1Yahweh says that at that time, he will be the God who is worshiped by all the clans in Israel, and they will be his people.
2This is what Yahweh says:
3Long ago I, Yahweh, said to your ancestors, the Israeli people,
4And now I tell you, my Israeli people whom I love [MET], that I will cause you to be a nation again.
5Again you will plant your vineyards on the hills of Samaria,
6There will be a time when watchmen will call out from the hills of Samaria [MTY],
7And now Yahweh also says this:
8Do that because I will bring them back from the northeast,
9They will be crying as they return,
10Yahweh says, “You people in the nations of the world, listen to this message from me.
11I will buy my Israeli people back
12My people will return to Jerusalem
13The young women will dance joyfully,
14The priests will have plenty of things to eat and drink,
15Yahweh also says this:
16But now this is what I, Yahweh, say:
17I, Yahweh, am telling you that there are things that you can confidently expect me to do for you in the future.
18I have heard the people of Israel grieving very much and saying to me,
19We turned away from you,
20But I, Yahweh, say this:
21You Israeli people, set up road signs;
22You people who have been like [MET] daughters who have forsaken their parents,
23This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom we Israeli people worship, says: “When I bring them back from the countries to which they have been exiled, all the people from the towns in Judah will again say, ‘I hope that Yahweh will bless this my home, the holy place where righteous people will live!’
24The people of Judah who live in the towns, including the farmers and the shepherds, will all live together peacefully.
25I will enable weary people to rest, and enable people who are very exhausted to become strong again.”
26I, Jeremiah, woke up after dreaming all those things, and I looked around. I had slept very delightfully!
27Then Yahweh said to me, “There will be a time when I will greatly increase [MET] the number of people and the number of livestock here in Israel and Judah.
28Previously, I caused their enemies to remove the people from their land and to destroy their land and to cause them to experience many disasters [DOU]. But in the future, I will enable them to build houses and to plant crops here in Israel again. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.
29Previously the people often said, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but it is the children’s teeth that ache.’ They meant that it was not fair for them to be punished for their ancestors’ sins. But when I bring them back to their land, they will no longer say that.
30But now all people will die because of the sins that they themselves have committed.
31I, Yahweh, say this: ‘There will be a time when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and Judah.
32This new agreement will not be like the agreement that I made with their ancestors when I took them by their hands and led them out of Egypt. They broke that agreement, even though I loved them like [MET] husbands love their wives.’
33This is what I, Yahweh, say: ‘This is the new agreement that I will make with the people of Israel some day: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their inner beings. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34And it will not be necessary for them to teach their neighbors or their relatives and say, “You need to know Yahweh,” because everyone, including unimportant people and very important people, will already know me. And I will forgive them for having been very wicked, and I will never think again about the sins that they have committed.’ ”
35Yahweh is the one who causes the sun to give light during the day,
36“I will not reject my Israeli people
37And this is what I say:
38I, Yahweh, also say that there will be a time when everything in Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me, from the tower of Hananel at the northeast corner, west to the gate named the Corner Gate.
39Workers will stretch a measuring line/string over Gareb Hill all the way southwest to Goah.
40And the whole area, including the place where corpses and ashes are thrown in the Kidron Valley, and all the fields to the east as far as the Horse Gate, will become set apart for me. And the city of Jerusalem will never again be captured or destroyed.”