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          DASV: Jeremiah 31    

1 "At that time," says the LORD, "I will be the God of all the
families of Israel, and they will be my people."
2 This is what the LORD says,
     "The people who survive death by the sword
           will find favor in the wilderness,
     when Israel goes to find its rest.
3 The LORD appeared to them far away, saying,
     "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
           therefore with loyal love I have drawn you.
4 Again I will build you,
           and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel.
      Again you will take up your tambourine,
          and will join in with the dances of those who are rejoicing.
5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria;
     the planters will plant,
      and will enjoy its fruit.
6 For there will come a day when the watchmen
     on the hills of Ephraim will call out,
      'Get up, let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God.'"

7 For this is what the LORD says,
     "Sing with gladness for Jacob,
           and shout for the chief of the nations.
      Proclaim and praise, saying,
     'O LORD, rescue your people,
           the remnant of Israel.'
8 I will bring them from the north country,
     and gather them from the ends of the earth,
     along with them will be the blind and the lame,
     both the woman with child and she who is in labor;
     a huge crowd will return here.
9 They will come with weeping;
          and with prayerful pleadings I will bring them back.
     I will lead them beside streams of waters,
          in smooth ways where they will not stumble,
          for I am Israel's father,
          and Ephraim is my firstborn."
10 "Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
     and declare it in the coastlands afar off;
      say, 'He who scattered Israel will regather him,
     and keep him as a shepherd protectively cares for his flock.
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob,
     and redeemed him from the hand of him
           who was stronger than him.'
12 They will come and sing on the heights of Zion,
     and will be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
      over the grain, new wine, and olive oil
     and the young of the flock and the herd.
      Their lives will become like a watered garden;
          they will never again wither away.
13 Then the young women will joyfully dance,
          and the young men and the old will celebrate.
      For I will turn their mourning into joy,
          and will comfort them
           giving them joy for their sorrow.
14 I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
     and my people will be satisfied with my benefits,"
                says the LORD.

15 This is what the LORD says:
     "A voice is heard in Ramah,
      lamentation and bitter weeping.
      Rachel weeping for her children;
           she refuses to be comforted for her children,
           because they are no more."

16 This is what the LORD says:
     "Restrain your voice from weeping,
           and your eyes from shedding tears,
     for your work will be rewarded,"
           says the LORD;
     "and they will return from the land of the enemy."
17 "There is hope for your future," says the LORD;
     "your children will come back to their own territory.
18 I have surely heard Ephraim grieving,
     'You have disciplined me,
           and I was disciplined,
           like a calf untrained with a yoke.
      Bring me back,
          and I will return;
           for you are the LORD my God.
19 For after I had turned away, I repented;
          after I was instructed, I slapped my thigh;
      I was ashamed and humiliated,
          when I realized the disgrace of my youth.'
20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
     Is he a delightful child?
     For as often as I rebuke him,
          yet I still remember him.
     Therefore my heart yearns for him;
          I will surely have mercy on him," says the LORD.
21 "Set up road markers,
          make guide-posts;
           set your heart to consider the highway,
          even the road you took.
      Return, O virgin of Israel,
          return again to these your cities.
22 How long will you waver, O faithless daughter?
     for the LORD will create something as new in the earth;
           as a woman protecting a man."

23 This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says,
"When I bring them back from their captivity, once again
they will say this in the land of Judah and in its towns:
'The LORD bless you, O dwelling of righteousness,
O mountain of holiness.'
24 Judah and all its towns will live there together,
both the farmers, and those who follow their flocks.
25 For I will satisfy the weary soul and refresh everyone
who is faint."

26 After this I woke up and looked. My sleep was
sweet to me.
27 "Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that
I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah
with the seed of humans and animals.
28 Then just as I have watched over them to uproot, tear
down, overthrow, destroy and afflict, so I will watch
over them to build and to plant," says the LORD.
29 "In those days they will no longer say,
     'The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
           and the children's teeth are set on edge.'
30 But everyone will die for his own sin;
     then, everyone who eats sour grapes,
           their own teeth will be set on edge."

31 "Look, the days are coming," says the LORD,
     when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel,
           and with the house of Judah.
32 But it will not be like the covenant
     that I made with their forefathers
           in the day that I took them by the hand
           to bring them out of the land of Egypt;
     for they broke my covenant,
           although I was their husband," says the LORD.
33 "But this is the covenant
     that I will make with the house of Israel
           after those days," says the LORD.
      "I will put my law within them;
      I will write it in their hearts.
      I will be their God,
      and they will be my people.
34 Each person will no longer have to teach his neighbor,
     or each one his brother, saying,
           'Know the LORD.'
      For they will all know me,
          from the least to the greatest of them," says the LORD.
      "For I will forgive their iniquity,
          and remember their sin no more."

35 This is what the LORD says,
     who gives the sun for a light by day,
           and orders the moon and the stars for lights by night,
           who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar.
      the LORD of hosts is his name.
36 "As likely for this order to cease from before me," says the LORD,
     "it would be for the seed of Israel to cease from
     being a nation before me forever."
37 This is what the LORD says:
     "If heaven above can be measured,
           and the foundations of the earth beneath searched out,
     then I would also reject all the descendants of Israel
           for all that they have done," says the LORD.

38 "Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that the
city will be rebuilt to the LORD from the tower of
Hananel to the Corner Gate.
39 The measuring line will be stretched straight to
the hill Gareb, and will turn to Goah.
40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and ashes, and all
the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse
Gate toward the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will
not be uprooted or torn down anymore forever."

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