AB - Jeremiah - 31

31:1  At that time, says the Lord, I will be a God to the family of Israel, and they shall be to Me a people.

31:2  Thus says the Lord: I found him warm in the wilderness with them that were slain with the sword: therefore go and do not destroy Israel.

31:3  The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you.

31:4  For I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel. You shall yet take your timbrel, and go forth with the party of them that make merry.

31:5  For you have planted vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. Plant, and praise.

31:6  For it is a day when those that plead on the mountains of Ephraim shall call, saying, Arise, and go up to Zion to the Lord your God.

31:7  For thus says the Lord to Jacob: Rejoice, and exult over the head of the nations: make proclamation, and praise. Say, The Lord has delivered His people, the remnant of Israel.

31:8  Behold, I bring them from the north, and I will gather them from the end of the earth to the feast of the Passover: and the people shall beget a great multitude, and they shall return there.

31:9  They went forth with weeping, and I will bring them back with consolation, causing them to lodge by the channels of waters in a straight way, and they shall not err in it: for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.

31:10  Hear the words of the Lord, you nations, and proclaim them to the islands afar off. Say, He that scattered Israel will also gather him, and keep him as one that feeds his flock.

31:11  For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, He has rescued him out of the hand of them that were stronger than he.

31:12  And they shall come, and shall rejoice in the mount of Zion, and shall come to the good things of the Lord, to a land of wheat, and wine, and fruits, and cattle, and sheep. And their soul shall be as a fruitful tree; and they shall hunger no more.

31:13  Then shall the virgins rejoice in the assembly of youth, and the old men shall rejoice; and I will turn their mourning into joy, and will make them merry.

31:14  I will expand and cheer with wine the soul of the priests, the sons of Levi, and My people shall be satisfied with My good things. Thus says the Lord.

31:15  A voice was heard in Ramah, that of lamentation, and of weeping, and wailing- Rachel would not cease weeping for her children, because they are not.

31:16  Thus says the Lord: Let your voice cease from weeping, and your eyes from your tears; for your work shall be rewarded, and they shall return from the land of your enemies.

31:17  There shall be an abiding home for your children.

31:18  I have heard the sound of Ephraim lamenting, and saying, You have chastened me, and I was chastened; I as a calf was not willingly taught: turn me, and I shall turn; for You are the Lord my God.

31:19  For after my captivity I repented, and after I knew, I groaned for the day of shame, and showed You that I bore reproach from my youth.

31:20  Ephraim is a beloved son, a pleasing child to Me: for because My words are in him, I will surely remember him. Therefore I made haste to help him. I will surely have mercy upon him, says the Lord.

31:21  Prepare yourself, O Zion; execute vengeance. Look to your ways; return, O virgin of Israel, by the way in which you went, return mourning to your cities.

31:22  How long, O disgraced daughter, will you turn away? For the Lord has created safety for a new plantation. Men shall go about in safety.

31:23  For thus says the Lord: They shall yet speak this word in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I shall turn his captivity; blessed be the Lord on His righteous holy mountain!

31:24  And there shall be inhabitants in the cities of Judah, and in all his land, together with the farmers, and the shepherd shall go forth with the flock.

31:25  For I have saturated every thirsting soul, and filled every hungry soul.

31:26  Therefore I awoke, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet to me.

31:27  Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and the seed of beast.

31:28  And it shall come to pass, that as I watched over them, to pull down, and to afflict, so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, says the Lord.

31:29  In those days they shall certainly not say, The fathers ate a sour grape, and the children's teeth were set on edge.

31:30  But everyone shall die in his own sin; and the teeth of him that eats the sour grape shall be set on edge.

31:31  Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.

31:32  Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took hold of their hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they abode not in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.

31:33  For this is My covenant which I will make with the house of Israel: after those days, says the Lord, I will surely put My laws into their mind, and write them on their hearts. And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.

31:34  And no more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.

31:35  Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the moon and the stars for a light by night, and makes a roaring in the sea, so that its waves roar: the Lord Almighty is His name:

31:36  if these ordinances cease from before Me, says the Lord, then shall the family of Israel cease to be a nation before Me forever.

31:37  Though the sky should be raised to a greater height, says the Lord, and though the ground of the earth should be sunk lower beneath, yet I will not cast off the family of Israel, says the Lord, for all that they have done.

31:38  Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

31:39  And the measurement of it shall proceed in front of them as far as the hills of Gareb, and it shall be compassed with a circular wall of choice stones.

31:40  And all the Asaremoth, even to the Brook Kidron, as far as the corner of the Horse Gate eastward, shall be holiness to the Lord; and it shall not fail anymore, and shall not be destroyed forever.