The Anselm Project

Chapter 30

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: ² Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book." ³ For behold, days are coming, says the LORD, and I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and Judah, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers and they possessed it. ⁴ These are the words that the LORD spoke to Israel and to Judah. ⁵ For this is what the LORD has said: "We have heard a sound of dread, fear, and there is no peace." ⁶ Ask now and see: does a male give birth? Why have I seen every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and all faces turned pale? ⁷ Alas, for that day is great; there is none like it. And it is a time of distress for Jacob, from which he will be saved. ⁸ And it will be on that day, says the LORD of Hosts, I will break the yoke from off your neck and tear off your bonds, and foreigners will no longer serve him. ⁹ And they will serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them. ¹⁰ And you, do not fear, my servant Jacob—the LORD declares—and do not be dismayed, Israel. For behold, I am saving you from far away, and your seed from the land of captivity. And Jacob shall return and be quiet and at ease, and there is none making him tremble. ¹¹ For I am with you, says the LORD, to save you. For I will make a full end among all the nations where I have scattered you. But I will not make a full end with you. I will discipline you in measure, and I will by no means acquit you. ¹² For thus says the LORD: your fracture is incurable, your stroke is an inheritance. ¹³ There is no one to judge your judgment, no balm, no healings—it will ascend; there is none for you. ¹⁴ All your lovers have forgotten you; they do not seek you. For I have struck you with the stroke of an enemy, with cruel discipline on account of the greatness of your iniquity; your sins have intensified. ¹⁵ Why do you cry out over your breakage, incurable from your pain? Over much of your iniquity, your sin offerings themselves have done these to you. ¹⁶ Therefore all who devour you will be devoured, and all who distress you, all of them will go into captivity, and they will be plunder for me, and all who pillage you I will give as spoil. ¹⁷ For I will bring healing for you, and I will heal you from your wounds—oracle of the LORD. For they have called you "Rejected"; she is Zion; no one inquires for her. ¹⁸ Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am returning the captivity of the tents of Jacob, and on his tabernacles I will have compassion, and a city will be built on its mound, and a palace will sit on its justice. ¹⁹ And thanksgiving and a sound of playing will go out from them. And I will multiply them and they will not be diminished, and I will honor them and they will not be diminished. ²⁰ And his sons will be like aforetime, and his assembly before me will stand firm. And I will visit upon all his oppressors. ²¹ And his majestic one will be from him, and his ruler will go out from his midst. And you will bring him near, and he will draw near to me—for who is this who has pledged his heart to approach me? says the LORD. ²² And you will be my people, and I will be your God. ²³ Behold, the storm wind of the LORD—wrath—has gone out, a storm wind sojourning on the head of the wicked. It will writhe. ²⁴ The LORD will not turn back the fierceness of his anger until he accomplishes it and until he establishes the purposes of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it.

Chapter 31

¹ At that time, says the LORD: "I will be God to all the families of Israel, and they will be my people." ² Thus says the LORD: "I found grace in the wilderness for the people, the survivors of the sword. Israel is going to his place of rest." ³ From afar the LORD appeared to me, and with eternal love I have loved you; therefore I have drawn you with steadfast love. ⁴ Again I will build you, and you will be built, O virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourine and go out in the dance of those who frolic. ⁵ Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; plant plantings and profane. ⁶ For there is a day when the watchmen will call on the mountain of Ephraim: "Rise up, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God." ⁷ For thus says the LORD: "Sing for joy to Jacob, rejoice, and shout for joy at the head of the nations; make it heard, praise it, and say: 'The LORD has saved your people, the remnant of Israel.'" ⁸ See, I am bringing them from the land of the north, and I will gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, the pregnant and the one giving birth together—a great assembly. They will return. See. ⁹ With weeping they will come, and with supplications I will lead them. I will guide them to streams of water by a straight path; they will not stumble on it, for I have been to Israel like a father, and Ephraim is my firstborn. ¹⁰ Hear the word of the LORD, you nations, and declare it in the distant coastlands: "He who scattered Israel will gather him and guard him as a shepherd guards his flock." ¹¹ For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of one stronger than him. ¹² They will come and sing joyfully on the heights of Zion and stream toward the goodness of the LORD—toward grain, new wine, fresh oil, and the offspring of the flocks and herds. Their soul will be like a watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. ¹³ Then a virgin will rejoice in the dance, young men and elders together. And I will turn their mourning into joy, comfort them, and gladden them from their grief. ¹⁴ "And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fat portions, and my people with my goods—they will be satisfied," says the LORD. ¹⁵ Thus says the LORD: A voice in Ramah is heard, wailing and bitter weeping—Rachel weeping for her sons; she refuses to be comforted for her sons because they are no more. ¹⁶ Thus says the LORD: Withhold your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is reward for your deed—oracle of the LORD—and they will return from the land of the enemy. ¹⁷ And there is hope for your latter days, says the LORD, and your sons will return to their borders. ¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim lamenting: "You disciplined me, and I received discipline like an untrained calf. Restore me, and I will return, for you are the LORD my God." ¹⁹ For after I returned, I was comforted. After I knew, I clapped my thigh in shame. I was also disgraced because I bore the reproach of my youth. ²⁰ Is the son precious to me, Ephraim? Or a child who delights? For since my speaking in him, I remember; I will remember him still. Therefore my innards sound for him; I will compassion him, I will tenderly compassion him—utterance of the LORD. ²¹ Set up signposts for yourself; place waymarks for yourself. Set your heart on the highway, the way you went. Return, virgin Israel, return to your cities—these. ²² How long will you turn aside, O backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land: a female shall compass a man. ²³ Thus says the LORD of Hosts, God of Israel: They will still say this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I restore their captivity: "May the LORD bless you, O dwelling of righteousness, O holy mountain." ²⁴ And Judah and all its cities will dwell in it together, the farmers and those who move about with flocks. ²⁵ For I have satisfied the weary soul, and every soul that is faint I have filled. ²⁶ At this I awoke, and behold, my sleep was pleasant to me. ²⁷ Behold, days are coming, says the LORD, and I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of humanity and the seed of beast. ²⁸ And it will be just as I have watched over them to uproot and to tear down and to destroy and to annihilate and to harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant—oracle of the LORD. ²⁹ In those days they will no longer say: "Fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the sons are blunted." ³⁰ For only a man will die in his iniquity; every human, the one eating the flesh, his teeth will be dulled. ³¹ Behold, days are coming, utterance of the LORD, and I will cut with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah a new covenant. ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, the covenant that they broke, even though I was their master—oracle of the LORD. ³³ For this is the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will give my Torah in their midst, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be to them God, and they will be to me people. ³⁴ And they will not teach a man his neighbor or a man his brother anymore, saying, "Know the LORD," for they will all know me, from their smallest to their greatest—declares the LORD—for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. ³⁵ Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, the statute of the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs the sea so that its waves roar, the LORD of Hosts is his name. ³⁶ If these statutes depart from before me, says the LORD, the seed of Israel will also cease to be a nation before me all the days. ³⁷ Thus says the LORD: If they measure the heavens from above and search out the foundations of the earth below, I will also reject all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD. ³⁸ Behold, days are coming, says the LORD, and the city will be rebuilt for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹ And it went out again, the measuring line opposite it upon the hill of Gareb, and it turned toward Gareb. ⁴⁰ And all the valley of the carcasses and the ash, and all the fields, to the stream of Kidron, to the corner of the Gate of the Horses eastward—consecrated to the LORD; it shall not be uprooted, and it shall not be destroyed again forever.