Day 298 of 730

¹"At that time," says the Lord, "will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people."

²Thus says the Lord, "The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

³The Lord appeared of old to me, saying, 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.

⁴Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.

⁵Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy its fruit.

⁶For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, "Arise, and let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God."'"

⁷For thus says the Lord, "Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, 'Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel.'

⁸'Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.

⁹They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.'"

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd does his flock."

¹¹For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

¹²They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of the Lord, to the grain, and to the new 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 sorrow any more at all.

¹³"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.

¹⁴I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness," says the Lord.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more."

¹⁶Thus says the Lord: "Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded," says the Lord; "and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷There is hope for your latter end," says the Lord; "and your children shall come again to their own border.

¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, 'You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are the Lord my God.

¹⁹Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.'

²⁰Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him," says the Lord.

²¹"Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

²²How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man."

²³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: 'The Lord bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.'

²⁴Judah and all its cities shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.

²⁵For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished."

²⁶On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.

²⁷"Behold, the days come, " says 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 animal.

²⁸It shall happen 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," says the Lord.

²⁹"In those days they shall say no more, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'

³⁰But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

³¹Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

³²not 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; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them," says the Lord.

³³"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says 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:

³⁴and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord'; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest," says the Lord: "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more."

³⁵Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is his name:

³⁶"If these ordinances depart from before me," says the Lord, "then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever."

³⁷Thus says 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," says the Lord.

³⁸"Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.

³⁹The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah.

⁴⁰The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever."

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

²Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was besieging Jerusalem; and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah's house.

³For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, "Why do you prophesy, and say, 'Thus says the Lord, "Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

⁴and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes;

⁵and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and he shall be there until I visit him," says the Lord: "though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper?"'"

⁶Jeremiah said, "The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁷'Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you, saying, "Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it."'

⁸So Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of the Lord, and said to me, "Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

⁹I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

¹⁰I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.

¹¹So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open;

¹²and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard.

¹³I commanded Baruch before them, saying,

¹⁴'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue many days."'

¹⁵For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.'

¹⁶Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying,

¹⁷'Ah, Lord God! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,

¹⁸who show loving kindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; the great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts is his name;

¹⁹great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:

²⁰who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, both in Israel and among other men; and made yourself a name, as in this day;

²¹and brought forth your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror;

²²and gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

²³and they came in, and possessed it, but they did not obey your voice, neither walked in your law; they have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come on them.

²⁴Behold, the mounds, they have come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what you have spoken has happened; and behold, you see it.

²⁵You have said to me, Lord God, "Buy the field for money, and call witnesses"; whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.'"

²⁶Then came the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁷"Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too difficult for me?

²⁸Therefore thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:

²⁹and the Chaldeans, who fight against this city, shall come and set this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses, on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.

³⁰For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says the Lord.

³¹For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day; that I should remove it from before my face,

³²because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

³³They have turned to me the back, and not the face: and though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.

³⁴But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

³⁵They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through fire to Molech; which I did not command them, neither did it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.'

³⁶"Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city, about which you say, 'It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence':

³⁷'Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:

³⁸and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:

³⁹and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good, and of their children after them:

⁴⁰and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.

⁴¹Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.'

⁴²"For thus says the Lord: 'Just as I have brought all this great disaster on this people, so will I bring on them all the good that I have promised them.

⁴³Fields shall be bought in this land, about which you say, "It is desolate, without man or animal; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans."

⁴⁴Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe the deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the hill country, and in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the Negev: for I will cause their captivity to return,' says the Lord."

¹Praise Yah! Praise the Lord from the heavens! Praise him in the heights!

²Praise him, all his angels! Praise him, all his army!

³Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you shining stars!

⁴Praise him, you heavens of heavens, You waters that are above the heavens.

⁵Let them praise the name of the Lord, For he commanded, and they were created.

⁶He has also established them forever and ever. He has made a decree which will not pass away.

⁷Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures, and all depths!

⁸Lightning and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling his word;

⁹mountains and all hills; fruit trees and all cedars;

¹⁰wild animals and all livestock; small creatures and flying birds;

¹¹kings of the earth and all peoples; princes and all judges of the earth;

¹²both young men and maidens; old men and children:

¹³let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted. His glory is above the earth and the heavens.

¹⁴He has lifted up the horn of his people, the praise of all his holy ones; even of the children of Israel, a people near to him. Praise Yah!

¹Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in his lips and is a fool.

²It isn't good to have zeal without knowledge; nor being hasty with one's feet and missing the way.

³The foolishness of man subverts his way; his heart rages against the Lord.

⁴Wealth adds many friends, but the poor is separated from his friend.

⁵A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who pours out lies shall not go free.

⁶Many will entreat the favor of a ruler, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts.

⁷All the relatives of the poor shun him: how much more do his friends avoid him! He pursues them with pleas, but they are gone.

⁸He who gets wisdom loves his own soul. He who keeps understanding shall find good.

⁹A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who utters lies shall perish.

¹⁰Delicate living is not appropriate for a fool, much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

¹¹The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger. It is his glory to overlook an offense.

¹²The king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew on the grass.

¹³A foolish son is the calamity of his father. A wife's quarrels are a continual dripping.

¹⁴House and riches are an inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.

¹⁵Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.

¹⁶He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, but he who is contemptuous in his ways shall die.

¹⁷He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord; he will reward him.

¹⁸Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death.

¹⁹A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty, for if you rescue him, you must do it again.

²⁰Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter end.

²¹There are many plans in a man's heart, but the Lord's counsel will prevail.

²²That which makes a man to be desired is his kindness. A poor man is better than a liar.

²³The fear of the Lord leads to life, then contentment; he rests and will not be touched by trouble.

²⁴The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.

²⁵Flog a scoffer, and the simple will learn prudence; rebuke one who has understanding, and he will gain knowledge.

²⁶He who robs his father and drives away his mother, is a son who causes shame and brings reproach.

²⁷If you stop listening to instruction, my son, you will stray from the words of knowledge.

²⁸A corrupt witness mocks justice, and the mouth of the wicked gulps down iniquity.

²⁹Penalties are prepared for scoffers, and beatings for the backs of fools.