Jer 18, Jer 31 | ESV | STEP | The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord :

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to ^athe potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to ^bthe potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was ^cspoiled in the potter’s hand, and ^dhe reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 “O house of Israel, ^ecan I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. ^fBehold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will ^gpluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^hturns from its evil, ⁱI will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. 9 And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will ^jbuild and plant it, 10 and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. 11 Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. ^kReturn, every one from his evil way, and ^lamend your ways and your deeds.’

12 “But they say, ^m‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to ⁿthe stubbornness of his evil heart.’

13 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
^oAsk among the nations,
Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
has done ^pa very horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
the crags of Sirion? ^{▼▼Hebrew of the field}
Do the mountain waters run dry, ^{▼▼Hebrew Are foreign waters plucked up}
the cold flowing streams?
15 ^sBut my people have forgotten me;
they make offerings to ^tfalse gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
^uin the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
^vnot the highway,
16 making their land ^wa horror,
a thing ^xto be hissed at forever.
^yEveryone who passes by it is horrified
^zand shakes his head.
17 ^aaLike the east wind ^abI will scatter them
before the enemy.
^acI will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”
18 Then they said, ^ad“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^aefor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^afCome, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19 Hear me, O Lord,
and ^aglisten to the voice of my adversaries.
20 ^ahShould good be repaid with evil?
Yet ^aithey have dug a pit for my life.
^ajRemember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore ^akdeliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless ^aland widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 ^amMay a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For ^anthey have dug a pit to take me
^aoand laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet ^apyou, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
^aqForgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.

Jeremiah 31

The Lord Will Turn Mourning to Joy

1 ^ar“At that time, declares the Lord, ^asI will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

2 Thus says the Lord:
“The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness;
^atwhen Israel sought for rest,
3 the Lord appeared to him ^{▼▼Septuagint; Hebrew me} from far away.
^avI have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore ^awI have continued ^axmy faithfulness to you.
4 ^ayAgain I will build you, and you shall be built,
O virgin Israel!
^azAgain you shall adorn yourself with tambourines
and shall go forth in ^bathe dance of the merrymakers.
5 ^bbAgain you shall plant vineyards
on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters shall plant
and shall enjoy the fruit.
6 For there shall be a day when watchmen will call
in ^bcthe hill country of Ephraim:
^bd‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
to the Lord our God.’”
7 For thus says the Lord:
^be“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
and raise shouts for ^bfthe chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say,
^bg‘O Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel.’
8 Behold, I will bring them ^bhfrom the north country
and ^bigather them from ^bjthe farthest parts of the earth,
among them ^bkthe blind and the lame,
the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
9 ^blWith weeping they shall come,
^bmand with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them ^bnwalk by brooks of water,
^boin a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for ^bpI am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is ^bqmy firstborn.
10 “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will ^brgather him,
and will keep him ^bsas a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11 ^btFor the Lord has ransomed Jacob
and has redeemed him from ^buhands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
^bvand they shall be radiant ^bwover the goodness of the Lord,
^bxover the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
^bytheir life shall be like a watered garden,
^bzand they shall languish no more.
13 ^caThen shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
^cbI will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14 ^ccI will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,

declares the Lord.”
15 Thus says the Lord:
^cd“A voice is heard in ^ceRamah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
^cfRachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
^cgbecause they are no more.”
16 Thus says the Lord:
“Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,

declares the Lord,
and ^chthey shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17 ^ciThere is hope for your future,

declares the Lord,
and your children shall come back to their own country.
18 I have heard ^cjEphraim grieving,
‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined,
like an untrained calf;
^ckbring me back that I may be restored,
for you are the Lord my God.
19 For after ^clI had turned away, I relented,
and after I was instructed, ^cmI struck my thigh;
^cnI was ashamed, and I was confounded,
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
20 ^coIs Ephraim my dear son?
^cpIs he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I do remember him still.
^cqTherefore my heart ^{▼▼Hebrew bowels} yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,

declares the Lord.
21 ^cs“Set up road markers for yourself;
make yourself guideposts;
^ctconsider well the highway,
^cuthe road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
return to these your cities.
22 ^cvHow long will you waver,
^cwO faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:
a woman encircles a man.”
23 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, ^cxwhen I restore their fortunes:

^cy“‘The Lord bless you, ^czO habitation of righteousness,
^daO holy hill!’
24 ^dbAnd Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and ^dcthe farmers and those who wander with their flocks. 25 For I will ^ddsatisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

26 At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

27 ^de“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when ^dfI will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with ^dgthe seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass that ^dhas I have watched over them ^dito pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, ^djso I will watch over them ^dkto build and to plant, declares the Lord. 29 In those days they shall no longer say:

^dl“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 ^dmBut everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

The New Covenant

31 ^dn“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make ^doa new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when ^dpI took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, ^dqthough I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 ^drFor this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: ^dsI will put my law within them, and I will write it ^dton their hearts. ^duAnd I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ ^dvfor they shall all know me, ^dwfrom the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For ^dxI will forgive their iniquity, and ^dyI will remember their sin no more.”

35 Thus says the Lord,
who ^dzgives the sun for light by day
and ^eathe fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
^ebthe Lord of hosts is his name:
36 ^ec“If this fixed order departs
from before me, declares the Lord,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
from being a nation before me forever.”
37 Thus says the Lord:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
^edthen I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,

declares the Lord.”
38 ^ee“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord ^effrom the Tower of Hananel to ^egthe Corner Gate. 39 ^ehAnd the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. 40 ^eiThe whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the ^ejbrook Kidron, to the corner of ^ekthe Horse Gate toward the east, ^elshall be sacred to the Lord. ^emIt shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”