Jeremiah:30-31

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* The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD , saying : * 'Thus speaketh the LORD , the God of Israel , saying : Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book . * For , lo , the days come , saith the LORD , that I will turn the captivity of My people Israel and Judah , saith the LORD ; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers , and they shall possess it .' * And these are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah . * For thus saith the LORD : We have heard a voice of trembling , of fear , and not of peace . * Ask ye now , and see whether a man doth travail with child ; wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins , as a woman in travail , and all faces are turned into paleness ? * Alas ! for that day is great , so that none is like it ; and it is a time of trouble unto Jacob , but out of it shall he be saved . * And it shall come to pass in that day , saith the LORD of hosts , that I will break his yoke from off thy neck , and will burst thy bands ; and strangers shall no more make him their bondman ; * But they shall serve the LORD their God , and David their king , whom I will raise up unto them . * Therefore fear thou not , O Jacob My servant , saith the LORD ; neither be dismayed , O Israel ; for , lo , I will save thee from afar , and thy seed from the land of their captivity ; and Jacob shall again be quiet and at ease , and none shall make him afraid . * For I am with thee , saith the LORD , to save thee ; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee , but I will not make a full end of thee ; for I will correct thee in measure , and will not utterly destroy thee . * For thus saith the LORD : Thy hurt is incurable , and thy wound is grievous . * None deemeth of thy wound that it may be bound up ; thou hast no healing medicines . * All thy lovers have forgotten thee , they seek thee not ; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy , with the chastisement of a cruel one ; for the greatness of thine iniquity , because thy sins were increased . * Why criest thou for thy hurt , that thy pain is incurable ? For the greatness of thine iniquity , because thy sins were increased , I have done these things unto thee . * Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured , and all thine adversaries , every one of them , shall go into captivity ; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil , and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey . * For I will restore health unto thee , and I will heal thee of thy wounds , saith the LORD ; because they have called thee an outcast : 'She is Zion , there is none that careth for her .' * Thus saith the LORD : Behold , I will turn the captivity of Jacob 's tents , and have compassion on his dwelling-places ; and the city shall be builded upon her own mound , and the palace shall be inhabited upon its wonted place . * And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry ; and I will multiply them , and they shall not be diminished , I will also increase them , and they shall not dwindle away . * Their children also shall be as aforetime , and their congregation shall be established before Me , and I will punish all that oppress them . * And their prince shall be of themselves , and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them ; and I will cause him to draw near , and he shall approach unto Me ; for who is he that hath pledged his heart to approach unto Me ? saith the LORD . * And ye shall be My people , and I will be your God . * Behold , a storm of the LORD is gone forth in fury , a sweeping storm ; it shall whirl upon the head of the wicked . * The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return , until He have executed , and till He have performed the purposes of His heart ; in the end of days ye shall consider it . * At that time , saith the LORD , will I be the God of all the families of Israel , and they shall be My people . * Thus saith the LORD : The people that were left of the sword have found grace in the wilderness , even Israel , when I go to cause him to rest . * 'From afar the LORD appeared unto me .' 'Yea , I have loved thee with an everlasting love ; therefore with affection have I drawn thee . * Again will I build thee , and thou shalt be built , O virgin of Israel ; again shalt thou be adorned with thy tabrets , and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry . * Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria ; the planters shall plant , and shall have the use thereof . * For there shall be a day , that the watchmen shall call upon the mount Ephraim : arise ye , and let us go up to Zion , unto the LORD our God .' * For thus saith the LORD : Sing with gladness for Jacob , and shout at the head of the nations ; announce ye , praise ye , and say : 'O LORD , save Thy people , The remnant of Israel .' * Behold , I will bring them from the north country , and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth , and with them the blind and the lame , the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together ; a great company shall they return hither . * They shall come with weeping , and with supplications will I lead them ; I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters , in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble ; for I am become a father to Israel , and Ephraim is My first-born . * Hear the word of the LORD , O ye nations , and declare it in the isles afar off , and say : 'He that scattered Israel doth gather him , and keep him , as a shepherd doth his flock .' * For the LORD hath ransomed Jacob , and He redeemeth him from the hand of him that is stronger than he . * And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion , and shall flow unto the goodness of the LORD , to the corn , and to the wine , and to the oil , and to the young of the flock and of the herd ; and their soul shall be as a watered garden , and they shall not pine any more at all . * Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance , and the young men and the old together ; for I will turn their mourning into joy , and will comfort them , and make them rejoice from their sorrow . * And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness , and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness , saith the LORD . * Thus saith the LORD : A voice is heard in Ramah , lamentation , and bitter weeping , Rachel weeping for her children ; she refuseth to be comforted for her children , because they are not . * Thus saith the LORD : Refrain thy voice from weeping , and thine eyes from tears ; for thy work shall be rewarded , saith the LORD ; and they shall come back from the land of the enemy . * And there is hope for thy future , saith the LORD ; and thy children shall return to their own border . * I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself : 'Thou hast chastised me , and I was chastised , as a calf untrained ; turn thou me , and I shall be turned , for Thou art the LORD my God . * Surely after that I was turned , I repented , and after that I was instructed , I smote upon my thigh ; I was ashamed , yea , even confounded , because I did bear the reproach of my youth .' * Is Ephraim a darling son unto Me ? Is he a child that is dandled ? For as often as I speak of him , I do earnestly remember him still ; Therefore My heart yearneth for him , I will surely have compassion upon him , saith the LORD . * Set thee up waymarks , make thee guide-posts ; set thy heart toward the high-way , even the way by which thou wentest ; Return , O virgin of Israel , return to these thy cities . * How long wilt thou turn away coyly , O thou backsliding daughter ? For the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth : a woman shall court a man . * Thus saith the LORD of hosts , the God of Israel : Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof , when I shall turn their captivity : 'The LORD bless thee , O habitation of righteousness , O mountain of holiness .' * And Judah and all the cities thereof shall dwell therein together : the husbandmen , and they that go forth with flocks . * For I have satiated the weary soul , and every pining soul have I replenished . * Upon this I awaked , and beheld ; and my sleep was sweet unto me . * Behold , the days come , saith the LORD , that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man , and with the seed of beast . * And it shall come to pass , that like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down , and to overthrow and to destroy , and to afflict ; so will I watch over them to build and to plant , saith the LORD . * In those days they shall say no more : 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes , and the children 's teeth are set on edge .' * But every one shall die for his own iniquity ; every man that eateth the sour grapes , his teeth shall be set on edge . * Behold , the days come , saith the LORD , that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel , and with the house of Judah ; * not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt ; forasmuch as they broke My covenant , although I was a lord over them , saith the LORD . * But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days , saith the LORD , I will put My law in their inward parts , and in their heart will I write it ; and I will be their God , and they shall be My people ; * and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour , and every man his brother , saying : 'Know the LORD '; for they shall all know Me , from the least of them unto the greatest of them , saith the LORD ; for I will forgive their iniquity , and their sin will I remember no more . * Thus saith the LORD , Who giveth the sun for a light by day , and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night , who stirreth up the sea , that the waves thereof roar , the LORD of hosts is His name : * If these ordinances depart from before Me , saith the LORD , then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever . * Thus saith the LORD : If heaven above can be measured , and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath , then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done , saith the LORD . * Behold , the days come , saith the LORD , that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananel unto the gate of the corner . * And the measuring line shall yet go out straight forward unto the hill Gareb , and shall turn about unto Goah . * And the whole valley of the dead bodies , and of the ashes , and all the fields unto the brook Kidron , unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east , shall be holy unto the LORD ; it shall not be plucked up , nor thrown down any more for ever . * The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah , which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar .

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