those who were taken away as prisoners. At that time the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘May the Lord bless you, good home and holy mountain#31:23 good home and holy mountain This was a blessing for the Temple and for Mount Zion, the mountain the Temple was built on.!’
24“People in all the towns of Judah will live together in peace. Farmers and those who move around with their flocks will live peacefully together in Judah. 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 was very pleasant.
27“The days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will help the family of Israel and Judah to grow. I will help their children and animals to grow too. It will be like planting and caring for a plant. 28In the past I watched over Israel and Judah, but I watched for the time to pull them up. I tore them down. I destroyed them. I gave many troubles to them. But now I will watch over them to build them up and make them strong.” This message is from the Lord.
29“People will not use this saying anymore:
‘The parents ate the sour grapes,
but the children got the sour taste.’#31:29 The parents … sour taste This means the children were suffering for things their parents did.
30No, people will die for their own sins. Those who eat sour grapes will get the sour taste.”
The New Agreement
31This is what the Lord said, “The time is coming when I will make a new agreement with the family of Israel and with the family of Judah. 32It will not be like the agreement I made with their ancestors. I made that agreement when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt. I was their master, but they broke that agreement.” This message is from the Lord.
33“In the future I will make this agreement with the people of Israel.” This message is from the Lord. “I will put my teachings in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34People will not have to teach their neighbors and relatives to know the Lord, because all people, from the least important to the most important, will know me.” This message is from the Lord. “I will forgive them for the evil things they did. I will not remember their sins.”
The Lord Will Never Leave Israel
35He makes the sun shine in the day,
and he makes the moon and the stars 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“The descendants of Israel will never stop being a nation.
That would happen only if I lost control of the sun, moon, stars, and sea.”
37The Lord says, “I will never reject the descendants of Israel.
That would happen only if people could measure the sky above,
and learn all the secrets of the earth below.
Only then would I reject them for the bad things they have done.”
This message is from the Lord.
The New Jerusalem
38This message is from the Lord, “The days are coming when the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt for the Lord. The whole city will be rebuilt—from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39The measuring line#31:39 measuring line A rope or chain for measuring property lines. will stretch from the Corner Gate straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to the place named Goah. 40The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown and all the terraces down to the bottom of Kidron Valley all the way to the corner of Horse Gate will be holy to the Lord. The city of Jerusalem will never again be torn down or destroyed.”
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Jeremiah 31: ERV
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© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Jeremiah 31
31
1At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. 2Thus saith the Lord, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. 3The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. 4Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. 5Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. 6For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount E´phra-im shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God.
7For thus saith the Lord; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. 8Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. 9They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and E´phra-im is my firstborn.
10Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. 11For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. 12Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. 13Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. 14And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.
15 #
Gen 35.16-19;
Matt 2.18. Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. 16Thus saith the Lord; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. 17And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border. 18I have surely heard E´phra-im bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. 19Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. 20Is E´phra-im my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.
21Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. 22How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
23Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness. 24And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. 25For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. 26Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
The New Covenant
27Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. 28And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord. 29#Ezek 18.2. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. 30But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31 #
Heb 8.8-12. #
Matt 26.28; Mark 14.24; Luke 22.20; 1 Cor 11.25; 2 Cor 3.6. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord: 33#Heb 10.16. but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34#Heb 10.17. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
35Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: 36If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 37Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.
38Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Han´aneel unto the gate of the corner. 39And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Go´ath. 40And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.
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King James Version 1611, spelling, punctuation and text formatting modernized by ABS in 1962; typesetting © 2010 American Bible Society.