Jeremiah 31

GOD’S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS PEOPLE
“At that time” ​— ​this is the Lord’s declaration ​— ​“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”

2 This is what the Lord says:

The people who survived the sword
found favor in the wilderness.
When Israel went to find rest,
3 the Lord appeared to him from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.
4 Again I will build you so that you will be rebuilt,
Virgin Israel.
You will take up your tambourines again
and go out in joyful dancing.
5 You will plant vineyards again
on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters will plant and will enjoy the fruit.
6 For there will be a day when watchmen will call out
in the hill country of Ephraim,
“Come, let’s go up to Zion,
to the Lord our God! ”
GOD’S PEOPLE BROUGHT HOME
7 For this is what the Lord says:

Sing with joy for Jacob;
shout for the foremost of the nations!
Proclaim, praise, and say,
“Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel! ”
8 Watch! I am going to bring them from the northern land.
I will gather them from remote regions of the earth —
the blind and the lame will be with them,
along with those who are pregnant and those about to give birth.
They will return here as a great assembly!
9 They will come weeping,
but I will bring them back with consolation.
I will lead them to wadis filled with water,
by a smooth way where they will not stumble,
for I am Israel’s Father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 Nations, hear the word of the Lord,
and tell it among the far off coasts and islands!
Say, “The one who scattered Israel will gather him.
He will watch over him as a shepherd guards his flock,
11 for the Lord has ransomed Jacob
and redeemed him from the power of one stronger than he.”
12 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
they will be radiant with joy
because of the Lord’s goodness,
because of the grain, the new wine, the fresh oil,
and because of the young of the flocks and herds.
Their life will be like an irrigated garden,
and they will no longer grow weak from hunger.
13 Then the young women will rejoice with dancing,
while young and old men rejoice together.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
give them consolation,
and bring happiness out of grief.
14 I will refresh the priests with an abundance,
and my people will be satisfied with my goodness.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
LAMENT TURNED TO JOY
15 This is what the Lord says:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
a lament with bitter weeping —
Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted for her children
because they are no more.
16 This is what the Lord says:

Keep your voice from weeping
and your eyes from tears,
for the reward for your work will come —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
and your children will return from the enemy’s land.
17 There is hope for your future —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
and your children will return to their own territory.
18 I have surely heard Ephraim moaning,
“You disciplined me, and I have been disciplined
like an untrained calf.
Take me back, so that I can return,
for you, Lord, are my God.
19 After my return, I felt regret;
After I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief.
I was ashamed and humiliated
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”
20 Isn’t Ephraim a precious son to me,
a delightful child?
Whenever I speak against him,
I certainly still think about him.
Therefore, my inner being yearns for him;
I will truly have compassion on him.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION
21 Set up road markers for yourself;
establish signposts!
Keep the highway in mind,
the way you have traveled.
Return, Virgin Israel!
Return to these cities of yours.
22 How long will you turn here and there,
faithless daughter?
For the Lord creates something new in the land —
a female will shelter a man.
23 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore their fortunes, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the Lord bless you, righteous settlement, holy mountain.’ 24 Judah and all its cities will live in it together ​— ​also farmers and those who move with the flocks ​— ​25 for I satisfy the thirsty person and feed all those who are weak.”

26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.

27 “Look, the days are coming” ​— ​this is the Lord’s declaration ​— ​“when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of people and the seed of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear them down, to demolish and to destroy, and to cause disaster, so will I watch over them to build and to plant them” ​— ​this is the Lord’s declaration. 29 “In those days, it will never again be said,

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 Rather, each will die for his own iniquity. Anyone who eats sour grapes ​— ​his own teeth will be set on edge.

THE NEW COVENANT
31 “Look, the days are coming” ​— ​this is the Lord’s declaration ​— ​“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt ​— ​my covenant that they broke even though I am their master” ​— ​the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” ​— ​the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them” ​— ​this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.

35 “This is what the Lord says:

The one who gives the sun for light by day,
the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar —
the Lord of Armies is his name:
36 If this fixed order departs from before me —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
only then will Israel’s descendants cease
to be a nation before me forever.
37 “This is what the Lord says:

Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below explored,
will I reject all of Israel’s descendants
because of all they have done —
this is the Lord’s declaration.
38 “Look, the days are coming” ​— ​the Lord’s declaration ​— ​“when the city from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate will be rebuilt for the Lord. 39 A measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn toward Goah. 40 The whole valley ​— ​the corpses, the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east ​— ​will be holy to the Lord. It will never be uprooted or demolished again.”

— Jeremiah 31:1-40 (CSB)

Jeremiah 32

JEREMIAH’S LAND PURCHASE
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
2 At that time, the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in the guard’s courtyard in the palace of the king of Judah. 3 King Zedekiah of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why are you prophesying as you do? You say, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, I am about to hand this city over to Babylon’s king, and he will capture it. 4 King Zedekiah of Judah will not escape from the Chaldeans; indeed, he will certainly be handed over to Babylon’s king. They will speak face to face and meet eye to eye. 5 He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him ​— ​this is the Lord’s declaration. For you will fight the Chaldeans, but you will not succeed.’ ”

6 Jeremiah replied, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Watch! Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, is coming to you to say, ‘Buy my field in Anathoth for yourself, for you own the right of redemption to buy it.’

8 “Then, as the Lord had said, my cousin Hanamel came to the guard’s courtyard and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. 9 So I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and I weighed out the silver to him ​— ​seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I recorded it on a scroll, sealed it, called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 I took the purchase agreement ​— ​the sealed copy with its terms and conditions and the open copy ​— ​12 and gave the purchase agreement to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah. I did this in the sight of my cousin Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the purchase agreement, and all the Judeans sitting in the guard’s courtyard.

13 “I charged Baruch in their sight, 14 ‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Take these scrolls ​— ​this purchase agreement with the sealed copy and this open copy ​— ​and put them in an earthen storage jar so they will last a long time. 15 For this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’

16 “After I had given the purchase agreement to Baruch, son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord: 17 Oh, Lord God! You yourself made the heavens and earth by your great power and with your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you! 18 You show faithful love to thousands but lay the fathers’ iniquity on their sons’ laps after them, great and mighty God whose name is the Lord of Armies, 19 the one great in counsel and powerful in action. Your eyes are on all the ways of the children of men in order to reward each person according to his ways and as the result of his actions. 20 You performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and still do today, both in Israel and among all mankind. You made a name for yourself, as is the case today. 21 You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. 22 You gave them this land you swore to give to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23 They entered and possessed it, but they did not obey you or live according to your instructions. They failed to perform all you commanded them to do, and so you have brought all this disaster on them. 24 Look! Siege ramps have come against the city to capture it, and the city, as a result of the sword, famine, and plague, has been handed over to the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you have spoken has happened. Look, you can see it! 25 Yet you, Lord God, have said to me, ‘Purchase the field and call in witnesses’ ​— ​even though the city has been handed over to the Chaldeans! ”

26 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 27 “Look, I am the Lord, the God over every creature. Is anything too difficult for me? 28 Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am about to hand this city over to the Chaldeans, to Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzar, and he will capture it. 29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come and set this city on fire. They will burn it, including the houses where incense has been burned to Baal on their rooftops and where drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to anger me. 30 From their youth, the Israelites and Judeans have done nothing but what is evil in my sight! They have done nothing but anger me by the work of their hands” ​— ​this is the Lord’s declaration ​— ​31 “for this city has caused my wrath and fury from the day it was built until now. I will therefore remove it from my presence 32 because of all the evil the Israelites and Judeans have done to anger me ​— ​they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned their backs to me and not their faces. Though I taught them time and time again, they do not listen and receive discipline. 34 They have placed their abhorrent things in the house that bears my name and have defiled it. 35 They have built the high places of Baal in Ben Hinnom Valley to sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire to Molech ​— ​something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!

36 “Now therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to this city about which you said, ‘It has been handed over to Babylon’s king through sword, famine, and plague’: 37 I will certainly gather them from all the lands where I have banished them in my anger, fury, and intense wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them live in safety. 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them integrity of heart and action so that they will fear me always, for their good and for the good of their descendants after them.

40 “I will make a permanent covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put fear of me in their hearts so they will never again turn away from me. 41 I will take delight in them to do what is good for them, and with all my heart and mind I will faithfully plant them in this land.

42 “For this is what the Lord says: Just as I have brought all this terrible disaster on these people, so am I about to bring on them all the good I am promising them. 43 Fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying, ‘It’s a desolation without people or animals; it has been handed over to the Chaldeans! ’ 44 Fields will be purchased, the transaction written on a scroll and sealed, and witnesses will be called on in the land of Benjamin, in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in Judah’s cities ​— ​the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, and the cities of the Negev ​— ​because I will restore their fortunes.”

This is the Lord’s declaration.

Titus 2

SOUND TEACHING AND CHRISTIAN LIVING
But you are to proclaim things consistent with sound teaching.
2 Older men are to be self-controlled, worthy of respect, sensible, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. 3 In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered.

6 In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled 7 in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. 8 Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us.

9 Slaves are to submit to their masters in everything, and to be well-pleasing, not talking back 10 or stealing, but demonstrating utter faithfulness, so that they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in everything.

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 instructing us to deny godlessness and worldly lusts and to live in a sensible, righteous, and godly way in the present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. 14 He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people for his own possession, eager to do good works.

15 Proclaim these things; encourage and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

— Titus 2:1-15 (CSB)