Jeremiah 31:20-32:22

New King James Version

²⁰Is Ephraim My dear son?
Is he a pleasant child?
For though I spoke against him,
I earnestly remember him still;
^(A)Therefore My ^[a]heart yearns for him;
^(B)I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.

²¹“Set up signposts,
Make landmarks;
^(C)Set your heart toward the highway,
The way in which you went.
^[b]Turn back, O virgin of Israel,
Turn back to these your cities.
²²How long will you ^(D)gad about,
O you ^(E)backsliding daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—
A woman shall encompass a man.”

Future Prosperity of Judah

²³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ^(F)‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and ^(G)mountain of holiness!’ ²⁴And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and ^(H)in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. ²⁵For I have ^[c]satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

²⁶After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was ^(I)sweet to me.

²⁷“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that ^(J)I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸And it shall come to pass, that as I have ^(K)watched over them ^(L)to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them ^(M)to build and to plant, says the Lord. ²⁹^(N)In those days they shall say no more:

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰^(O)But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

A New Covenant

³¹“Behold, the ^(P)days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ³²not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that ^(Q)I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, ^[d]though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. ³³^(R)But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: ^(S)I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their ^[e]hearts; ^(T)and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for ^(U)they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For ^(V)I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

³⁵Thus says the Lord,
^(W)Who gives the sun for a light by day,
The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,
Who disturbs ^(X)the sea,
And its waves roar
^(Y)(The Lord of hosts is His name):

³⁶“If ^(Z)those ordinances depart
From before Me, says the Lord,
Then the seed of Israel shall also cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”

³⁷Thus says the Lord:

^(AA)“If heaven above can be measured,
And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
I will also ^(AB)cast off all the seed 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 for the Lord ^(AC)from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹^(AD)The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. ⁴⁰And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, ^(AE)to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, ^(AF)shall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”

Jeremiah Buys a Field

32 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord ^(AG)in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ²For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up ^(AH)in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house. ³For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you ^(AI)prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^(AJ)“Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; ⁴and Zedekiah king of Judah ^(AK)shall not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him ^[f]face to face, and see him ^(AL)eye to eye; ⁵then he shall ^(AM)lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall be ^(AN)until I visit him,” says the Lord; ^(AO)“though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed” ’?”

⁶And Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁷‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the ^(AP)right of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’ ⁸Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. ⁹So I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle who was in Anathoth, and ^(AQ)weighed out to him the money—seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰And I signed the ^[g]deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales. ¹¹So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open; ¹²and I gave the purchase deed to ^(AR)Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the ^(AS)witnesses who signed the purchase deed, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison.

¹³“Then I charged ^(AT)Baruch before them, saying, ¹⁴‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.” ¹⁵For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be ^(AU)possessed again in this land.” ’

Jeremiah Prays for Understanding

¹⁶“Now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: ¹⁷‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, ^(AV)You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. ^(AW)There is nothing too ^[h]hard for You. ¹⁸You show ^(AX)lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them—the Great, ^(AY)the Mighty God, whose name is ^(AZ)the Lord of hosts. ¹⁹You are ^(BA)great in counsel and mighty in ^[i]work, for Your ^(BB)eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, ^(BC)to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. ²⁰You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day, and in Israel and among other men; and You have made Yourself ^(BD)a name, as it is this day. ²¹You ^(BE)have brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror; ²²You have given them this land, of which You swore to their fathers to give them—^(BF)“a land flowing with milk and honey.”