Jeremiah 31
Israel's return to their own country
‘I was kind in the
That was when Israel's people wanted to rest.’
‘I have loved you with a love that has no end.
So I am showing my love to you so that you will move towards me.
You will again make music together,
and you will dance a happy dance.
Farmers will plant
will shout from the hills of Ephraim.
They will say, “Let us go up to
to the Lord our God.” ’
‘Sing and be happy for Jacob (Israel).
Shout for your great country.
Let the Lord hear you while you
Say, “Lord, save your people.
Lord, save the few people from Israel who are still alive.”
I will bring them from the ends of the earth.
They will bring with them those who cannot see.
And I will bring also those who cannot walk well.
Women who will soon have babies will come.
And those who will very soon give birth will come.
A very big crowd of my people will return here.
They will pray while I am bringing them back.
I will lead them along by streams of water.
They will walk along flat paths so that they will not fall.
I will do that because I am Israel's father.
And Ephraim (Israel) is my oldest son.
Shout it by the coasts of countries that are far away.
“He who pushed Israel's people away will fetch them back.
And he will watch them as a
He will take them away from the people who were stronger than them.
They will shout because they are very happy.
They will be happy with all the good things that the Lord gives to them.
He will give bread, new
The sheep and cows will have young ones.
Israel will grow like a garden that has much water.
Its people will not still be sad.
The young men and the old men will dance too.
I will make them happy and they will not be sad.
I will do things for them that will help them to feel better.
Their faces will smile and they will not be sad.
And I will give to my people plenty of good things. They will have more than they need,’ says the Lord.
‘You will hear a voice in Ramah,
a loud voice that cries sadly.
It is Rachel and she is weeping for her children.
Nobody can help her to feel better,
because her children are dead.’
‘Stop the loud noise of your voice,
and stop your eyes from crying.
I will be happy about the work that you do,’ says the Lord.
‘Your children will return from the country of your enemies.
says the Lord.
‘Your children will return to their own country.
“You have
I feel like an animal that does not obey”, they said.
“And you did
Bring me back, and I will return.
I will come back because you are the Lord, my God.
After you helped me to understand, I felt pain inside.
I was ashamed and I felt very small.
I had done wrong things when I was young.
I became ashamed of those things.”
He is like a child that gives pleasure to me.
I may often say that he is doing wrong things.
But while I have been speaking against him, I have always remembered him.
So I want very much to see him again.
I love him very much.
And I will certainly be kind to him,’ says the Lord.
to show people the way.
Return, Israel, the people that I love. Return to your towns.
You are like a daughter who loved another man.
The Lord will do a new thing.
A woman will keep a man safe.’
‘when I will make a new
I will make it with Israel's people and with Judah's people.
When I took them to lead them out of Egypt,
I was like a husband to them.
But they did not obey the rules in my covenant,’ says the Lord.
I will make it when that time comes,’ says the Lord.
‘I will put my
and they will always remember it.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
And he will not teach his brother how to know the Lord.
That will be because they will all know me.
From the least of them to the greatest of them, they will all know me.’
The Lord says,
‘I will
I will not continue to remember their
He causes the moon and the stars to shine at night.
He causes the sea to move and to make a loud sound.
He is the great, powerful Lord. That is his name.
And he says,
They will always be a
unless I forget those
‘I will leave Israel's
I will leave if men can measure the sky above.
Men can try to find the rock that I built the earth on.
I will leave if they can find that rock.
Then I will leave the children of Israel alone
because of all the things that they have done,’ says the Lord.
‘you will build this city again. You will build it for me from the