Jeremiah 31

1. “At that time,” says the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”

2.Thus says the LORD,”The people who were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I will go to give him rest.”

3. The LORD has appeared to me from afar, saying, “Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

4. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel. You shall again put on your drums, and shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.

5. You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.

6. For there shall be a day that the watchmen on Mount Ephraim shall cry, ‘Arise and let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God!’ ”

7. For thus says the LORD, “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations. Cry out, give praise and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel.’

8. Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the corners of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together; a great company shall return there.

9. They shall come with weeping, and with prayers I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way; they shall not stumble in it, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”

10. “Hear the Word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off. And say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him, as a shepherd keeps his flock.’

11. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of the one stronger than he.

12. Therefore 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 the herd. And their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not pine away any more at all.

13. Then 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 affliction.

14. And I will fill the soul of the priests with fatness, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness,” says the LORD.

15. Thus says the LORD, “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children because they are not.”

16. Thus says the LORD, “Hold back your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded,” says the LORD. “And they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

17. And there is hope for your future,” says the LORD, “that your children shall come again to their own border.

18. I have surely heard Ephraim mourning to himself, saying, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bull not broken in; turn me, and I shall be turned. For You are the LORD my God.

19. Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was taught, I struck on my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, I even blushed because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

20. Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a delightful child? For as often as I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still. Therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him,” says the LORD.

21. “Set up way marks, make sign posts for yourself. Set your heart toward the highway, even the way that you went. Return again, O virgin of Israel, return to these your cities.

22. How long will you go to and fro, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land; a woman shall court a man.”

23. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Again they shall speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring them back from their captivity: ‘The LORD bless you, O habitation of righteousness and mountain of holiness.’

24. And farmers, and those going forth with flocks, shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities of it together.

25. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

26. On this I awoke and looked up; 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.

28. And it shall come to pass, as I have watched over them to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, 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 shall not say any more, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’

30. But every man shall 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,

32. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day 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 shall be 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 write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

34. And they shall no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD;’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” says the LORD. “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more.”

35. Thus says 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 when its waves roar; (the LORD of hosts is His name),

36. “If those ordinances depart from Me,” says the LORD, “the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever.”

37. Thus says the LORD, “If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be searched out, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done,” says the LORD.

38. “Behold, the days come, “says the LORD, “that the city shall be built to the LORD from the Tower of Hananeel to the Corner Gate.

39. And the measuring line shall yet go before it to the hill Gareb, and shall go around to Goath.

40. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook of Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD. It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any moref orever.”