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¹"At that time," says the LORD, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."

²Thus says the LORD, "The people who survived the sword Found grace in the wilderness [of exile]— Israel (the Northern Kingdom), when it went to find its rest."

³The LORD appeared to me ( Israel) from ages past, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you and continued My faithfulness to you.

⁴"Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel! You will again be adorned with your tambourines and timbrels And go out to the dances of those who celebrate.

⁵"Again you will plant vineyards On the mountains of Samaria; The planters will plant And enjoy the [abundant] fruit [in peace].

⁶"For there will be a day when the watchmen On the hills of Ephraim cry out, 'Arise, and let us go up to Zion, To the LORD our God.'"

⁷For thus says the LORD, "Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, And shout for the first and foremost of the nations [the chosen people, Israel]; Proclaim, give praise and say, 'O LORD save Your people, The remnant of Israel!'

⁸"Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, Among them [will be] the blind and the lame, The woman with child and she who labors in childbirth, together; A great company, they will return here [to Jerusalem].

⁹"They will come with weeping [in repentance and for joy], And by [their] prayer [for the future] I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in which they will not stumble, For I am a Father to Israel, And Ephraim (Israel) is My firstborn."

¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, And declare it in the isles and coastlands far away, And say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him And will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock."

¹¹For the LORD has ransomed Jacob And has redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

¹²"They will come and sing aloud and shout for joy on the height of Zion, And will be radiant [with joy] over the goodness of the LORD— For the grain, for the new wine, for the oil, And for the young of the flock and the herd. And their life will be like a watered garden, And they shall never sorrow or languish again.

¹³"Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, And the young men and old, together, For I will turn their mourning into joy And will comfort them and make them rejoice after their sorrow.

¹⁴"I will fully satisfy the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people will be satisfied with My goodness," says the LORD.

¹⁵Thus says the LORD, "A voice is heard in Ramah, Lamentation (songs of mourning) and bitter weeping. Rachel (Israel) is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, Because they are gone."

¹⁶Thus says the LORD, "Restrain your voice from weeping And your eyes from tears, For your work will be rewarded," says the LORD; "And your children will return from the enemy's land.

¹⁷"There is [confident] hope for your future," says the LORD; "Your children will come back to their own country.

¹⁸"I have surely heard Ephraim (Israel) moaning and grieving, 'You have chastised me, and I was chastised, Like a bull unaccustomed to the yoke or an untrained calf; Bring me back that I may be restored, For You are the LORD my God.

¹⁹'After I turned away [from You], I repented; After I was instructed, I struck my thigh [in remorse]; I was ashamed and even humiliated Because I carried the disgrace of my youth [as a nation].'

²⁰"Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a darling and beloved child? For as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly still remember him. Therefore My affection is renewed and My heart longs for him; I will surely have mercy on him," says the LORD.

²¹"Place for yourself road signs [toward Canaan], Make for yourself guideposts; Turn your thought and attention to the highway, To the way by which you went [into exile]. Retrace your steps, O virgin of Israel, Return to these your cities.

²²"How long will you hesitate [to return], O you faithless and renegade daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land [of Israel]: A woman will encompass (tenderly love) a man."

²³Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Once more they will speak these words in the land of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) and in her cities when I restore their fortunes and release them from exile, 'The LORD bless you, O habitation of justice and righteousness, O holy mountain!'

²⁴And [the people of] Judah and all its cities will live there together—the farmer and they who wander about with flocks.

²⁵For I [fully] satisfy the weary soul, and I replenish every languishing and sorrowful person."

²⁶At this I (Jeremiah) awoke and looked, and my [trancelike] sleep was sweet [in the assurance it gave] to me.

²⁷"Behold (listen carefully), the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.

²⁸It will be that as I have watched over them to uproot and to break down, to overthrow, destroy, and afflict with disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant [with good]," says the LORD.

²⁹"In those days they will not say again, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children's teeth are set on edge.'

³⁰But everyone will die [only] for his own wickedness; every man who eats sour grapes—his [own] teeth shall be set on edge.

³¹"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and with the house of Judah (the Southern Kingdom),

³²not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," says the LORD.

³³"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the LORD, "I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.

³⁴And each man will no longer teach his neighbor and his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me [through personal experience], from the least of them to the greatest," says the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness, and I will no longer remember their sin."

³⁵Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and of the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea's roaring billows or stills the waves when they roar; The LORD of hosts is His name:

³⁶"If this fixed order departs From before Me," says the LORD, "Then the descendants of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever."

³⁷Thus says the LORD, "If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off and abandon all the descendants of Israel For all that they have done," says the LORD.

³⁸"Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when the city [of Jerusalem] will be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

³⁹The measuring line will go out farther straight ahead to the hill Gareb; then it will turn to Goah.

⁴⁰And the whole valley (Hinnom) of the dead bodies and [the hill] of the ashes [long dumped there from the temple sacrifices], and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD. It (the city) will not be uprooted or overthrown anymore to the end of the age."

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

²Now at that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the house of the king of Judah.

³For Zedekiah [the last] king of Judah had locked him up, saying, "Why do you prophesy [disaster] and say, 'Thus says the LORD, "Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

⁴and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye;

⁵and he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him [for evaluation and judgment]," says the LORD. "If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed"'?"

⁶And Jeremiah [answered King Zedekiah and] said, "The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁷'Behold (listen carefully), Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying, "Buy my field that is in Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it [in accordance with the law]."'

⁸Then Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard in accordance with the word of the LORD, and he said to me, 'Please buy my field that is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin, for you have the right of inheritance and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

⁹"I bought the field that was at Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed out the money for him, seventeen shekels of silver.

¹⁰I signed the deed and sealed it, and called in witnesses, and weighed out the money on the scales.

¹¹So I took the deeds of the purchase, both the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions, and the unsealed copy;

¹²and I gave the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle's son and in sight of the witnesses who signed the purchase deed, in the presence of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard.

¹³And I commanded Baruch in their presence, saying,

¹⁴'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this unsealed deed, and put them in an earthen jar, that they may last a long time."

¹⁵For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Houses and fields and vineyards will again be purchased in this land."'

¹⁶"Now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying,

¹⁷'Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! There is nothing too difficult or too wonderful for You—

¹⁸You who show lovingkindness to thousands, but repay the wickedness (sin, guilt) of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], O great and mighty God; the LORD of hosts is His name;

¹⁹great [are You] in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to reward or repay each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds;

²⁰who set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day [continues to do so] both in Israel and among mankind; and You have made a name for Yourself, as at this day.

²¹You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror;

²²and gave them this land, which You swore to their forefathers to give them, a land [of plenty] flowing with milk and honey.

²³They entered and took possession of it, but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law; they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do. Therefore You have caused all this disaster and suffering to come upon them.

²⁴See the siege ramps [of mounded earth that the enemy has built against the walls]; they have come up to the city to capture it. And the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans [of Babylon] who fight against it, because of the sword, the famine and the virulent disease [that have overcome the people]. What You have spoken has come to pass, and behold, You see it.

²⁵Yet, O Lord GOD, You said to me, "Buy the field with money and get witnesses," even though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.'"

²⁶Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁷"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is there anything too difficult for Me?"

²⁸Therefore thus says the LORD, "Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it.

²⁹"The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come in and set this city on fire and burn it, along with the houses on whose roofs incense has been offered to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to provoke Me to anger.

³⁰For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil in My sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have been provoking Me to anger by the [idols that are the] work of their hands," says the LORD.

³¹"From the day that they built it [during the reign of Solomon], even to this day, this city has been such a provocation of My anger and My wrath, that I must remove it from My sight,

³²because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

³³They have turned their back to Me and not their face; though I taught them repeatedly, yet they would not listen and receive instruction.

³⁴But they put their detestable things (idols) in the house which is called by My Name, to defile it.

³⁵They built the high places [for worship] of Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom (son of Hinnom) to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire to [worship and honor] Molech—which I had not commanded them nor had it entered My mind that they should do this repulsive thing, to cause Judah to sin.

³⁶"Now therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning this city of which you say, 'It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and by famine and by virulent disease.'

³⁷Behold, I will gather them out of all countries to which I have driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them live in safety.

³⁸They will be My people, and I will be their God;

³⁹and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may [reverently] fear Me forever, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

⁴⁰I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will do them good and not turn away from them; and I will put in their heart a fear and reverential awe of Me, so that they will not turn away from Me.

⁴¹I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

⁴²For thus says the LORD, 'Just as I have brought all this great disaster on this people, so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them.

⁴³Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, "It is desolate, without man or animal; it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans."

⁴⁴People will buy fields for money, sign deeds, seal them, and call in witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South (the Negev); for I will restore their fortunes and release them from exile,' says the LORD."