At that time, says YHWH, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. 2 YHWH says, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. 3 YHWH appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you. 4 Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go out in the dances of those who make merry. 5 Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy its fruit. 6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion to YHWH our God. 7 For YHWH says, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, YHWH, save your people, the remnant of Israel. 8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here. 9 They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by 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 YHWH’s word, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock. 11 For YHWH has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. 12 They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of YHWH, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. 13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. 14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says YHWH.
15 YHWH says: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. 16 YHWH says: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says YHWH; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. 17 There is hope for your latter end, says YHWH; and your children shall come again to their own border. 18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are YHWH my God. 19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth. 20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says YHWH. 21 Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities. 22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? for YHWH has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man. 23 YHWH of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: YHWH bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness. 24 Judah and all its cities shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks. 25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished.
26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me. 27 Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal. 28 It shall happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says YHWH. 29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. 30 But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. 31 Behold, the days come, says YHWH, 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; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says YHWH. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YHWH: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I 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 YHWH; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says YHWH: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more. 35 YHWH, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; YHWH of Armies is his name, says: 36 If these ordinances depart from before me, says YHWH, then the offspring (seed) of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. 37 YHWH says: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the offspring (seed) of Israel for all that they have done, says YHWH. 38 Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that the city shall be built to YHWH from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. 39 The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to YHWH; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever. {Jeremiah 31}
Moreover YHWH’s word came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying, 2 YHWH who does it, YHWH who forms it to establish it; YHWH is his name, says: 3 Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know. 4 For YHWH, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are broken down to make a defense against the mounds and against the sword; 5 while men come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hidden my face from this city: 6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth. 7 I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. 8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, by which they have sinned against me, and by which they have transgressed against me. 9 This city shall be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and for a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do to them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that I procure to it.
10 YHWH says: Yet again there shall be heard in this place, about which you say, It is waste, without man and without animal, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal, 11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, Give thanks to YHWH of Armies, for YHWH is good, for his loving kindness endures forever; who bring thanksgiving into YHWH’s house. For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at the first, says YHWH. 12 YHWH of Armies says: Yet again shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without animal, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. 13 In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks again pass under the hands of him who numbers them, says YHWH. 14 Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah. 15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is the name by which she shall be called: YHWH our righteousness.
17 For YHWH says: David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; 18 neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to burn meal offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. 19 YHWH’s word came to Jeremiah, saying, 20 YHWH says: If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season; 21 then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. 22 As the army of the sky can’t be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so I will multiply the offspring (seed) of David my servant, and the Levites who minister to me. 23 YHWH’s word came to Jeremiah, saying, 24 Don’t consider what this people has spoken, saying, The two families which YHWH chose, he has cast them off? thus do they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. 25 YHWH says: If my covenant of day and night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 then I will also cast away the offspring (seed) of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his offspring (seed) to be rulers over the offspring (seed) of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy on them. {Jeremiah 33}
(Jeremiah 31,33)