Jeremiah 31
31
Israel's Return Home
1The LORD says, “The time is coming when I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they will be my people. 2In the desert I showed mercy to those people who had escaped death. When the people of Israel longed for rest, 3I appeared to them#31.3 One ancient translation them; Hebrew me. from far away. People of Israel, I have always loved you, so I continue to show you my constant love. 4Once again I will rebuild you. Once again you will take up your tambourines and dance joyfully. 5Once again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria, and those who plant them will eat what the vineyards produce. 6Yes, the time is coming when watchmen will call out on the hills of Ephraim, ‘Let's go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.’ ”
7The LORD says,
“Sing with joy for Israel,
the greatest of the nations.
Sing your song of praise,
‘The LORD has saved his#31.7 Some ancient translations The LORD… his; Hebrew LORD, save your. people;
he has rescued all who are left.’
8I will bring them from the north
and gather them from the ends of the earth.
The blind and the lame will come with them,
pregnant women and those about to give birth.
They will come back a great nation.
9My people will return weeping,
praying as I lead them back.
I will guide them to streams of water,
on a smooth road where they will not stumble.
I am like a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my eldest son.”
10The LORD says,
“Nations, listen to me,
and proclaim my words on the far-off shores.
I scattered my people, but I will gather them
and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock.
11I have set Israel's people free
and have saved them from a mighty nation.
12They will come and sing for joy on Mount Zion
and be delighted with my gifts —
gifts of corn and wine and olive oil,
gifts of sheep and cattle.
They will be like a well-watered garden;
they will have everything they need.
13Then the young women will dance and be happy,
and men, young and old, will rejoice.
I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joy,
their sorrow into gladness.
14I will fill the priests with the richest food
and satisfy all the needs of my people.
I, the LORD, have spoken.”
The LORD's Mercy on Israel
15 #
Gen 35.16–19; Mt 2.18 The LORD says,
“A sound is heard in Ramah,
the sound of bitter weeping.
Rachel is crying for her children;
they are gone,
and she refuses to be comforted.
16Stop your crying
and wipe away your tears.
All that you have done for your children
will not go unrewarded;
they will return from the enemy's land.
17There is hope for your future;
your children will come back home.
I, the LORD, have spoken.
18“I hear the people of Israel say in grief,
‘LORD, we were like an untamed animal,
but you taught us to obey.
Bring us back;
we are ready to return to you,
the LORD our God.
19We turned away from you,
but soon we wanted to return.
After you had punished us,
we hung our heads in grief.
We were ashamed and disgraced,
because we sinned when we were young.’
20“Israel, you are my dearest son,
the child I love best.
Whenever I mention your name,
I think#31.20 I mention… I think; or I threaten to punish, I still think. of you with love.
My heart goes out to you;
I will be merciful.
21Set up signs and mark the road;
find again the way by which you left.
Come back, people of Israel,
come home to the towns you left.
22How long will you hesitate, faithless people?
I have created something new and different,
as different as a woman protecting a man.”#31.22 as different… man; Hebrew unclear.
The Future Prosperity of God's People
23The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says, “When I restore the people to their land, they will once again say in the land of Judah and in its towns,
‘May the LORD bless the sacred hill#31.23 sacred hill: Mount Zion, the hill in Jerusalem which formed part of the Temple and palace area. of Jerusalem,
the holy place where he lives.’
24People will live in Judah and in all its towns, and there will be farmers, and shepherds with their flocks. 25I will refresh those who are weary and will satisfy with food everyone who is weak from hunger. 26So then, people will say, ‘I went to sleep and woke up refreshed.’
27“I, the LORD, say that the time is coming when I will fill the land of Israel and Judah with people and animals. 28And just as I took care to uproot, to pull down, to overthrow, to destroy, and to demolish them, so I will take care to plant them and to build them up. 29#Ezek 18.2When that time comes, people will no longer say,
‘The parents ate the sour grapes,
But the children got the sour taste.’
30Instead, all those who eat sour grapes will have their own teeth set on edge; and they will all die because of their own sin.”
31 #
Mt 26.28; Mk 14.24; Lk 22.20; 1 Cor 11.25; 2 Cor 3.6 #
Heb 8.8–12
The LORD says, “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant. 33#Heb 10.16The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34#Heb 10.17None of them will have to teach his fellow-citizen to know the LORD, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
35The LORD provides the sun for light by day,
the moon and the stars to shine at night.
He stirs up the sea and makes it roar;
his name is the LORD Almighty.
36He promises that as long as the natural order lasts,
so long will Israel be a nation.
37If one day the sky could be measured
and the foundations of the earth explored,
only then would he reject the people of Israel
because of all they have done.
The LORD has spoken.
38“The time is coming,” says the LORD, “when all Jerusalem will be rebuilt as my city, from Hananel Tower west to the Corner Gate. 39And the boundary line will continue from there on the west to the hill of Gareb and then round to Goah. 40The entire valley, where the dead are buried and refuse is thrown, and all the fields above the brook of Kidron as far as the Horse Gate to the east, will be sacred to me. The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”
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Jeremiah 31: GNBDK
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Jeremiah 31
31
1“At that time,” says the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2 The LORD says, “The people who survive the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”
3 The LORD appeared of old to me, saying,
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
4 I will build you again,
and you will be built, O virgin of Israel.
You will again be adorned with your tambourines,
and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria.
The planters will plant,
and will enjoy its fruit.
6 For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry,
‘Arise! Let’s go up to Zion to the LORD our God.’”
7 For the LORD says,
“Sing with gladness for Jacob,
and shout for the chief of the nations.
Publish, praise, and say,
‘LORD, save your people,
the remnant of Israel!’
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country,
and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth,
along with the blind and the lame,
the woman with child and her who travails with child together.
They will return as a great company.
9 They will come with weeping.
I will lead them with petitions.
I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters,
in a straight way in which they won’t stumble;
for I am a father to Israel.
Ephraim is my firstborn.
10“Hear the LORD’s word, you nations,
and declare it in the distant islands. Say,
‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob,
and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 They will come and sing in the height of Zion,
and will flow to the goodness of the LORD,
to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil,
and to the young of the flock and of the herd.
Their soul will be as a watered garden.
They will not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance,
the young men and the old together;
for I will turn their mourning into joy,
and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness,
and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says the LORD.
15 The LORD says:
“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.”
16 The LORD says:
“Refrain your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,” says the LORD.
“They will come again from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your latter end,” says the LORD.
“Your children will come again to their own territory.
18“I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus,
‘You have chastised me,
and I was chastised, as an untrained calf.
Turn me, and I will be turned,
for you are the LORD my God.
19 Surely after that I was turned.
I repented.
After that I was instructed.
I struck my thigh.
I was ashamed, yes, even confounded,
because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he a darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I still earnestly remember him.
Therefore my heart yearns for him.
I will surely have mercy on him,” says the LORD.
21“Set up road signs.
Make guideposts.
Set your heart toward the highway,
even the way by which you went.
Turn again, virgin of Israel.
Turn again to these your cities.
22 How long will you go here and there,
you backsliding daughter?
For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth:
a woman will encompass a man.”
23 The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘The LORD bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’ 24Judah and all its cities will dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks. 25For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27“Behold, the days come,” says 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 animal. 28It will happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” says the LORD. 29“In those days they will say no more,
“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
31“Behold, the days come,” says 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 covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says the LORD. 33“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says the LORD:
“I will put my law in their inward parts,
and I will write it in their heart.
I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
34 They will no longer each teach his neighbor,
and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD;’
for they will all know me,
from their least to their greatest,” says the LORD,
“for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more.”
35 The LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day,
and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night,
who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar—
the LORD of Hosts is his name, says:
36“If these ordinances depart from before me,” says the LORD,
“then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.”
37 The LORD says: “If heaven above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” says the LORD.
38“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that the city will be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. 39The measuring line will go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and will turn toward Goah. 40The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will not be plucked up or thrown down any more forever.”
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