Restoration for Israel and Judah
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: bWrite in a cbook all the words that I have spoken to you. 3 For behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will drestore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”
4 These are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah:
5 “Thus says the Lord:
We have heard a cry of panic,
of terror, and no peace.
6 Ask now, and see,
can a man bear a child?
Why then do I see every man
with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor?
Why has every face turned pale?
7 Alas! That day is so great
ethere is none like it;
it is a time of distress for Jacob;
yet he shall be saved out of it.
8 “And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, that I will fbreak his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him.1 9 But they shall serve gthe Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
10 h“Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the Lord,
nor be dismayed, O Israel;
for behold, I will save you from far away,
and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease,
and none shall make him afraid.
11 For I am with you to save you,
declares the Lord;
I will make a full end of all the nations
among whom I scattered you,
but of you I will not make a full end.
I will idiscipline you in just measure,
and I will by no means leave you unpunished.
12 “For thus says the Lord:
Your hurt is jincurable,
and kyour wound is grievous.
13 There is none to uphold your cause,
no medicine for your wound,
lno healing for you.
14 All your mlovers have forgotten you;
they care nothing for you;
for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy,
the punishment of a merciless foe,
because your guilt is great,
because your sins are flagrant.
15 Why do you cry out over your hurt?
Your pain is incurable.
Because your guilt is great,
because your sins are flagrant,
I have done these things to you.
16 Therefore nall who devour you shall be devoured,
and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity;
those who plunder you shall be plundered,
and all who prey on you I will make a prey.
17 For I will restore ohealth to you,
and your wounds I will heal,
declares the Lord,
because they have called you an outcast:
‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’
18 “Thus says the Lord:
Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob
and have compassion on his dwellings;
the city shall be rebuilt on its mound,
and the palace shall stand where it used to be.
19 Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving,
and the voices of those who celebrate.
I will multiply them, and they shall not be few;
I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.
20 Their children shall be as they were of old,
and their congregation shall be established before me,
and I will punish all who oppress them.
21 Their prince shall be pone of themselves;
their ruler shall come out from their midst;
qI will make him draw near, and he shall approach me,
for who would dare of himself to approach me?
declares the Lord.
22 And ryou shall be my people,
and I will be your God.”
23 sBehold the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
24 The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intentions of his mind.
In the latter days you will understand this.
The Lord Will Turn Mourning to Joy
1 “At that time, declares the Lord, I 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;
when Israel sought for rest,
3 the Lord appeared to him2 from far away.
I have tloved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built,
O virgin Israel!
Again you shall adorn yourself with tambourines
and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you shall uplant 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 the hill country of Ephraim:
‘Arise, and vlet us go up to Zion,
to the Lord our God.’”
7 For thus says the Lord:
“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob,
and raise shouts for the chief of the nations;
proclaim, give praise, and say,
‘O Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel.’
8 Behold, I will bring them wfrom the north country
and xgather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
9 yWith weeping they shall come,
and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for zI am a father to Israel,
and aEphraim is my firstborn.
10 “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and will keep him bas a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11 For the Lord chas ransomed Jacob
and has dredeemed him from hands too strong for him.
12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion,
and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and over the young of the flock and the herd;
their life shall be elike a watered garden,
and they shall languish no more.
13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.
I will turn their mourning into fjoy;
I will gcomfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14 I 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:
h“A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because ithey 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 they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17 There is jhope for your future,
declares the Lord,
and your children shall come back to their own country.
18 I have heard Ephraim grieving,
‘You have kdisciplined me, and I was disciplined,
like an untrained calf;
lbring me back that I may be restored,
for you are the Lord my God.
19 For after I had turned away, I relented,
and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart3 yearns for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the Lord.
21 “Set up road markers for yourself;
make yourself guideposts;
consider well the highway,
the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
return to these your cities.
22 How long will you waver,
O 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, when I restore their fortunes:
“‘The Lord bless you, O mhabitation of righteousness,
O holy hill!’
24 And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. 25 For I will satisfy 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 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to npluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord. 29 In those days they shall no longer say:
o“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But peveryone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
The New Covenant
31 q“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make ra new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I smade with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their thusband, declares the Lord. 33 For uthis is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will vput my law wwithin them, and I will write it on their hearts. And xI 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, y‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will zforgive their iniquity, and aI will bremember their sin no more.”
35 Thus says the Lord,
cwho gives the sun for light by day
and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
dwho stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
the Lord of hosts is his name:
36 “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 eThus says the Lord:
“If the heavens above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth below can be explored,
then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,
declares the Lord.”
38 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the fHorse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”
Who Is like the Lord Our God?
1 Praise the Lord!
zPraise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord!
2 aBlessed be the name of the Lord
bfrom this time forth and forevermore!
3 cFrom the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the Lord is to be praised!
4 The Lord is high dabove all nations,
and ehis glory above the heavens!
5 fWho is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
7 gHe raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 hHe gives the barren woman a home,
imaking her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the Lord!
The Ministry of Apostles
1 This is how one should regard us, as qservants of Christ and rstewards of the smysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. 3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. 4 For tI am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore udo not pronounce vjudgment before the time, before the Lord wcomes, who will xbring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will ydisclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
6 I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers,1 that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be zpuffed up in favor of one against another. 7 For who sees anything different in you? aWhat do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become brich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, clike men sentenced to death, because we have dbecome a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. 10 We are efools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. fWe are gweak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour hwe hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we ilabor, working with our own hands. jWhen reviled, kwe bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For though you have countless2 guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. lFor I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 16 mI urge you, then, nbe imitators of me. 17 That is why oI sent3 you Timothy, my beloved and faithful pchild in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ,4 as I teach them qeverywhere in every church. 18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But rI will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God sdoes not consist in ttalk but uin power. 21 What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love vin a spirit of gentleness?
Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for wa man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are xarrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? yLet him who has done this be removed from among you.
3 For though zabsent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are aassembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to bdeliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.5
6 cYour boasting is not good. Do you not know that da little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, eour Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore fcelebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, gthe leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral hof this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to igo out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of jsexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? kIs it not those inside the church6 whom you are to judge? 13 God judges7 those outside. l“Purge the evil person from among you.”
