Jeremiah

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

² “The people who survive the sword will find favor in the desert; I will come to give rest to Israel.”

³ “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.

⁴ and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful.

⁵ on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant them and enjoy their fruit.

⁶ on the hills of Ephraim, ‘Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.’”

⁷ “Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations. Make your praises heard, and say, ‘O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel.’

⁸ and gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor; a great throng will return.

⁹ they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble, because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son.

¹⁰ proclaim it in distant coastlands: ‘He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’

¹¹ and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.

¹² they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord— the grain, the new wine and the oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more.

¹³ young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

¹⁴ and my people will be filled with my bounty,” declares the Lord.

¹⁵ “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.”

¹⁶ “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. “They will return from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷ declares the Lord. “Your children will return to their own land.

¹⁸ ‘You disciplined me like an unruly calf, and I have been disciplined. Restore me, and I will return, because you are the Lord my God.

¹⁹ I repented; after I came to understand, I beat my breast. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

²⁰ the child in whom I delight? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the Lord.

²¹ put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take. Return, O Virgin Israel, return to your towns.

²² O unfaithful daughter? The Lord will create a new thing on earth— a woman will surround a man.”

²³ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, O righteous dwelling, O sacred mountain.’

²⁴ People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks.

²⁵ I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”

²⁶ At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.

²⁷ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and of animals.

²⁸ Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.

²⁹ ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰ Instead, everyone will die for his own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—his own teeth will be set on edge.

³¹ “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

³² I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

³³ after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

³⁴ or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

³⁵ he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord Almighty is his name:

³⁶ declares the Lord, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.”

³⁷ “Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” declares the Lord.

³⁸ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

³⁹ The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah.

⁴⁰ The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.”