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    [a]Thus says the Lord:
The people who escaped the sword
    find favor in the wilderness.
As Israel comes forward to receive rest,
    from afar the Lord appears:
With age-old love I have loved you;
    so I have kept my mercy toward you.(A)
Again I will build you, and you shall stay built,
    virgin Israel;
Carrying your festive tambourines,
    you shall go forth dancing with merrymakers.

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Footnotes

  1. 31:2–3 Jeremiah describes the exiles of the Northern Kingdom on their way home from the nations where the Assyrians had resettled them (722/721 B.C.). The favor they discover in the wilderness is the appearance of the Lord (v. 3) coming to guide them to Jerusalem. Implicit in these verses is the presentation of the people’s return from captivity as a second exodus, a unifying theme in Second Isaiah (chaps. 40–55).

This is what the Lord says:

“The people who survive the sword
    will find favor(A) in the wilderness;
    I will come to give rest(B) to Israel.”

The Lord appeared to us in the past,[a] saying:

“I have loved(C) you with an everlasting love;
    I have drawn(D) you with unfailing kindness.
I will build you up again,
    and you, Virgin(E) Israel, will be rebuilt.(F)
Again you will take up your timbrels(G)
    and go out to dance(H) with the joyful.(I)

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 31:3 Or Lord has appeared to us from afar