Jeremiah

31 At that time Declareth Yahweh, I will become a God to all the families of Israel; And they shall become my people.

2 Thus saith Yahweh,—There hath found favour in the desert a people escaped from the sword,—I must go to cause him, even Israel, to rest.

3 From afar Yahweh hath appeared unto me. Yea with an age-abiding love have I loved thee, For this cause have I prolonged to thee lovingkindness.

4 Again will I build thee and thou shalt be built, thou virgin Israel,—Again shalt thou deck thyself with thy timbrels, And go forth in the dance of them that make merry:

5 Again shalt thou plant vineyards in the mountains of Samaria,—The planters have planted and have laid open [the vineyards].

6 For it is a day the watchmen have proclaimed throughout the hill country of Ephraim,—Arise ye and let us go up to Zion, unto Yahweh our God.

7 For thus saith Yahweh—Shout ye for Jacob with gladness, Make shrill thy voice as the head of the nations,—Publish ye, praise ye and say, Save thou, O Yahweh, thy people, the remnant of Israel.

8 Behold me! bringing them in out of the land of the North And I will gather them out of the remote parts of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and she that giveth birth together,—A great convocation shall return hither:

9 With weeping shall they come in And with supplications will I lead them, I will bring them unto rivers of waters, By a smooth way wherein they shall not stumble,—For I have become to Israel a father, And as for Ephraim my firstborn is he!

10 Hear ye the word of Yahweh, O ye nations, And declare ye in the Coastlands afar off,—And say—He that scattereth Israel will gather him, And watch over him as a shepherd his flock;

11 For Yahweh hath ransomed Jacob,—And redeemed him from the hand of one stronger than he.

12 Then shall they come in and shall shout in triumph on the height of Zion, And shall stream unto the goodness of Yahweh, To the wheat and to the new wine and to the oil, and to the young of the flocks and of the herds,—So shall their soul become like a garden well watered, And they shall not again languish any more.

13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, And young men and elders [rejoice] together,—And I will turn their mourning into gladness and will comfort them, And will make them rejoice from their sorrow;

14 Then will I satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, And my people with my goodness shall be satisfied, Declareth Yahweh.

15 Thus saith Yahweh—A voice in Ramah is heard, Wailing, bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children,—She refuseth to be comforted for her children, For they are not!

16 Thus saith Yahweh—Restrain thy voice from weeping, And thine eyes from tears,—For there is a reward for thy labour, Declareth Yahweh, So they shall return from the land of the enemy:

17 Yea there is hope for thy future, Declareth Yahweh,—And thy sons shall return to their own boundary.

18 I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, Thou hast chastised me and I have been chastised, Like a bullock not broken in, Suffer me to return that I may return, For thou art Yahweh my God.

19 Surely after my return I was filled with regret, And after I came to know myself I smote upon the thigh,—I turned pale and was even confounded, For I had borne the reproach of my youthful days.

20 Was Ephraim a very precious son to me? Was he a most delightful child? For as often as I have spoken against him I have remembered him again! For this cause have my affections been deeply moved for him, I must have compassion upon him, Declareth Yahweh.

21 Erect thee waymarks, Set thee up finger-posts, Apply thy heart to The highway—The road by which thou didst depart,—Return, O virgin of Israel, Return unto these thy cities.

22 How long wilt thou turn hither and thither, O apostate daughter? For Yahweh hath created a new thing in the earth, A female defendeth a strong man!

23 Thus saith Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, Again shall they say this word in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I cause their captivity to return, Yahweh bless thee, Thou home of righteousness! Thou mountain of holiness!

24 Then shall there dwell throughout Judah itself and all the cities thereof together,—Husbandmen who shall move about with a flock;

25 For I have satiated the weary soul,—And every languishing soul have I filled.

26 Upon this I awoke and considered,—And my sleep had been sweet to me!

27 Lo! days are coming, Declareth Yahweh—That I will sow The house of Israel and The house of Judah, With the seed of men and With the seed of beasts;

28 And it shall come to pass that—Just as I watched over them to root up and to break down and to tear out and to destroy and to break in pieces So will I watch over them to build and to plant, Declareth Yahweh.

29 In those days shall they say no more, Fathers did eat sour grapes,—And children’s teeth are blunted!

30 But every one for his own iniquity shall die,—Any human being who eateth the sour grapes his own teeth shall be blunted.

31 Lo! days are coming, Declareth Yahweh,—When I will solemnise—With the house of Israel and With the house of Judah, A new covenant:

32 Not like the covenant which I solemnised with their fathers, In the day when I grasped their hand, to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt,—In that they brake my covenant Though I had become a husband unto them, Declareth Yahweh.

33 For this is the covenant which I will solemnise with the house of Israel after those days, Declareth Yahweh, I will put my law within them, Yea on their heart will I write it,—So will I become their God, And they shall become my people.

34 Then shall they no longer teach Every man his neighbour and Every man his brother saying, Know ye Yahweh,—For they all shall know me, From the least of them Even unto the greatest of them, Declareth Yahweh, For I will forgive their iniquity, And their sin will I remember no more.

35 Thus saith Yahweh—Who hath given the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,—Who excited the sea and the waves thereof roared Yahweh of hosts is his name:—

36 If these ordinances depart from before me Declareth Yahweh,—The seed of Israel also may cease from being a nation before me all the days.

37 Thus saith Yahweh—If the heavens above can be measured, Or the foundations of the earth beneath be searched out I also may reject all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, Declareth Yahweh.

38 Lo! days are coming, Declareth Yahweh, That the city shall be built for Yahweh, From the tower of Hananeel [As far as] the gate of the corner;

39 Then shall go forth again the measuring-line straight forward, Over the hill Gareb, And it shall go round to Goah;

40 And all the vale of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron torrent-bed as far as the horse-gate corner on the east, Shall be holy unto Yahweh,—It shall not be rooted up nor thrown down any more, unto times age-abiding.