Jeremiah 31

1 "At that time," says the LORD, "will I 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 favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

3 The LORD appeared to him from afar. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.

4 Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.

5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy its fruit.

6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of 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 for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, 'For the LORD has saved your people, the remnant of Israel.'

8 'Look, 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: a great company shall they return here.

9 They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.'"

10 Hear the word of the LORD, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as 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 shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and they shall be radient over the goodness of the LORD, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to 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.

13 "Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and 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 cohanim with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness," says the LORD.

15 Thus says the LORD: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and weeping and great bitterness, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more."

16 Thus says the LORD: "Refrain 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 There is hope for your latter end," says the LORD; "and your children shall come again to their own border.

18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, 'You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are the LORD my God.

19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on 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 do earnestly remember him still: 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 shall encompass a man."

23 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: 'The LORD bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.'

24 Judah and all its cities shall dwell in it together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.

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

26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.

27 "Look, 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 It shall 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 will I watch over them to build and to plant," says the LORD.

29 "In those days they shall say no more, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'

30 But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

31 Look, the days come," says the LORD, "when 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 that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, and I disregarded 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 minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:

34 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 their least to their greatest, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins I will remember 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, so that its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is his name:

36 "If this fixed order departs from before me," says the LORD, "then the descendants of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever."

37 Thus says the LORD: "If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the descendants of Israel for all that they have done," says the LORD.

38 "Look, the days come," says the LORD, "that the city shall be built to the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

39 The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah.

40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the Kidron Valley, 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 more forever."