Jeremiah 31 - New King James Version (NKJV)

The Remnant of Israel Saved

31 “At ^(A)the same time,” says the Lord, ^(B)“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”

² Thus says the Lord:

“The people who survived the sword
Found grace in the wilderness—
Israel, when ^(C)I went to give him rest.”

³ The Lord has appeared ^[a]of old to me, saying:
“Yes, ^(D)I have loved you with ^(E)an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have ^(F)drawn you.
⁴ Again ^(G)I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt,
O virgin of Israel!
You shall again be adorned with your ^(H)tambourines,
And shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.
^{5 (I)}You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria;
The planters shall plant and ^[b]eat them as ordinary food.
⁶ For there shall be a day
When the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim,
^(J)‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
To the Lord our God.’ ”

⁷ For thus says the Lord:

^(K)“Sing with gladness for Jacob,
And shout among the chief of the nations;
Proclaim, give praise, and say,
‘O Lord, save Your people,
The remnant of Israel!’
⁸ Behold, I will bring them ^(L)from the north country,
And ^(M)gather them from the ends of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame,
The woman with child
And the one who labors with child, together;
A great throng shall return there.
^{9 (N)}They shall come with weeping,
And with supplications I will lead them.
I will cause them to walk ^(O)by the rivers of waters,
In a straight way in which they shall not stumble;
For I am a Father to Israel,
And Ephraim is My ^(P)firstborn.

¹⁰ “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
And declare it in the ^[c]isles afar off, and say,
‘He who scattered Israel ^(Q)will gather him,
And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’
¹¹ For ^(R)the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
And ransomed him ^(S)from the hand of one stronger than he.
¹² Therefore they shall come and sing in ^(T)the height of Zion,
Streaming to ^(U)the goodness of the Lord—
For wheat and new wine and oil,
For the young of the flock and the herd;
Their souls shall be like a ^(V)well-watered garden,
^(W)And they shall sorrow no more at all.

¹³ “Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance,
And the young men and the old, together;
For I will turn their mourning to joy,
Will comfort them,
And make them rejoice rather than sorrow.
¹⁴ I will ^[d]satiate the soul of the priests with abundance,
And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord.”

Mercy on Ephraim

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord:

^(X)“A voice was heard in ^(Y)Ramah,
Lamentation and bitter ^(Z)weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted for her children,
Because ^(AA)they are no more.”

¹⁶ Thus says the Lord:

“Refrain your voice from ^(AB)weeping,
And your eyes from tears;
For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord,
And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
¹⁷ There is ^(AC)hope in your future, says the Lord,
That your children shall come back to their own border.

¹⁸ “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:
‘You have ^(AD)chastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained bull;
^(AE)Restore me, and I will return,
For You are the Lord my God.
¹⁹ Surely, ^(AF)after my turning, I repented;
And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh;
I was ^(AG)ashamed, yes, even humiliated,
Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
²⁰ Is Ephraim My dear son?
Is he a pleasant child?
For though I spoke against him,
I earnestly remember him still;
^(AH)Therefore My ^[e]heart yearns for him;
^(AI)I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.

²¹ “Set up signposts,
Make landmarks;
^(AJ)Set your heart toward the highway,
The way in which you went.
^[f]Turn back, O virgin of Israel,
Turn back to these your cities.
²² How long will you ^(AK)gad about,
O you ^(AL)backsliding daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—
A woman shall encompass a man.”

Future Prosperity of Judah

²³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ^(AM)‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and ^(AN)mountain of holiness!’ ²⁴ And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and ^(AO)in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. ²⁵ For I have ^[g]satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

²⁶ After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was ^(AP)sweet to me.

²⁷ “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that ^(AQ)I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸ And it shall come to pass, that as I have ^(AR)watched over them ^(AS)to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them ^(AT)to build and to plant, says the Lord. ^{29 (AU)}In those days they shall say no more:

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

^{30 (AV)}But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

A New Covenant

³¹ “Behold, the ^(AW)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 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that ^(AX)I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, ^[h]though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. ^{33 (AY)}But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: ^(AZ)I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their ^[i]hearts; ^(BA)and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for ^(BB)they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For ^(BC)I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

³⁵ Thus says the Lord,
^(BD)Who gives the sun for a light by day,
The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,
Who disturbs ^(BE)the sea,
And its waves roar
^(BF)(The Lord of hosts is His name):

³⁶ “If ^(BG)those ordinances depart
From before Me, says the Lord,
Then the seed of Israel shall also cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”

³⁷ Thus says the Lord:

^(BH)“If heaven above can be measured,
And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
I will also ^(BI)cast off all the seed of Israel
For all that they have done, says the Lord.

³⁸ “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord ^(BJ)from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ^{39 (BK)}The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. ⁴⁰ And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, ^(BL)to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, ^(BM)shall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 31:3 Lit. from afar
2. Jeremiah 31:5 Lit. treat them as common
3. Jeremiah 31:10 Or coastlands
4. Jeremiah 31:14 Fill to the full
5. Jeremiah 31:20 Lit. inward parts
6. Jeremiah 31:21 Or Return
7. Jeremiah 31:25 fully satisfied
8. Jeremiah 31:32 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX, Syr. and I turned away from them
9. Jeremiah 31:33 Lit. inward parts

Cross references

1. Jeremiah 31:1 : Jer. 30:24
2. Jeremiah 31:1 : Jer. 30:22
3. Jeremiah 31:2 : Ex. 33:14; Num. 10:33; Deut. 1:33; Josh. 1:13; Ps. 95:11; Is. 63:14
4. Jeremiah 31:3 : Deut. 4:37; 7:8; Mal. 1:2
5. Jeremiah 31:3 : Is. 43:4; Rom. 11:28
6. Jeremiah 31:3 : Hos. 11:4
7. Jeremiah 31:4 : Jer. 33:7
8. Jeremiah 31:4 : Ex. 15:20; Judg. 11:34; Ps. 149:3
9. Jeremiah 31:5 : Ps. 107:37; Is. 65:21; Ezek. 28:26; Amos 9:14
10. Jeremiah 31:6 : [Is. 2:3; Jer. 31:12; 50:4, 5; Mic. 4:2]
11. Jeremiah 31:7 : Is. 12:5, 6
12. Jeremiah 31:8 : Jer. 3:12, 18; 23:8
13. Jeremiah 31:8 : Deut. 30:4; Is. 43:6; Ezek. 20:34, 41; 34:13
14. Jeremiah 31:9 : [Ps. 126:5; Jer. 50:4]
15. Jeremiah 31:9 : Is. 35:8; 43:19; 49:10, 11
16. Jeremiah 31:9 : Ex. 4:22
17. Jeremiah 31:10 : Is. 40:11; Ezek. 34:12–14
18. Jeremiah 31:11 : Is. 44:23; 48:20; Jer. 15:21; 50:19
19. Jeremiah 31:11 : Is. 49:24
20. Jeremiah 31:12 : Ezek. 17:23
21. Jeremiah 31:12 : Hos. 3:5
22. Jeremiah 31:12 : Is. 58:11
23. Jeremiah 31:12 : Is. 35:10; 65:19; [John 16:22; Rev. 21:4]
24. Jeremiah 31:15 : Matt. 2:17, 18
25. Jeremiah 31:15 : Josh. 18:25; Judg. 4:5; Is. 10:29; Jer. 40:1
26. Jeremiah 31:15 : Gen. 37:35
27. Jeremiah 31:15 : Jer. 10:20
28. Jeremiah 31:16 : [Is. 25:8; 30:19]
29. Jeremiah 31:17 : Jer. 29:11
30. Jeremiah 31:18 : Job 5:17; Ps. 94:12
31. Jeremiah 31:18 : Ps. 80:3, 7, 19; Jer. 17:4; Lam. 5:21; [Acts 3:26]
32. Jeremiah 31:19 : Deut. 30:2
33. Jeremiah 31:19 : Ezek. 36:31; [Zech. 12:10]
34. Jeremiah 31:20 : Gen. 43:30; Deut. 32:36; Judg. 10:16; Is. 63:15; Hos. 11:8
35. Jeremiah 31:20 : Is. 57:18; Jer. 3:12; 12:15; [Hos. 14:4]; Mic. 7:18
36. Jeremiah 31:21 : Jer. 50:5
37. Jeremiah 31:22 : Jer. 2:18, 23, 36
38. Jeremiah 31:22 : Jer. 3:6, 8, 11, 12, 14, 22
39. Jeremiah 31:23 : Ps. 122:5–8; Is. 1:26
40. Jeremiah 31:23 : [Zech. 8:3]
41. Jeremiah 31:24 : Jer. 33:12
42. Jeremiah 31:26 : Prov. 3:24
43. Jeremiah 31:27 : Ezek. 36:9–11; Hos. 2:23
44. Jeremiah 31:28 : Jer. 44:27; Dan. 9:14
45. Jeremiah 31:28 : Jer. 1:10; 18:7
46. Jeremiah 31:28 : Jer. 24:6
47. Jeremiah 31:29 : Lam. 5:7; Ezek. 18:2, 3
48. Jeremiah 31:30 : Deut. 24:16; 2 Chr. 25:4; Is. 3:11; [Ezek. 18:4, 20; Gal. 6:5, 7]
49. Jeremiah 31:31 : Jer. 32:40; 33:14; Ezek. 37:26; Heb. 8:8–12; 10:16, 17
50. Jeremiah 31:32 : Deut. 1:31; Is. 63:12
51. Jeremiah 31:33 : Jer. 32:40; Heb. 10:16
52. Jeremiah 31:33 : Ps. 40:8; [Ezek. 11:19; 36:26, 27; 2 Cor. 3:3]
53. Jeremiah 31:33 : Jer. 24:7; 30:22; 32:38
54. Jeremiah 31:34 : Is. 11:9; 54:13; Jer. 24:7; Hab. 2:14; [John 6:45; 1 Cor. 2:10; 1 John 2:20]
55. Jeremiah 31:34 : Jer. 33:8; 50:20; Mic. 7:18; [Acts 10:43; 13:39; Rom. 11:27]
56. Jeremiah 31:35 : Gen. 1:14–18; Deut. 4:19; Ps. 72:5, 17; 89:2, 36; 119:91
57. Jeremiah 31:35 : Is. 51:15
58. Jeremiah 31:35 : Jer. 10:16
59. Jeremiah 31:36 : Ps. 148:6; Is. 54:9, 10; Jer. 33:20
60. Jeremiah 31:37 : Is. 40:12; Jer. 33:22
61. Jeremiah 31:37 : Jer. 33:24–26; [Rom. 11:2–5, 26, 27]
62. Jeremiah 31:38 : Neh. 3:1; 12:39; Zech. 14:10
63. Jeremiah 31:39 : Ezek. 40:8; Zech. 2:1, 2
64. Jeremiah 31:40 : 2 Kin. 11:16; 2 Chr. 23:15; Neh. 3:28
65. Jeremiah 31:40 : [Joel 3:17]; Zech. 14:20