31

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

2Yahweh says, “The people who survive the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”

3Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying,

“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.

4I 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.

5Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria.

The planters will plant,

and will enjoy its fruit.

6For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry,

‘Arise! Let’s go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.’”

7For Yahweh says,

“Sing with gladness for Jacob,

and shout for the chief of the nations.

Publish, praise, and say,

‘Yahweh, save your people,

the remnant of Israel!’

8Behold, 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.

9They 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 Yahweh’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.’

11For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob,

and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

12They will come and sing in the height of Zion,

and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh,

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.

13Then 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.

14I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness,

and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yahweh.

15Yahweh 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.”

16Yahweh says:

“Refrain your voice from weeping,

and your eyes from tears,

for your work will be rewarded,” says Yahweh.

“They will come again from the land of the enemy.

17There is hope for your latter end,” says Yahweh.

“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 Yahweh my God.

19Surely 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.’

20Is 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 Yahweh.

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.

22How long will you go here and there,

you backsliding daughter?

For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth:

a woman will encompass a man.”

23Yahweh of Armies, 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: ‘Yahweh 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.”

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

27“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “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 Yahweh. 29“In those days they will say no more,

“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

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

30But 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 Yahweh, “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 Yahweh. 33“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh:

“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.

34They will no longer each teach his neighbor,

and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’

for they will all know me,

from their least to their greatest,” says Yahweh,

“for I will forgive their iniquity,

and I will remember their sin no more.”

35Yahweh, 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—

Yahweh of Armies is his name, says:

36“If these ordinances depart from before me,” says Yahweh,

“then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.”

37Yahweh 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 Yahweh.

38“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that the city will be built to Yahweh 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 Yahweh. It will not be plucked up or thrown down any more forever.”

32

1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2Now at that time the king of Babylon’s army was besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah’s house.

3For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy, and say, ‘Yahweh says, “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; 4and Zedekiah king of Judah won’t escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes will see his eyes; 5and he will bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him,” says Yahweh, “though you fight with the Chaldeans, you will not prosper?”’”

6Jeremiah said, “Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 7‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.”’”

8“So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to Yahweh’s word, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself.’

“Then I knew that this was Yahweh’s word. 9I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. 10I signed the deed, sealed it, called witnesses, and weighed the money in the balances to him. 11So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open; 12and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard.

13“I commanded Baruch before them, saying, 14Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.’ 15For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Houses and fields and vineyards will yet again be bought in this land.’

16Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying,

17“Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you. 18You show loving kindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God, Yahweh of Armies is your name: 19great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings; 20who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, both in Israel and among other men; and made yourself a name, as it is today; 21and brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, with wonders, with a strong hand, with an outstretched arm, and with great terror; 22and gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23They came in and possessed it, but they didn’t obey your voice and didn’t walk in your law. They have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do. Therefore you have caused all this evil to come upon them.

24“Behold, siege ramps have been built against the city to take it. The city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, of the famine, and of the pestilence. What you have spoken has happened. Behold, you see it. 25You have said to me, Lord Yahweh, ‘Buy the field for money, and call witnesses;’ whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.”

26Then Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah, saying, 27“Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? 28Therefore Yahweh says: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it. 29The Chaldeans, who fight against this city, will come and set this city on fire, and burn it with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.

30“For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says Yahweh. 31For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day, so that I should remove it from before my face, 32because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33They have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. Although I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. 34But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. 35They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through fire to Molech, which I didn’t command them. It didn’t even come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”

36Now therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says concerning this city, about which you say, “It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:” 37“Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place. I will cause them to dwell safely. 38Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. 39I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good and the good of their children after them. 40I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me. 41Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.”

42For Yahweh says: “Just as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. 43Fields will be bought in this land, about which you say, ‘It is desolate, without man or animal. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ 44Men will buy fields for money, sign the deeds, seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South; for I will cause their captivity to be reversed,” says Yahweh.