Add parallel Print Page Options

27 The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will help the families of Israel and Judah and their children and animals to grow. 28 In the past I watched over Israel and Judah, to pull them up and tear them down, to destroy them and bring them disaster. But now I will watch over them to build them up and make them strong,” says the Lord.

29 “At that time people will no longer say:

‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
    and that caused the children to grind their teeth from the sour taste.’

30 Instead, each person will die for his own sin; the person who eats sour grapes will grind his own teeth.

The New Agreement

31 “Look, the time is coming,” says the Lord,
    “when I will make a new agreement
with the people of Israel
    and the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the agreement
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to bring them out of Egypt.
I was a husband to them,
    but they broke that agreement,” says the Lord.
33 “This is the agreement I will make
    with the people of Israel at that time,” says the Lord:
“I will put my teachings in their minds
    and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
34 People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives
    to know the Lord,
because all people will know me,
    from the least to the most important,” says the Lord.
“I will forgive them for the wicked things they did,
    and I will not remember their sins anymore.”

The Lord Will Never Leave Israel

35 The Lord makes the sun shine in the day
    and the moon and stars to shine at night.
He stirs up the sea so that its waves crash on the shore.
    The Lord All-Powerful is his name.

This is what the Lord says:

36 “Only if these laws should ever fail,”
    says the Lord,
“will Israel’s descendants ever stop
    being a nation before me.”

37 This is what the Lord says:

“Only if people can measure the sky above
    and learn the secrets of the earth below,
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
    because of what they have done,” says the Lord.

Read full chapter

Bible Gateway Recommends