Old Testament · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 31

Mourning Turned to Joy

(Matthew 2:16–18)

1At that time, declares the LORD, I will be God to all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.

2Thus said the LORD: A people, survivors of the sword, found grace in the wilderness, when going to give him rest—Israel.

3From afar the LORD appeared to me; and with an everlasting love I have loved you; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.

4Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel; again you shall adorn yourself with your tambourines, and you shall go forth in the dance of those who make merry.
5Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit.
6For there shall be a day when watchmen shall call on the mountain of Ephraim: Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.

7For thus said the LORD: Sing aloud for Jacob with joy, and shout at the head of the nations; proclaim, praise, and say, Save^a, O LORD, Your people, the remnant of Israel.

8Behold, I am bringing them from the land of the north, and I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth—among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant and she who gives birth together; a great assembly they shall return here.
9With weeping they shall come, and with supplications I will lead them; I will cause them to walk by streams of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn.
10Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the isles from afar, and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd his flock.
11For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from a hand stronger than he.
12And they shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall flow to the goodness of the LORD—over the grain, and over the new wine, and over the fresh oil, and over the young of the flock and herd; and their soul^b shall be like a watered garden, and they shall not pine any more.
13Then the virgin shall rejoice in the dance, and young men and old together; and I will turn their mourning into joy, and I will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, declares the LORD.

15Thus said the LORD: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, bitter weeping—Rachel weeping for her sons; she refuses to be comforted for her sons, because they are not.

16Thus said the LORD: Withhold your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall return from the land of the enemy.

17And there is hope for your future, declares the LORD; and the sons shall return to their border.
18I have surely heard Ephraim lamenting himself: You chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained calf; turn me back, and I will return, for You are the LORD my God.
19For after my turning back, I relented, and after my being instructed, I struck upon my thigh; I was ashamed, and also confounded, for I bore the reproach of my youth.
20Is Ephraim a precious son to Me, or a child of delights? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him; therefore My inward parts are stirred for him; I will surely have compassion on him, declares the LORD.
21Set up for yourself signposts, place for yourself guideposts; set your heart to the highway, the way you went; return, O virgin of Israel, return to these your cities.
22Until when will you turn here and there, O backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a female shall surround a man.

23Thus said the LORD of hosts^c, the God of Israel: Again they shall say this word in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I turn back their captivity: May the LORD bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O mountain of holiness. 24And in it Judah and all its cities shall dwell together, farmers and those who set out with the flock. 25For I have satiated the weary soul, and every pining soul I have filled.

The New Covenant

(Hebrews 8:6–13)

26Upon this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was sweet to me.

27Behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man^d and the seed of beast. 28And it shall be, as I watched over them to pluck up and to break down, and to overthrow and to destroy and to bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD.

29In those days they shall no longer say, Fathers have eaten unripe grapes, and the teeth of the sons are set on edge.

30But each man^e shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the unripe grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

31Behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will cut a new covenant^f with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32not like the covenant that I cut with their fathers in the day I took hold of their hand to bring them out from the land of Egypt—which My covenant they broke, though I was a master over them, declares the LORD.
33For this is the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put My Torah within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34And they shall no longer teach, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the LORD; for all of them shall know Me, from their least to their greatest, declares the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.

35Thus said the LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day, the statutes^g of the moon and stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of hosts is His name:

36If these statutes^h depart from before Me, declares the LORD, then also the seed of Israel shall shabbat from being a nation before Me all the days.

37Thus said the LORD: If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then also I will reject all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD.

38Behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be built to the LORD, from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. 39And the measuring line shall go out farther straight ahead over the hill of Gareb, and it shall turn around to Goah. 40And all the valley of the corpses and the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the gate of the horses toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down again forever.