Restoration for Israel and Judah

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: eWrite in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. ³fFor behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, gwhen I will restore hthe fortunes of my people, iIsrael and Judah, says the Lord, jand I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”

⁴These are the words that the Lord spoke concerning iIsrael and Judah:

⁵“Thus says the Lord:

We have heard a cry of panic,

of terror, and no peace.

⁶Ask now, and see,

can a man bear a child?

kWhy then do I see every man

with his hands on his stomach klike a woman in labor?

lWhy has every face turned pale?

⁷Alas! mThat day is so great

nthere is none like it;

it is a time of distress for Jacob;

yet he shall be saved out of it.

⁸“And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, that I will obreak his pyoke from off your neck, and I will oburst your bonds, qand foreigners shall no more make a servant of him.1 ⁹But they shall serve the Lord their God and rDavid their king, whom I will raise up for them.

¹⁰s“Then fear not, tO Jacob my servant, declares the Lord,

nor be dismayed, O Israel;

for behold, sI will save you from far away,

uand your offspring from the land of their captivity.

sJacob shall return and have quiet and ease,

and none shall make him afraid.

¹¹vFor I am with you to save you,

declares the Lord;

vI will make a full end of all the nations

among whom I scattered you,

but of you I will not make a full end.

vI will wdiscipline you in just measure,

and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

¹²“For thus says the Lord:

xYour hurt is incurable,

yand your wound is grievous.

¹³There is none to uphold your cause,

no medicine for your wound,

zno healing for you.

¹⁴aAll your lovers have forgotten you;

they care nothing for you;

for I have dealt you the blow of ban enemy,

the punishment cof a merciless foe,

because your guilt is great,

dbecause your sins are flagrant.

¹⁵xWhy do you cry out over your hurt?

xYour pain is incurable.

Because your guilt is great,

dbecause your sins are flagrant,

I have done these things to you.

¹⁶eTherefore all who devour you shall be devoured,

and fall your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity;

gthose who plunder you shall be plundered,

hand all who prey on you I will make a prey.

¹⁷iFor I will restore jhealth to you,

and kyour wounds I will heal,

declares the Lord,

because lthey have called you an outcast:

l‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’

¹⁸“Thus says the Lord:

Behold, mI will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob

and have compassion on his dwellings;

the city shall be rebuilt on nits mound,

and the palace shall stand where it used to be.

¹⁹oOut of them shall come songs of thanksgiving,

and the voices of those who celebrate.

pI will multiply them, and they shall not be few;

I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.

²⁰qTheir children shall be as they were of old,

and their congregation shall be established before me,

and I will punish all who oppress them.

²¹rTheir prince shall be one of themselves;

rtheir ruler shall come out from their midst;

sI will make him draw near, and he shall approach me,

tfor who would dare of himself to approach me?

declares the Lord.

²²uAnd you shall be my people,

and I will be your God.”

²³vBehold wthe storm of the Lord!

Wrath has gone forth,

a whirling tempest;

it will burst upon the head of the wicked.

²⁴xThe fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back

until he has executed and accomplished

the intentions of his mind.

yIn the latter days you will understand this.

The Lord Will Turn Mourning to Joy

¹z“At that time, declares the Lord, aI will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

²Thus says the Lord:

“The people who survived the sword

found grace in the wilderness;

bwhen Israel sought for rest,

³the Lord appeared to him1 from far away.

cI have loved you with an everlasting love;

therefore dI have continued emy faithfulness to you.

⁴fAgain I will build you, and you shall be built,

O virgin Israel!

gAgain you shall adorn yourself with tambourines

and shall go forth in hthe dance of the merrymakers.

⁵iAgain you shall plant vineyards

on the mountains of Samaria;

the planters shall plant

and shall enjoy the fruit.

⁶For there shall be a day when watchmen will call

in jthe hill country of Ephraim:

k‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,

to the Lord our God.’”

⁷For thus says the Lord:

l“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,

and raise shouts for mthe chief of the nations;

proclaim, give praise, and say,

n‘O Lord, save your people,

the remnant of Israel.’

⁸Behold, I will bring them ofrom the north country

and pgather them from qthe farthest parts of the earth,

among them rthe blind and the lame,

the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;

a great company, they shall return here.

⁹sWith weeping they shall come,

tand with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,

I will make them uwalk by brooks of water,

vin a straight path in which they shall not stumble,

for wI am a father to Israel,

and Ephraim is xmy firstborn.

¹⁰“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,

and declare it in the coastlands far away;

say, ‘He who scattered Israel will pgather him,

and will keep him yas a shepherd keeps his flock.’

¹¹zFor the Lord has ransomed Jacob

and has redeemed him from ahands too strong for him.

¹²They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,

band they shall be radiant cover the goodness of the Lord,

dover the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and over the young of the flock and the herd;

etheir life shall be like a watered garden,

fand they shall languish no more.

¹³gThen shall the young women rejoice in the dance,

and the young men and the old shall be merry.

hI will turn their mourning into joy;

I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.

¹⁴iI will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,

and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,

declares the Lord.”

¹⁵Thus says the Lord:

j“A voice is heard in kRamah,

lamentation and bitter weeping.

lRachel is weeping for her children;

she refuses to be comforted for her children,

mbecause they are no more.”

¹⁶Thus says the Lord:

“Keep your voice from weeping,

and your eyes from tears,

for there is a reward for your work,

declares the Lord,

and nthey shall come back from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷oThere is hope for your future,

declares the Lord,

and your children shall come back to their own country.

¹⁸I have heard pEphraim grieving,

‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,

like an untrained calf;

qbring me back that I may be restored,

for you are the Lord my God.

¹⁹For after rI had turned away, I relented,

and after I was instructed, sI struck my thigh;

tI was ashamed, and I was confounded,

because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

²⁰pIs Ephraim my dear son?

uIs he my darling child?

For as often as I speak against him,

I do remember him still.

vTherefore my heart2 yearns for him;

I will surely have mercy on him,

declares the Lord.

²¹w“Set up road markers for yourself;

make yourself guideposts;

xconsider well the highway,

wthe road by which you went.

Return, O virgin Israel,

return to these your cities.

²²yHow long will you waver,

zO faithless daughter?

For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:

a woman encircles a man.”

²³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, awhen I restore their fortunes:

b“‘The Lord bless you, cO habitation of righteousness,

dO holy hill!’

²⁴eAnd Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and ethe farmers and those who wander with their flocks. ²⁵For I will fsatisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

²⁶At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

²⁷g“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when hI will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with ithe seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸And it shall come to pass that jas I have watched over them kto pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, jso I will watch over them lto build and to plant, declares the Lord. ²⁹In those days they shall no longer say:

m“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

and the children's teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰nBut everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

The New Covenant

³¹o“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make pa new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³²not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when qI took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, rthough I was their husband, declares the Lord. ³³sFor this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: sI will put my law within them, and I will write it ton their hearts. uAnd I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ vfor they shall all know me, wfrom the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For xI will forgive their iniquity, and yI will remember their sin no more.”

³⁵Thus says the Lord,

who zgives the sun for light by day

and athe fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—

bthe Lord of hosts is his name:

³⁶c“If this fixed order departs

from before me, declares the Lord,

then shall the offspring of Israel cease

from being a nation before me forever.”

³⁷Thus says the Lord:

“If the heavens above can be measured,

and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,

dthen I will cast off all the offspring of Israel

for all that they have done,

declares the Lord.”

³⁸e“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord ffrom the Tower of Hananel to gthe Corner Gate. ³⁹hAnd the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. ⁴⁰iThe whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the jbrook Kidron, to the corner of kthe Horse Gate toward the east, lshall be sacred to the Lord. mIt shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”