Jeremiah, Chapter 31

1. At the same time, says the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.    2. Thus says the LORD, The people who were left by the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.    3. The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying, Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.    4. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: you shall again be adorned with your tabrets, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.    5. You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat of them as common things.    6. For there shall be a day that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.    7. For thus says the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: declare ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.    8. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that labors in childbirth together: a great company shall return from there.    9. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, in which they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.    10. Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.    11. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.    12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall gather together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be like a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.    13. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.    14. And I will satisfy the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the LORD.    15. Thus says the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.    16. Thus says the LORD; Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD; and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.    17. And there is hope in your end, says the LORD, that your children shall come again to their own land.    18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are the LORD my God.    19. Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even astonished, because I bore the reproach of my youth.    20. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart is troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, says the LORD.    21. Set up waymarks, make tall heaps: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.    22. How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter? for the LORD has created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall surround a man.    23. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring back their captivity; The LORD bless you, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.    24. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, farmers, and those who go forth with flocks.    25. For I have satisfied the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.    26. Upon this I awakened, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet to me.    27. Behold, the days are coming, 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 beast.    28. And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them to build, and to plant, says the LORD.    29. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.    30. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.    31. Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:    32. 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; my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, says the LORD:    33. But this shall be 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 write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.    34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.    35. Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the orderly arrangement of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divides the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:    36. If those orderly arrangements depart from before me, says the LORD, then the children of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.    37. Thus says the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the children of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD.    38. Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner.    39. And the measuring line shall yet go forth over by it upon the hill Gareb, and shall curve around to Goath.    40. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook of Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.