Jeremiah 31:23-40

The LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “I will again do good things for the people of Judah. At that time the people in the land of Judah and its towns will again use these words: ‘May the LORD bless you, home of what is good, holy mountain.’ People in all the towns of Judah will live together in peace. Farmers and those who move around with their flocks will live together in peace. I will give rest and strength to those who are weak and tired.” After hearing that, I, Jeremiah, woke up and looked around. My sleep had been very pleasant. The LORD says, “The time is coming when I will help the families of Israel and Judah and their children and animals to grow. In the past I watched over Israel and Judah, to pull them up and tear them down, to destroy them and bring them disaster. But now I will watch over them to build them up and make them strong,” says the LORD. “At that time people will no longer say: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and that caused the children to grind their teeth from the sour taste.’ Instead, each person will die for his own sin; the person who eats sour grapes will grind his own teeth. “Look, the time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. It will not be like the agreement I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt. I was a husband to them, but they broke that agreement,” says the LORD. “This is the agreement I will make with the people of Israel at that time,” says the LORD: “I will put my teachings in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives to know the LORD, because all people will know me, from the least to the most important,” says the LORD. “I will forgive them for the wicked things they did, and I will not remember their sins anymore.” The LORD makes the sun shine in the day and the moon and stars to shine at night. He stirs up the sea so that its waves crash on the shore. The LORD All-Powerful is his name. This is what the LORD says: “Only if these laws should ever fail,” says the LORD, “will Israel’s descendants ever stop being a nation before me.” This is what the LORD says: “Only if people can measure the sky above and learn the secrets of the earth below, will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of what they have done,” says the LORD. The LORD says, “The time is coming when Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me—everything from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. The measuring line will stretch from the Corner Gate straight to the hill of Gareb. Then it will turn to the place named Goah. The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate—all that area will be holy to the LORD. The city of Jerusalem will never again be torn down or destroyed.”