There are many objections Jewish people have to becoming followers of Jesus, and those include theological ones like the idea of God becoming a person (incarnation) or the Virgin Birth. There are sociological objections like the apparent ask to switch teams and become Christians as opposed to staying Jewish. For those who know their Tenach, the idea of adding to Torah is abhorrent and when we talk about the New Testament or New Covenant, they think this is a bridge too far.
In today’s episode, chapter 31 of Jeremiah’s prophecy, we are going to see that very phrase used and unfurled both in a congenial and a confrontational manner with our people. Is God saying there are problems we represent and thus he has to overcome (since we cannot do so ourselves)? Or is he saying he made a mistake entrusting Torah to us and wishes he had other methods in place to fix the world? Stay with us as we unpack this lengthy chapter and learn what God has to say to us as 21st century people.
And I hope you will see the changes and hoops God wants to go through to bring us to himself. He will depict himself in several identities so as to connect with each of us, somehow, some way, that we might hear him and know his love. Let’s dig in, shall we?
Images are powerful in telling stories and I’m more and more convinced that the reason I enjoy reading novels, and so many of us enjoy watching movies are that they tell stories. Stories are memorable. Stories, even story itself, if I can wax philosophical, is powerful. Story speaks to our soul. Life happens and keeps happening, but story, that sticks out. We want to experience what we see, or we want not to experience what we see in the tragedies of the newscasts. No matter what, story speaks.
And within story are images. Those images, whether of fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk or Hansel and Gretel, or other stories like the Godfather and Schindler’s List, they all speak to us, and there are images like Marlon Brando’s flick of his chin or the little girl in the red coat in Schindler that still speak to us. Images stick. We cannot rid ourselves of them. Nor do we really want to do so.
As chapter 31 begins, God presents himself first as lover. Then as father. Next as shepherd then as mother. We should ask… is God confused about his identity? Will he do better to present himself as a patient at a psychiatric hospital and get some mental health before the next chapter? Not at all. He is morphing in front of our eyes and ears, in the book Jeremiah began writing last week, so that by all means he may save some. No one should be left out of the images God uses to self-present. Are you lonely for love? God is there. Do you need a new parent, perhaps a father or mother? God is there for you. Do you see yourself as a wayward farm animal, the little lamb that Mary had, and you cannot find your owner, and you feel all alone. God is shepherd. See, no one should be left out. This is God’s way to including you in his care. Remember, the Book that began last week is titled the Book of Consolation, that is, a book bringing comfort. To everyone. Not by false prophecy and fake news promises, but as sure as God is God, he says, ‘You can trust me.’ Not on the basis of what you have done, but according to his mercy. (Titus 3.5-6) What an awesome God we see drawing back the curtain between us and him, so we can see him being what and who we need.
1. God relates to us as Lover (.1-6)
Verse one he is speaking
לְכֹ֖ל מִשְׁפְּח֣וֹת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל
No one is left out of CHOL MISHP’CHOT YISRAEL. You know how families often have divides in them. Uncle Morty won’t come to the dinner next week if Sylvia attends; they had a falling out years ago. Or back in Bible days, if Asher or Naftali went along with Reuben, then maybe Simeon or Zebulon would stand against the situation. You get it, and you have experienced this even in the best of families. God says, ALL the families (plural) of Israel are God’s intended. I WILL BE their God and they, all of them, will be my people. What an assurance and what a comfort!
11 years ago a pastor from Kansas came to visit us here in Sydney en route to a missionary station in the Solomon Islands. He gave me a copy of a book he had written the year before entitled Too Many Lovers. He sought to uncover the deception of idolatry from many angles and did a very good job. I reread that book this week and saw only one biblical reference to Jeremiah’s prophecy, but I can’t get away from this image. We are caught out, breaking the first commandment again and again, and using replacement lovers is one of the biggest in our days. And it was big in Jeremiah’s days.
Verses 1-6 in our chapter sound like the gathering of a wedding feast. And that, Paul Taylor says, is key in understanding our relationship with God as lover. What does he say in verse 3? “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” “Nothing can separate us from the love of God,” another Paul wrote, nearly 2,000 years ago. It’s that idea, founded in God and only in God, that brings us to a love relationship with him. Too many of our people, the Jewish people, are both fascinated by or fearful of breaking the commandments. Neither of those are going to help us in a wedding sense. Our lover is not interested in our performance; he wants our hearts.
Many of you will know the Shema, that which we call the watchword of Judaism. I’m not sure that’s exactly accurate, but this is not my point. My point is that in that recitation, twice daily, we follow the command to listen, to Hear o Israel, with “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deut. 6.5) God wants a love relationship with you, and with all y’all, in a corporate and an individual Jewish person, and with those of you watching who are not Jewish as well. John Lennon said, “Love is all you need.” He wasn’t far off there.
Verse 1 feels like the summary on the dust jacket of the Book of Consolation. Every Jewish person receives this chapter in a letter, and the sealing wax of that letter is verse 1. God’s summary is “I will do this; You are mine. I am yours.” That’s covenant language and it’s not going anywhere! Neither is God.
Verse 2, Israel in the wilderness מָצָ֥א חֵן֙ Matza chen (Found grace). We are not surviving due to our efforts. God gave us and we found grace. We didn’t earn it. We cannot earn it. Grace was given to us.
I honestly don’t get it when I hear Bible thumpers blast the Jewish God and even the Jewish people as blind and works-based. Right here, in the thick of God’s judgement and pronouncements are again God’s words of grace. For Jews. For Jews under judgment and for Jews who will be returning from judgment.
Then verse 3, you can count on this now. And in 70 years. And in 2022. And whenever you are alive… Eternal love is from God. And as a result at the end of verse 3, you will be drawn, that is wooed, compelled, invited, but more than a cold invitation, a serenaded, flowers and chocolate serenade, a longing by God to be in wedded relationship with us. Based on his חָֽסֶד hesed, his mercy. Awesome.
Verses 4-6 wrap three special promises together, each introduced by the Hebrew word עוֹד Ohd. “again.” And each is a flashback to what God had promised in Abraham or with Moses or David. Building up, tambourine celebration and vineyard planting. Jerusalem is coming back, wedding will take place and land use will flourish. Promises, promises, promises. Thanks be to God for his continual giving to us.
To whom is God promising this again? Verse 4: betulat Israel. The virgin of Israel. What? We have hardly been described in such sacred terms previously. No, it’s a washed and cleansed Israel, not a washed-up Israel. It’s a revised one. It’s Israel 2.0 after God makes us as if we had never sinned. We read of this in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where he urges them to live clean (2 Cor. 11.2)
“For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.” (2 Cor. 11.2)
The Corinthians were never recognized in such purity, and yet, when God cleanses us, we are washed clean. As if we had never sinned. Hallelujah!
2. God as Father summoning his children (.7-9)
The second image today is God as Father. And as Father he will draw us to himself, probably to a family reunion, or more simply put, a Father’s will to be with his children.
Some of you now my favourite story in the Bible is the Prodigal Son, which I title the Prodigal Father and the Lost Son. In that story, the father waits, almost at the window nightly, for his wayward son to return. And he does and the father runs to meet him. It’s a glorious reunion and restoration. In this story, the father doesn’t even wait at the window. He actually goes out to get us. Wow, that’s not only invitational, but it’s also compelling and radical.
And who is the Body whom he invites? רֹ֣אשׁ הַגּוֹיִ֑ם that is, the ‘rosh’ of the Goyim. Ironic, isn’t it? Head or leader of the nations. Ha, this is Judah in captivity and yet called ‘head’ here. That is our role, prophetically, but hardly the place in which we existed at that time. And who else is included? Verse 7, the ‘remnant’, verse 8, those in the north. That’s where we were losing. That’s where the Assyrians had taken our sister Israel 150 years before. That’s where we were going to be taken by Babylon. The North was a bad place, but God is not willing that any should perish, and he’s not worried about being associated with the lost who are still in the North. That is, the captives. Who else?
Verse 8, the ‘remotest’ parts of the earth. That must include New Zealand, and Kansas. And yet, God doesn’t forget us!
Look who is included. Blind, lame, pregnant and new-mothers and their babies. These are not only the vulnerable, but the unable to make it on their own. In the same way God will not abandon Judah and Israel, he wants us not to abandon each other. Turn around; see the needy; care for them, bring them the everlasting love of God.
Verse 9, for I am father. My role is lover, and father, but wait, there’s more.
3. God as Shepherd keeping us (.10-14)
Not only is God wooing us (by the way that image was one of a woman, all was in feminine vocabulary), he is also father. Now the next image is Shepherd. God himself had scattered us as he predicted in Moses’ Swan song at the end of Deuteronomy, and now like a shepherd he will bring us back. That’s both comforting to the people as a whole and as individuals. There is merriment and singing. Some of you will know a song or two from verse 13 especially one by Merla Watson from the early 1970s. (https://youtu.be/5l9-k-b27z0)
It may be an inclusion with the opening section of the lover and be consistent with a marriage celebration. Even so, God as shepherd is responsible to bring his people together and to celebrate. To eat good grass. To be available to him and to each other. Also, don’t miss this in verse 10, we hear and we declare. God wants us to know him, to listen to him AND to share his information with others, even to the coastlands (we might say ‘yenevelt’) Verse 11 he ransoms us and uses his power to recapture us away from the captors. And we will never languish again. That’s not only rescue, it’s provision and permanent provision at that. What a comfort that would have been to captive Judah!
Even in verse 14 the priests (like the blind and previously disallowed folks) who were out of God’s wellness and grace would be brought back in. This is consolation to the wayward religionists, and that’s wondrously comforting, too.
4. God as Mother weeping for her children (.15-20)
Another parent is in view in verses 15 to 20. It’s God as Mother. That might bother some of you, but you have to see that each of us can find relating to God deep and meaningful. There is an anti-female version of God in modern Christianity, seriously related to the movement to make God not-so male. It’s a very interesting perspective. Yes, God is Father to Jesus, and never Mother. But with the movement titled ‘feminism’ since the 1960s, many people felt there was too much maleness in the godhead and thus took all gender references to God out of the Bible. I don’t know what they do with this section which is clearly God self-revealing as a tender and loving mother, or the end of Matthew 23 where Yeshua indicates he wanted to gather Jerusalem to himself as a hen gathers her chicks to her. But I’ll let them squabble about that one.
This mother God reference is tied up with Rachel, our matriarch. Remember she died giving birth to her second son Benjamin. Her first was Joseph. Even so, here she is being used as a reference to the Mother of Israel, if you will, the mother of all the Jewish people and thus not weeping only for her 2 boys, but for all of the Jewish people who were in exile. Ramah in verse 15 is next to Jerusalem. And it says her ‘children are no more.’ What’s true is that they are no longer in Jerusalem. As a result, Jeremiah is saying it is as if they exist no longer.
Then God speaks as a mother in verse 16 and following. He says there is an end to the exile, they will return from the land of the enemy. There is therefore hope for your future. This is looking forward to the end of the 70 years of captivity.
In verse 18, the Jewish people are crying out for help, bring me back that I may be restored. This is sung in the liturgy of our people with regularity at the end of Etz Chaim with personal and plural significance. .
הֲשִׁיבֵ֣נִי וְאָשׁ֔וּבָה
In Jeremiah it’s in the singular; in our liturgy it’s in the plural. We have to take the responsibility to join with others and cry out for mercy and return. Return us, and we will return. It’s as if God is the one who can make this return happen. Let me say that clearer. God initiates our return to himself. It’s not a matter of “I saw what was happening, and I drew near to the religious people, and then I returned, and then God got involved.” Friends, from the beginning, God is involved and draws people to himself. Remember Yeshua taught that
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will braise him up on the last day. (John 6.44)
Hosea, a contemporary of Jeremiah, whom Jeremiah might have even read, said this, “Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.” (Hosea 3.5)
Paul said this in Romans as well, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness or goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2.4)
God has you here in this Zoom room. God led you to himself either years ago or just this week. You are not here because you are so clever or so holy. You are here because the Lord’s goodness is leading you to know him. How awesome is that!?
That’s why verse 20 ends with “ ‘My heart yearns for him, I will surely have mercy on him,’ declares the Lord.”
Verses 21 and 22 show another feminine imagery for Judah, and by our listening to The Way, and seeing the boundaries and guideposts, we are able to return to the “New thing” which will be part of our restoration.
5. The New Covenant (.23-40)
The second part of the chapter ushers us to very familiar territory, at least those of us who are readers of the back portion of the Bible, the Newer Testament. Remember the imagery we mentioned in Question time last week, that Chris Wright uses with frequency and that is the image of the Horizons. The prophet speaks of his own time at Horizon 1, of a later time when fulfilment will happen in a different or more complete way at Horizon 2, and then finally at the summation of time in Horizon 3.
We saw that with Rachel moments ago. She was weeping in her own time, and Jeremiah uses her image to tell the story in his time at Horizon 1. We who know the record of the rest of Scripture see that Matthew (2.18) uses this imagery for the Slaughter of the Innocents at Horizon 2 in the time of Yeshua, and we anticipate a time of great sorrow at the end of time in the book of the Revelation at Horizon 3. That’s a simple picture of how Wright uses this idea and we need to see that in Jeremiah 31, for sure.
Let’s look at the New Covenant in this horizon usage.
The exiles were living in Babylon and the rhetoric Jeremiah had used again and again in his prophecy is that we had broken God’s commandments, God’s covenant, and his heart by our own devices. Then Jeremiah came along and predicted that this exile would end, not in 2 years, but in 70 years and I wonder if the people thought, “not again, please.” After all, they were being given another chance. Would they make the same mistakes? Would they live for God this time?
Then they hear the words of verse 28, that God would watch over them to build and to plant, not to pluck up or overthrow. A word of assurance, which is wonderful and faith-building. And then the more famous verses 31 to 34. This, by the way, is the longest quote from the OT in the NT and is found in Hebrews chapter 8.
How would the Horizon 1 people have heard this? Yes, you broke my covenant, I was faithful and you were not. But I’m going to work this out. I’m going to write my Torah on your heart. I will be your God. You will be my people. I will forgive you. You will go home. You will be able to start over. Don’t turn out the lights just yet, the party is not over. Your fathers sinned, that’s right, but you are not responsible for their sins. I’m going to make this work.
That sounds like real hope.
That sounds like confidence being given to the Jewish exiles.
This was not new. Deuteronomy 30, in Moses’ last days sermons, we read of his teaching the people that they would fall away and yet, God would make their walk with him real. He vowed to make it work. Not because of their great goodness, but because of his. Jeremiah is reminding the people of God’s covenant. And the renewing of that in what is titled “Brit Hadasha”, the new covenant.
What would Horizon 2 be for this reading? It's the New Testament itself. The words ‘covenant’ and ‘testament’ are interchangeable. They are the legal and contractual work of the dominant with the lesser. Yeshua picked up the cup at the last seder and said, “This cup in the Brit Hadasha in my blood.” What you have awaited since 586 BCE is now fulfilled. Yes, you broke my covenant, the one Moses gave you, the one highlighted in the Passover meal annually. Yes, you failed, but I didn’t. I promised you a new agreement. NOT like the covenant I made with your fathers. They broke it. Their teeth were set on edge. But yours, although you had problems the last 1500 years, these problems are newish. And you thought it was over, but it’s not. I’m writing God’s truth on your heart. Your circumcised hearts. I will forgive your iniquity in my dying for you on the cross in a few hours, and I will remember your sins no more. Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing!
That’s horizon 2.
What’s horizon 3? It’s the culmination of the earth’s story and the appearance of the Son of Man in Jerusalem to make the world his footstool. When that happens, and it will happen, as sure as the Creation is fixed (see verses 35-36), the New Covenant will be completely enacted on all his people. For more on this, see and listen to my series on the book of Revelation.
A couple other points about this new covenant. It’s communal; it’s not only individual. Jeremiah’s prophecies are always with community in view. So when he says, ‘they will all know me’ he’s not saying each of you individually will have a relationship with God, although in Horizon 2, that’s how we often read it. He is saying the New Covenant is for the New community which backslid previously and now, ‘from the least to the greatest’ it will be a comprehensive communal response and thus God can rearrange his judgment and bring in mercy. Don’t read this only as a private spiritual reality; it’s corporate.
Another point I see is that of ‘no need to teach.’ I use this in my personal counselling of people all the time, it seems. When someone comes to me and asks something, for instance, “What do you think of homosexuality?” I wonder what they want to hear from me. Are they asking “What does the Bible say?” or are they hoping I will give them a different answer than what the Bible clearly says? My desire to teach them is immediate, but I must hold back and invite the Holy Spirit to have his way. I usually ask them a question in return, “What has God been showing you about this subject?” I’m asking if God has written his law, not on tablets of my iPad, or of my Bible of largesse in front of them, but what has God said to them in their heart.
Last week a Jewish man was considering being baptised and I was teaching him what the Book had to say about that. He was keen to learn. During our subsequent phone call he asked, “Would you be disappointed with me if I said I wanted to wait a month?” I told him, “What do you care what I think? Your question should be, “What does God think?”” At that he understood that Jeremiah 31 is real. Horizon 3 was in full view. Two days later he was baptised.
Friends, when Yeshua picked up that kiddush cup in Jerusalem the night before he was crucified, he brought in what we had longed for, the New Covenant. New in the sense that now BY HIS BLOOD, he would forgive us and remember our sins no more. Previous covenants involved blood and covering of our sins; this one involved blood and the removal of our sins. Hallelujah!
Verses 35-37 shout that it’s not up to us; it’s up to God. And if it’s up to God to perform, then God alone gets the glory. No wonder Paul wrote the Romans at the end of the famous section about Israel, “for from him and through him and to him are all things. To God be the glory forever, amen.” (Romans 11.36)
6. New Jerusalem is in view (.38-40)
Then there is one more ‘behold’ in chapter 31. A ‘don’t miss this one!’ is shouted. The city (Jerusalem) will be rebuilt (verse 38), but not for the returning exiles, only. It’s for the Lord.
לַֽיהוָ֔ה
Unto or for the Lord. Not for Israel, or Judah, or you or me. It’s ‘to him be the glory’. See it again in verse 40, same word. Holy to the Lord. Jerusalem is still not there yet. So Wright’s Horizons come to play again. This is clearly Horizon 3, a future to be fulfilled. We can build, and the Judean exiles returned and made Jerusalem alive and real again. Even in our days, we can say it’s being built, but the culmination of the return, the fulfilment of this prophecy at Horizon 3… that’s yet to happen. What a day of rejoicing that will be. Amen?
CONCLUSION
God is calling each of us to know him and to walk with him, today and throughout our days. Have you received Yeshua as your messiah and Lord? He is risen from the dead! Have you renounced your sin, your idolatry, your forsaking God and given him First Place in your life? If not, please, do so now, just now, as we pray together. Use your own words, if you want, but yield, surrender, to the Lord of life.
PRAYER
Then please write us (admin@jewsforjesus.org.au) to tell us what you have just done, and we will send you literature and encourage you. You are part of our family; we love and appreciate you. And we want you to enjoy the presence of the Lord who calls, who knows, who blesses and builds us up.
We hope to see you again next week as we study chapter 32. Until then, Shabbat shalom!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnes, Albert, Commentary on the Old Testament. (Published by many, from 1880 on)
Henry, Matthew, Commentary.
Keown, Gerald, Scalise, Pamela, Smothers, Thomas, Word Biblical Commentary. Book of Jeremiah (Part 2). 1995.
McConnville, Gordon, Jeremiah, New Bible Commentary.
Wright, Christopher, The Message of Jeremiah, The Bible Speaks Today. Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2014.
Taylor, Paul, Too Many Lovers. Author House, Bloomington, IN, 2010.
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ACTUAL TEXT
Israel’s Mourning Turned to Joy
Jer. 31:1 “At that time,” declares the LORD, “I will be the aGod of all the bfamilies of Israel, and they shall be My people.”
Jer. 31:2 Thus says the LORD,
“The people who survived the sword
aFound grace in the wilderness —
Israel, when it went to bfind its rest.”
3 The LORD appeared to 1him from afar, saying,
“I have aloved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with blovingkindness.
4 “aAgain I will build you and you will be rebuilt,
O virgin of Israel!
Again you will 1take up your btambourines,
And go forth to the dances of the cmerrymakers.
5 “Again you will aplant vineyards
On the 1hills of Samaria;
The planters will plant
And will 2enjoy them.
6 “For there will be a day when watchmen
On the hills of Ephraim call out,
‘Arise, and alet us go up to Zion,
To the LORD our God.’”
Jer. 31:7 For thus says the LORD,
“aSing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
And shout among the 1bchief of the nations;
Proclaim, give praise and say,
‘O LORD, csave Your people,
The dremnant of Israel.’
8 “Behold, I am abringing them from the north country,
And I will bgather them from the remote parts of the earth,
Among them the cblind and the dlame,
The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together;
A great 1company, they will return here.
9 “aWith weeping they will come,
And by supplication I will lead them;
I will make them walk by bstreams of waters,
On a straight path in which they will cnot stumble;
For I am a dfather to Israel,
And Ephraim is eMy firstborn.”
Jer. 31:10 Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
And declare in the acoastlands afar off,
And say, “He who scattered Israel will bgather him
And keep him as a cshepherd keeps his flock.”
11 For the LORD has aransomed Jacob
And redeemed him from the hand of him who was bstronger than he.
12 “They will acome and shout for joy on the bheight of Zion,
And they will be cradiant over the 1bounty of the LORD —
Over the dgrain and the new wine and the oil,
And over the young of the eflock and the herd;
And their life will be like a fwatered garden,
And they will gnever languish again.
13 “Then the virgin will rejoice in the adance,
And the young men and the old, together,
For I will bturn their mourning into joy
And will comfort them and give them cjoy for their sorrow.
14 “I will 1fill the soul of the priests with 2abundance,
And My people will be asatisfied with My goodness,” declares the LORD.
Jer. 31:15 Thus says the LORD,
“aA voice is heard in bRamah,
Lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
She crefuses to be comforted for her children,
Because dthey are no more.”
16 Thus says the LORD,
“aRestrain your voice from weeping
And your eyes from tears;
For your bwork will be rewarded,” declares the LORD,
“And they will creturn from the land of the enemy.
17 “There is ahope for your future,” declares the LORD,
“And your children will return to their own territory.
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim agrieving,
‘You have bchastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained ccalf;
dBring me back that I may be restored,
For You are the LORD my God.
19 ‘For after I turned back, I arepented;
And after I was instructed, I bsmote on my thigh;
I was cashamed and also humiliated
Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
20 “Is aEphraim My dear son?
Is he a delightful child?
Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him,
I certainly still remember him;
Therefore My 1bheart yearns for him;
I will surely chave mercy on him,” declares the LORD.
Jer. 31:21 “Set up for yourself roadmarks,
Place for yourself guideposts;
aDirect your 1mind to the highway,
The way by which you went.
bReturn, O virgin of Israel,
Return to these your cities.
22 “How long will you go here and there,
O afaithless daughter?
For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth —
A woman will encompass a man.”
Jer. 31:23 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities when I arestore their 1fortunes,
‘The LORD bless you, O babode of righteousness,
O choly hill!’
24 “Judah and all its cities will adwell together in it, the farmer and they who go about with flocks. 25 “aFor I satisfy the weary ones and 1refresh everyone who languishes.” 26 At this I aawoke and looked, and my bsleep was pleasant to me.
A New Covenant
Jer. 31:27 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will asow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. 28 “As I have awatched over them to bpluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to cbuild and to plant,” declares the LORD.
29 “In those days they will not say again,
‘aThe fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are 1set on edge.’
30 “But aeveryone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be 1set on edge.
Jer. 31:31 “aBehold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a bnew covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the acovenant which I made with their fathers in the day I btook them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My ccovenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33 “But athis is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “bI will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and cI will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 “They will anot teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all bknow Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will cforgive their iniquity, and their dsin I will remember no more.”
Jer. 31:35 Thus says the LORD,
Who agives the sun for light by day
And the 1fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
Who bstirs up the sea so that its waves roar;
cThe LORD of hosts is His name:
36 “aIf 1this fixed order departs
From before Me,” declares the LORD,
“Then the offspring of Israel also will bcease
From being a nation before Me 2forever.”
37 Thus says the LORD,
“aIf the heavens above can be measured
And the foundations of the earth searched out below,
Then I will also bcast off all the offspring of Israel
For all that they have done,” declares the LORD.
Jer. 31:38 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the acity will be rebuilt for the LORD from the bTower of Hananel to the cCorner Gate. 39 “The ameasuring line will go out farther straight ahead to the hill Gareb; then it will turn to Goah. 40 “And athe whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook bKidron, to the corner of the cHorse Gate toward the east, shall be dholy to the LORD; it will not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”
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