The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

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- Chapter 31 -

(Matthew 2:16–18)

Yahweh says that at that time, he will be the God who is worshiped by all the clans in Israel, and they will be his people.

This is what Yahweh says: “Those people who remained alive and were not killed by their enemies’ swords were blessed by me even in the desert; where they survived.

Long ago I, Yahweh, said to your ancestors, the Israelite people, ’I have loved you and I will continue to love you forever. By faithfully loving you I have brought you close to myself.’

And now I tell you, my Israelite people who I will think of like a chaste woman, that I will cause you to be a nation again. You will joyfully dance as you play your tambourines.

Again you will plant your vineyards on the hills of Samaria, and you will eat the grapes that grow there.

There will be a time when watchmen will call out from the hills of Samaria, ’Come, let us go up to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh, our God!’”

And now Yahweh also says this: “Sing joyfully about what I have done for the people of Israel! Shout about your nation, the greatest nation! Shout joyfully, praising me and saying, ’Yahweh, has rescued his people, the ones who were still alive!’

Do that because I will bring them back from the northeast, from the most distant places on the earth. Among them will be blind people and lame people, women who are pregnant and women who are having labor pains. They will be a huge group of people!

They will be weeping as they return, and they will be praying to me. I will guide them along streams of water, on level paths where they will not stumble. I will do this because I am like a father to the Israelite people; it is as though Israel is my oldest son.”

People in the nations of the world, listen to this message from Yahweh. Then proclaim it to people who live along the coasts far away. Yahweh scattered his people, but he will gather them again and will take care of them like a shepherd takes care of his sheep.

Yahweh will buy his Israelite people back from those who conquered them because they were more powerful than his people.

Yahweh’s people will return to Jerusalem and shout joyfully on the slopes of Zion Hill. They will rejoice about the things that Yahweh has abundantly given to them, grain and new wine and olive oil and young sheep and cattle. They themselves will be like a well-watered garden, and they will no longer feel worn out.

The young women will dance joyfully, and all the men, young ones and old ones, will join with them. I will cause them to rejoice instead of mourning; I will comfort them and cause them to be happy instead of being sad.

The priests will have plenty of things to eat and drink, and all my people will be filled with the good things that I give them. That will certainly happen because I, Yahweh, have said it!”

Yahweh also says this: “Women were weeping in Ramah, on the border between Israel and Judah; they were mourning and crying very loudly. The women who were the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two grandsons of Rachel the wife of Jacob, were weeping about their children, and no one could comfort them because their children were all dead.

But now this is what Yahweh says: ’Do not cry anymore, because I will reward you for the good things you have done for your children. Your children will return from the land where their enemies have taken them.

I, Yahweh, am telling you that there are things that you can confidently expect me to do for you in the future. Your children will return to their own land.’

I have heard the people of Israel grieving very much and saying to me, ’You punished us severely, like calves are beaten by their owners to train them for pulling a plow. So bring us back to obey you again, because we are ready to return to you, because you alone are Yahweh, our God.

We turned away from you, but we repented; after you caused us to realize that we were guilty. We beat our hands on our legs to show that we were very ashamed of the sins that we committed when we were young.’

But I, Yahweh, say this: The Israelite people certainly are still my dear children. It is often necessary for me to threaten to punish them, but I still love them. That is why I have not forgotten them, and I will certainly act mercifully toward them.

You Israelite people, set up road signs; put up posts along the roads to mark the road on which you walked when you were taken from Jerusalem. My precious Israelite people, come back to your towns here.

You people who have been like daughters who have forsaken their parents, how long will you continue to wander away from me? I, Yahweh, will cause something to happen on the earth that is new: The women of Israel will be protecting their husbands as they travel back here!”

This is what Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says: “When I bring them back from the countries to which they have been exiled, all the people from the towns in Judah will again say, ‘I hope that Yahweh will bless this my home, the holy place where righteous people will live!’

The people of Judah who live in the towns, including the farmers and the shepherds, will all live together peacefully.

I will enable weary people to be refreshed with drinks of water, and enable people who are very exhausted to become strong again.”

The New Covenant

(Hebrews 8:6–13)

I, Jeremiah, woke up after dreaming all those things, and I looked around. I had slept very delightfully!

Then Yahweh said to me, “There will be a time when I will greatly increase the number of people and the number of livestock here in Israel and Judah.

Previously, I caused their enemies to remove the people from their land and to destroy their land and to bring many disasters to it. But in the future, I will enable them to build houses and to plant crops here in Israel again. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.

Previously the people often said, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but it is the children’s teeth that ache.’ They meant that it was not fair for them to be punished for their ancestors’ sins. But when I bring them back to their land, they will no longer say that.

But now all people will die because of the sins that they themselves have committed. It will be more like ‘The person who eats sour grapes will have his own teeth aching.’

I, Yahweh, say this: ’There will be a time when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

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 loved them like husbands love their wives.’

This is what I, Yahweh, say: ’This is the new agreement that I will make with the people of Israel some day: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their inner beings. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

And it will not be necessary for them to teach their neighbors or their relatives and say, “You need to know Yahweh,” because everyone, including both unimportant people and very important people, will already know me. And I will forgive them for having been very wicked, and I will never think again about the sins that they have committed.’”

Yahweh is the one who causes the sun to give light during the day, and who causes the moon and the stars to give light during the night. He stirs up the seas, with the result that waves roar. His name is Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, and this is what he says:

“I will not permanently reject my Israelite people any more than I will get rid of the laws that control the universe.

And this is what I say: ’No one can measure the sky and no one can find out what is supporting the earth. Similarly, I cannot reject the descendants of Jacob because of all the evil things that they have done.’ That is certain, because I, Yahweh, have said it!

I, Yahweh, also say that there will be a time when everything in Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me, from the tower of Hananel at the northeast corner, west to the gate named the Corner Gate.

Workers will stretch a measuring line over Gareb Hill all the way southwest to Goah.

And the whole area, including the place where corpses and ashes are thrown in the Kidron Valley, and all the fields to the east as far as the Horse Gate, will become set apart for me. And the city of Jerusalem will never again be captured or destroyed.”

(Matthew 2:16–18)

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

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

The LORD appeared of old to me, saying, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.

I 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.

Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will enjoy its fruit.

For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry, ‘Arise! Let’s go up to Zion to the LORD our God.’”

For the LORD says, “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations. Publish, praise, and say, ‘LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’

Behold, 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.

They 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.

“Hear the LORD’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.’

For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of the LORD, 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.

Then 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.

I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says the LORD.

The LORD 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.”

The LORD says: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” says the LORD. “They will come again from the land of the enemy.

There is hope for your latter end,” says the LORD. “Your children will come again to their own territory.

“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 the LORD my God.

Surely 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.’

Is 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 the LORD.

“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.

How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”

The LORD 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: ‘The LORD bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’

Judah and all its cities will dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.

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

The New Covenant

(Hebrews 8:6–13)

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

“Behold, 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.

It 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 the LORD.

“In those days they will say no more, “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.

“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah,

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 covenant of mine they broke, although I was a husband to them,” says the LORD.

“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 inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD;’ for they will all know me, from their least to their greatest,” says the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

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 Armies is his name, says:

“If these ordinances depart from before me,” says the LORD, “then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.”

The LORD 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 the LORD.

“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that the city will be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.

The measuring line will go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and will turn toward Goah.

The 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 the LORD. It will not be plucked up or thrown down any more forever.”