UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

JER C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36 C37 C38 C39 C40 C41 C42 C43 C44 C45 C46 C47 C48 C49 C50 C51 C52

UST JER Chapter 31

◄ JER 31 ► ║ ═ ©

31 Yahweh declares this: “At that time, I will be the God whom all the clans of Israel worship, and they will be my people.”

2 This is what Yahweh says:

“The people who survived when their enemies attacked them in war

saw that I showed kindness to them, even out in the desert;

when the people of Israel sought rest.”

3 Yahweh appeared to us, Israelite people, in the past and said,

“I have loved you in the past and I will continue loving you forever.

Because of this I have lovingly drawn you close to myself.

4 People of Israel, I will make you a strong nation again. You will again pick up your tambourines and joyfully dance.

5 You will once again plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria, and you yourselves will enjoy eating the grapes that you grow there.

6 There will be a time when watchmen will call out from the hills in the region of Ephraim, ‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem, to where Yahweh our God dwells so that we might worship him there!’ ”

7 This is also what I,Yahweh say:

“Sing joyfully about what I have done for the people of Israel!

Shout because your nation is the greatest of the nations!

Loudly praise me, saying,

‘Yahweh, rescue your people,

those who are still alive in Israel!’

8 Know that I will bring my people back from the lands in the north, and I will gather them from the most distant places on the earth. Among them will be people who are blind and people who cannot walk well, women who are pregnant and women who are about to give birth. A huge group of people will return here.

9 They will be crying as they return,

and as they pray to me, I will lead them back.

I will guide them to streams of water,

along a smooth road where they will not trip.

I will do this because I care for the people of Israel as a father cares for his children,

and the people of Ephraim are as dear to me as a man's oldest son.

10 People of the nations, listen to this message from me, Yahweh, and proclaim it to the people who live on the coastlands far away. Say, ‘The one who scattered the people of Israel will gather them again and will guard them, just as a shepherd takes care of his sheep.’

11 I, Yahweh will buy the Israelite people back from those who were more powerful than they were.

12 So they will return and sing joyfully on the heights of Jerusalem, and they will rejoice because of the good things that I give them—

grain and new wine and olive oil and young sheep and cattle.

They will be strong and joyful, like a garden that gets plenty of water,

and they will never be sad again.

13 Then the young women will dance joyfully, and the young men and the old men will rejoice along with them. I will cause them to be joyful instead of mourning; I will comfort them and I will make them glad instead of sad.

14 I will give the priests plenty of food, and I will completely satisfy my people with the good things that I give them. I, Yahweh, declare that this will happen!

15 Yahweh says this:

“People in the town of Ramah heard a sound, the sound of women wailing and weeping bitterly.

The women who were the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two grandsons of Rachel the wife of Jacob, were weeping for their sons

and refusing to let anyone comfort them,

because their sons were dead.”

16 Yahweh says this:

“Do not cry anymore

and stop shedding tears, because I will reward you for the good things you have done;

your children will return from the land of their enemies.

17 You can confidently expect that I will cause good things to happen to you in the future;

your children will return to their own land.” This is what Yahweh declares.

18 I, Yahweh, have certainly heard the people of Israel grieving and saying to me,

‘You disciplined us severely,

the way a farmer trains a calf that is not trained to wear a yoke so that it can work.

Bring us back to you, and we will return to you,

because you are Yahweh our God.

19 We turned away from you,

but afterward we were sorry for our sin;

after you caused us to understand that we were guilty because of what we had done, we struck our thighs to show that we were very ashamed.

We felt greatly ashamed because of the wrong things we did when we were young.’

20 The people of Israel are certainly my precious children, the ones I delight in.

For as often as I have to punish them,

but I still certainly remember them.

So my inner being yearns for them,

and I will certainly act mercifully toward them.” Yahweh, declares this.

21 You people of Israel, set up road signs for yourselves;

put up for yourselves posts along the roads

to mark the road on which you traveled away from here.

Return my precious people of Israel,

return to your towns here.

22 You people who have turned away from me like an unfaithful daughter,

you have consistently been unfaithful to me.

I, Yahweh, will cause something new to happen in the land:

the women of Israel will be protecting their husbands as they travel back here!”

23 This is what Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, the God whom the people of Israel worship, says: "When I bring my people back to the land of Judah from the countries where they were taken, the people in the towns of Judah will once again say, 'We pray that Yahweh will bless this place where he lives, this holy hill where righteous people live!' 24 The people of Judah and everyone in its towns will live there together, including the farmers and the shepherds who move around with their flocks. 25 I will give rest to those who are weary, and I will make strong again those who are exhausted."

26 After I, Jeremiah, dreamed those things, I woke up and looked around. I had slept very peacefully!

27 I, Yahweh, declare "Listen: there will be a time when I will greatly increase the number of people and the number of animals in the land of Israel and the land of Judah. 28 In the past, I made sure that their enemies removed the people from their land, tore down what they had built, and ruined their land, bringing many disasters on it. But in the future, I will make sure that they build houses and plant crops again. I, Yahweh, declare this. 29 In the past, the people often said, 'The parents ate sour grapes, but it is their children's teeth that hurt.' They meant that it was not fair for God to punish them for their ancestors' sins. But when I bring them back, they will no longer say that.

30 Instead, each person will die because of his own sin; if anyone eats sour grapes, it is his own teeth that will hurt. 31 I, Yahweh, declare that there will be a time when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. 32 This new agreement will not be like the agreement that I made with their ancestors when I took them by their hands and led them out of Egypt. They disobeyed that agreement, even though I cared for them the way a husband cares for his wife. I, Yahweh, declare this. 33 This is the new agreement that I will make with the people of Israel after that time: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will cause them to know my laws deep inside themselves. I will be their God, and they will be my people. I, Yahweh, declare this. 34 They will no longer need to teach their neighbors and their relatives, saying, 'You need to know Yahweh,' because everyone, from the least important to the most important, will already know me. And I will forgive them for the wicked things they have done, and I will never again think about the sins that they committed. I, Yahweh, declare this.

35 Yahweh is the one who provides the sun

to give light during the day, and who sets

the moon and the stars in order to give light during the night.

He stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar.

His name is Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies,

and this is what he says:

36 "I could only stop treating the people of Israel as a nation if these things that I established were to stop working— and that will never happen. I, Yahweh, declare this."

37 This is what Yahweh says:

"No one is able to measure the sky above

or to find out what supports the earth below.

In the same way, I will never reject the descendants of Israel,

in spite of all the evil things that they have done. I, Yahweh, declare this."

38 "Listen: I, Yahweh, declare that there will be a time when people will rebuild the whole city of Jerusalem for me, from the Tower of Hananel at the northeast corner over to the Corner Gate. 39 Then workers will stretch a measuring line over Gareb Hill and around to Goah. 40 And the whole area, including the valley where they throw dead bodies and ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley, over to the corner of the Horse Gate on the east side, I will set apart as holy for myself. People will never again tear down the city of Jerusalem or destroy it."