Jeremiah 31:15-40

New Living Translation

Rachel’s Sadness Turns to Joy

¹⁵This is what the Lord says:

“A cry is heard in Ramah—
    deep anguish and bitter weeping.
Rachel weeps for her children,
    refusing to be comforted—
    for her children are gone.”

¹⁶But now this is what the Lord says:
“Do not weep any longer,
    for I will reward you,” says the Lord.
“Your children will come back to you
    from the distant land of the enemy.
¹⁷There is hope for your future,” says the Lord.
    “Your children will come again to their own land.
¹⁸I have heard Israel^[a] saying,
‘You disciplined me severely,
    like a calf that needs training for the yoke.
Turn me again to you and restore me,
    for you alone are the Lord my God.
¹⁹I turned away from God,
    but then I was sorry.
I kicked myself for my stupidity!
    I was thoroughly ashamed of all I did in my younger days.’

²⁰“Is not Israel still my son,
    my darling child?” says the Lord.
“I often have to punish him,
    but I still love him.
That’s why I long for him
    and surely will have mercy on him.
²¹Set up road signs;
    put up guideposts.
Mark well the path
    by which you came.
Come back again, my virgin Israel;
    return to your towns here.
²²How long will you wander,
    my wayward daughter?
For the Lord will cause something new to happen—
    Israel will embrace her God.^[b]”

²³This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, the people of Judah and its towns will again say, ‘The Lord bless you, O righteous home, O holy mountain!’ ²⁴Townspeople and farmers and shepherds alike will live together in peace and happiness. ²⁵For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.”

²⁶At this, I woke up and looked around. My sleep had been very sweet.

²⁷“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will greatly increase the human population and the number of animals here in Israel and Judah. ²⁸In the past I deliberately uprooted and tore down this nation. I overthrew it, destroyed it, and brought disaster upon it. But in the future I will just as deliberately plant it and build it up. I, the Lord, have spoken!

²⁹“The people will no longer quote this proverb:

‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste.’

³⁰All people will die for their own sins—those who eat the sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker.

³¹“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³²This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.

³³“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

³⁵It is the Lord who provides the sun to light the day
    and the moon and stars to light the night,
    and who stirs the sea into roaring waves.
His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    and this is what he says:
³⁶“I am as likely to reject my people Israel
    as I am to abolish the laws of nature!”
³⁷This is what the Lord says:
“Just as the heavens cannot be measured
    and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored,
so I will not consider casting them away
    for the evil they have done.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!

³⁸“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when all Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹A measuring line will be stretched out over the hill of Gareb and across to Goah. ⁴⁰And the entire area—including the graveyard and ash dump in the valley, and all the fields out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the Horse Gate—will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be captured or destroyed.”

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