Jeremiah 31

Revised Geneva Translation

31 “At the same time,” says the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel. And they shall be My people.”

² Thus says the LORD: “The people who escaped the sword found grace in the wilderness.” He walks before Israel to cause it to rest.

³ The LORD has appeared to me from afar, saying: “Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with mercy I have drawn you.

⁴ “I will build you again. And you shall be built, O virgin Israel. You shall still be adorned with your tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of those who are joyful.

⁵ “You shall still plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria. And the planters who plant them shall make them common.

⁶ “For the days shall come that the watchmen upon the mount of Ephraim shall cry, ‘Arise! And let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God!’

⁷ For thus says the LORD: “Rejoice with gladness for Jacob, and shout for joy among the chief of the Gentiles! Publish praise, 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 coasts of the world, the blind and the lame among them, the woman with child as well as she who has delivered. A great company shall return here.

⁹ “They shall come, weeping. And with mercy will I bring them back. I will lead them by the rivers of water, on a straight path on 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 you Gentiles! And declare in the far away isles, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather it, and will keep it, as a Shepherd does His flock!

¹¹ ‘For the LORD has redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he!’

¹² “Therefore, they shall come and rejoice in the height of Zion, and shall run to the bountifulness of the LORD, for the wheat and for the wine, and for the oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd. And their soul shall be as a watered garden. And they shall have no more sorrow.

¹³ “Then the virgin shall rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old men, together. For I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrows.

¹⁴ “And I will replenish 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 on high — a mourning and bitter weeping. Rachel, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

¹⁶ Thus says the LORD: “Restrain 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 future,” says the LORD, “that your children shall come back to their own borders.

¹⁸ “I have heard Ephraim lamenting, ‘You have corrected me,’ and ‘I was chastised as an untamed calf. Convert me, and I shall be converted. For You are the LORD my God.

¹⁹ ‘Surely, after I was converted, I repented. And after I was instructed, I struck my thigh. I was ashamed — yea, even humiliated — because I bore the reproach of my youth.’

²⁰ “Is Ephraim My dear son or pleasant child? Yet, though I spoke against him, I still remembered him. Therefore, My Core is troubled for him. I will surely have compassion upon him,” says the LORD.

²¹ “Set up signs for yourselves. Make yourselves heaps. Set your heart toward the path and way that you have walked. Turn back, O virgin of Israel! Turn back to these, your cities!

²² “How long will you go astray, O you rebellious daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the Earth: A woman shall turn around a man.”

²³ Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall still say this thing in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I shall bring back their captivity, ‘The LORD bless you, O habitation of justice, Holy Mountain.’

²⁴ “And Judah shall dwell in it, and all its cities, together, the farmers and those who go forth with the flock.

²⁵ “For I have satiated the weary soul. And I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

²⁶ Therefore, I awoke and beheld. And my sleep was sweet to me.

²⁷ “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 beast.

²⁸ “And just as I have watched against them to pluck up and to root out and to throw down and to destroy and to plague, so will I watch over them to build and to plant,” says the LORD.

²⁹ “In those days, they shall no longer say, ‘The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰ “But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

³¹ “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 —

³² “not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers, when 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 core, and write it on their hearts, and will be their God. And they shall be My people.

³⁴ “And they shall no longer teach 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 will no longer remember their sins.”

³⁵ Thus says the LORD, Who gives the Sun for a light to the day, the courses of the Moon and of the stars for a light to the night, Who breaks the sea when its waves roar. His Name is The LORD of Hosts:

³⁶ “If these ordinances depart out of My sight,” says the LORD, “then shall the seed of Israel cease from being a nation before Me, forever.”

³⁷ Thus says the LORD: “If the heavens can be measured, or the foundations of the Earth be searched out beneath, then will I cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done,” says the LORD.

³⁸ “Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that the city shall be built to the LORD, from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.

³⁹ “And the line of the measure shall go straight forward over the hill Gareb and shall turn 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 to the LORD. It shall neither be plucked up nor destroyed anymore, forever.”