Jeremiah 31

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁷ For thus says the Lord:
“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
    and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say,
    ‘The Lord has saved his people,
    the remnant of Israel.’
⁸ Behold, I will bring them from the north country,
    and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
    the woman with child and her who is in travail, together;
    a great company, they shall return here.
⁹ With weeping they shall come,
    and with consolations^[b] I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
    in a straight path in which they shall not stumble;
for I am a father to Israel,
    and E′phraim is my first-born.

¹⁰ “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
    and declare it in the coastlands afar off;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
    and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
¹¹ For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
    and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.
¹² They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
    and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be like a watered garden,
    and they shall languish no more.
¹³ Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance,
    and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
    I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
¹⁴ I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
    and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
                says the Lord.”

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
    lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
    she refuses to be comforted for her children,
    because they are not.”^[c]

¹⁶ Thus says the Lord:
“Keep 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 There is hope for your future,
                says the Lord,
    and your children shall come back to their own country.
¹⁸ I have heard E′phraim bemoaning,
‘Thou hast chastened me, and I was chastened,
    like an untrained calf;
bring me back that I may be restored,
    for thou art the Lord my God.
¹⁹ For after I had turned away I repented;
    and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
    because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
²⁰ Is E′phraim my dear son?
    Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
    I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
    I will surely have mercy on him,
                says the Lord.

²¹ “Set up waymarks for yourself,
    make yourself guideposts;
consider well the highway,
    the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
    return to these your cities.
²² How long will you waver,
    O faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:
    a woman protects a man.”

³⁵ Thus says the Lord,
who gives the sun for light by day
    and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
    the Lord of hosts is his name:
³⁶ “If this fixed order departs
    from before me, says the Lord,
then shall the descendants of Israel cease
    from being a nation before me for ever.”

³⁷ Thus says the Lord:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
    and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will cast off all the descendants of Israel
    for all that they have done,
                says the Lord.”