1 ARST Yahweh says that at that time, he will be the God who is worshiped by all the clans in Israel, and they will be his people. BSB BSB: “At that time,” declares the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be My people.”
2 ARST This is what Yahweh says:“Those people who remained alive and were not killed by their enemies’ swords were blessed by me even in the desert; where they survived. BSB BSB: This is what the LORD says: “The people who survived the sword found favor in the wilderness when Israel went to find rest.”
3 ARST Long ago I, Yahweh, said to your ancestors, the Israelite people,‘I have loved you and I will continue to love you forever. By faithfully loving you I have brought you close to myself.’ BSB BSB: The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.
4 ARST And now I tell you, my Israelite people who I will think of like a chaste woman, that I will cause you to be a nation again. You will joyfully dance as you play your tambourines. BSB BSB: Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out in joyful dancing.
5 ARST Again you will plant your vineyards on the hills of Samaria, and you will eat the grapes that grow there. BSB BSB: Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant and enjoy the fruit.
6 ARST There will be a time when watchmen will call out from the hills of Samaria,‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh, our God!’” BSB BSB: For there will be a day when watchmen will call out on the hills of Ephraim, ‘Arise, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God!’”
7 ARST And now Yahweh also says this:“Sing joyfully about what I have done for the people of Israel! Shout about your nation, the greatest nation! Shout joyfully, praising me and saying,‘Yahweh, has rescued his people, the ones who were still alive!’ BSB BSB: For this is what the LORD says: “Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations! Make your praises heard, and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’
8 ARST Do that because I will bring them back from the northeast, from the most distant places on the earth. Among them will be blind people and lame people, women who are pregnant and women who are having labor pains. They will be a huge group of people! BSB BSB: Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, including the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor. They will return as a great assembly!
9 ARST They will be weeping as they return, and they will be praying to me. I will guide them along streams of water, on level paths where they will not stumble. I will do this because I am like a father to the Israelite people; it is as though Israel is my oldest son.” BSB BSB: They will come with weeping, and by their supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk beside streams of waters, on a level path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”
10 ARST People in the nations of the world, listen to this message from Yahweh. Then proclaim it to people who live along the coasts far away. Yahweh scattered his people, but he will gather them again and will take care of them like a shepherd takes care of his sheep. BSB BSB: Hear, O nations, the word of the LORD, and proclaim it in distant coastlands: “The One who scattered Israel will gather them and keep them as a shepherd keeps his flock.
11 ARST Yahweh will buy his Israelite people back from those who conquered them because they were more powerful than his people. BSB BSB: For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand that had overpowered him.
12 ARST Yahweh’ s people will return to Jerusalem and shout joyfully on the slopes of Zion Hill. They will rejoice about the things that Yahweh has abundantly given to them— grain and new wine and olive oil and young sheep and cattle. They themselves will be like a well- watered garden, and they will no longer feel worn out. BSB BSB: They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—the grain, new wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and never again will they languish.
13 ARST The young women will dance joyfully, and all the men, young ones and old ones, will join with them. I will cause them to rejoice instead of mourning; I will comfort them and cause them to be happy instead of being sad. BSB BSB: Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.
14 ARST The priests will have plenty of things to eat and drink, and all my people will be filled with the good things that I give them. That will certainly happen because I, Yahweh, have said it!” BSB BSB: I will fill the souls of the priests abundantly, and will fill My people with My goodness,” declares the LORD.
15 ARST Yahweh also says this:“Women were weeping in Ramah, on the border between Israel and Judah; they were mourning and crying very loudly. The women who were the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, the two grandsons of Rachel the wife of Jacob, were weeping about their children, and no one could comfort them because their children were all dead. BSB BSB: This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
16 ARST But now this is what Yahweh says:‘Do not cry anymore, because I will reward you for the good things you have done for your children. Your children will return from the land where their enemies have taken them. BSB BSB: This is what the LORD says: “Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for the reward for your work will come, declares the LORD. Then your children will return from the land of the enemy.
17 ARST I, Yahweh, am telling you that there are things that you can confidently expect me to do for you in the future. Your children will return to their own land.’ BSB BSB: So there is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children will return to their own land.
18 ARST I have heard the people of Israel grieving very much and saying to me,‘You punished us severely, like calves are beaten by their owners to train them for pulling a plow. So bring us back to obey you again, because we are ready to return to you, because you alone are Yahweh, our God. BSB BSB: I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God.
19 ARST We turned away from you, but we repented; after you caused us to realize that we were guilty. We beat our hands on our legs to show that we were very ashamed of the sins that we committed when we were young.’ BSB BSB: After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
20 ARST But I, Yahweh, say this: The Israelite people certainly are still my dear children. It is often necessary for me to threaten to punish them, but I still love them. That is why I have not forgotten them, and I will certainly act mercifully toward them. BSB BSB: Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me, a delightful child? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the LORD.
21 ARST You Israelite people, set up road signs; put up posts along the roads to mark the road on which you walked when you were taken from Jerusalem. My precious Israelite people, come back to your towns here. BSB BSB: “Set up the road markers, put up the signposts. Keep the highway in mind, the road you have traveled. Return, O Virgin Israel, return to these cities of yours.
22 ARST You people who have been like daughters who have forsaken their parents, how long will you continue to wander away from me? I, Yahweh, will cause something to happen on the earth that is new: the women of Israel will be protecting their husbands as they travel back here!” BSB BSB: How long will you wander, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land—a woman will shelter a man.”
23 ARST This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says:“When I bring them back from the countries to which they have been exiled, all the people from the towns in Judah will again say,‘I hope that Yahweh will bless this my home, the holy place where righteous people will live!’ BSB BSB: This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore them from captivity, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling place, O holy mountain.’
24 ARST The people of Judah who live in the towns, including the farmers and the shepherds, will all live together peacefully. BSB BSB: And Judah and all its cities will dwell together in the land, the farmers and those who move with the flocks,
25 ARST I will enable weary people to be refreshed with drinks of water, and enable people who are very exhausted to become strong again.” BSB BSB: for I will refresh the weary soul and replenish all who are weak.”
26 ARST I, Jeremiah, woke up after dreaming all those things, and I looked around. I had slept very delightfully! BSB BSB: At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.
27 ARST Then Yahweh said to me,“There will be a time when I will greatly increase the number of people and the number of livestock here in Israel and Judah. BSB BSB: “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and of beast.
28 ARST Previously, I caused their enemies to remove the people from their land and to destroy their land and to bring many disasters to it. But in the future, I will enable them to build houses and to plant crops here in Israel again. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it. BSB BSB: Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, to demolish, destroy, and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.
29 ARST Previously the people often said,‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but it is the children’ s teeth that ache.’ They meant that it was not fair for them to be punished for their ancestors’ sins. But when I bring them back to their land, they will no longer say that. BSB BSB: “In those days, it will no longer be said: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’
30 ARST But now all people will die because of the sins that they themselves have committed. It will be more like‘The person who eats sour grapes will have his own teeth aching.’ BSB BSB: Instead, each will die for his own iniquity. If anyone eats the sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.
32 ARST This new agreement will not be like the agreement that I made with their ancestors when I took them by their hands and led them out of Egypt. They disobeyed that agreement, even though I loved them like husbands love their wives.’ BSB BSB: It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
33 ARST This is what I, Yahweh, say:‘This is the new agreement that I will make with the people of Israel some day: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their inner beings. I will be their God, and they will be my people. BSB BSB: “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
34 ARST And it will not be necessary for them to teach their neighbors or their relatives and say,“You need to know Yahweh,” because everyone, including both unimportant people and very important people, will already know me. And I will forgive them for having been very wicked, and I will never think again about the sins that they have committed.’” BSB BSB: No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”
35 ARST Yahweh is the one who causes the sun to give light during the day, and who causes the moon and the stars to give light during the night. He stirs up the seas, with the result that waves roar. His name is Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, and this is what he says: BSB BSB: Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of Hosts is His name:
36 ARST “I will not permanently reject my Israelite people any more than I will get rid of the laws that control the universe. BSB BSB: “Only if this fixed order departed from My presence, declares the LORD, would Israel’s descendants ever cease to be a nation before Me.”
37 ARST And this is what I say:‘No one can measure the sky and no one can find out what is supporting the earth. Similarly, I cannot reject the descendants of Jacob because of all the evil things that they have done.’ That is certain, because I, Yahweh, have said it! BSB BSB: This is what the LORD says: “Only if the heavens above could be measured and the foundations of the earth below searched out would I reject all of Israel’s descendants because of all they have done,” declares the LORD.
38 ARST I, Yahweh, also say that there will be a time when everything in Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me, from the tower of Hananel at the northeast corner, west to the gate named the Corner Gate. BSB BSB: “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for Me, from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
39 ARST Workers will stretch a measuring line over Gareb Hill all the way southwest to Goah. BSB BSB: The measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn toward Goah.
40 ARST And the whole area, including the place where corpses and ashes are thrown in the Kidron Valley, and all the fields to the east as far as the Horse Gate, will become set apart for me. And the city of Jerusalem will never again be captured or destroyed.” BSB BSB: The whole valley of the dead bodies and ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley, to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will never again be uprooted or demolished.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.