1    2   The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord. These are the words of the Lord the God of Israel: Write in a book all that I have said to you, for this is the very word of the Lord: 3   The time is coming when I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and bring them back to the land which I gave to their forefathers; and it shall be their possession.

4    5   This is what the Lord has said to Israel and Judah. These are the words of the Lord:

Hopes for the restoration of Jerusalem

You shall hear ^note a cry of terror, of fear without relief.
6   Ask and see: can a man bear a child?
  Why then do I see every man
  gripping his sides like a woman in labour,
every face changed, all turned ^note pale?
   7   Awful is that day:
    when has there been its like?
  A time of anguish for Jacob,
    yet he shall come through it safely.

8   In that day, says the Lord of Hosts, I will break their yoke off their ^note necks and snap their ^note cords; foreigners shall no longer use them as they please; 9   they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

10   And you, Jacob my servant, have no fear;
  despair not, O Israel, says the Lord.
  For I will bring you back safe from afar
  and your offspring from the land where they are captives;
  and Jacob shall be at rest once more,
    prosperous and unafraid.
   11   For I am with you and will save you, says the Lord.
    I will make an end of all the nations
    amongst whom I have scattered you,
  but I will not make an end of you;
    though I punish you as you deserve,
    I will not sweep you clean away.

12   For these are the words of the Lord to Zion:

    Your injury is past healing,
    cruel was the blow you suffered.
   13   There can be no ^note remedy for your sore,
    the new skin cannot grow.
     14   All your lovers have forgotten you;
    they look for you no longer.
    I have struck you down
as an enemy strikes, and punished you cruelly;
for your wickedness is great and your sins are many.
   15   Why complain of your injury,
    that your sore cannot be healed? ^note

Hopes for the restoration of Jerusalem
    I have done this to you,
because your wickedness is great and your sins are many.


16   Yet all who devoured you shall themselves be devoured,
all your oppressors shall go into captivity.
  Those who plunder you shall be plundered,
  and those who despoil you I will give up to be spoiled.
   17   I will cause the new skin to grow
  and heal your wounds, says the Lord,
  although men call you the Outcast,
    Zion, nobody's friend.

18   These are the words of the Lord:

Watch; I will restore the fortunes of Jacob's clans
    and show my love for all his dwellings.
  Every city shall be rebuilt on its mound of ruins,
  every mansion shall have its familiar household.
   19   From them praise shall be heard
    and sounds of merrymaking.
I will increase them, they shall not diminish,
I will raise them to honour, they shall no longer be despised.
   20   Their sons shall be what they once were,
  and their community shall be established in my sight.
  I will punish all their oppressors;
   21   a ruler shall appear, one of themselves,
  a governor shall arise from their own number.
  I will myself bring him ^note near and so he ^note shall approach me;
for no one ventures of himself to approach me,
    says the Lord.
   22   So you shall be my people,
  and I will be your God.
23   See what a scorching wind has gone out from the Lord,
    a sweeping whirlwind.
  It whirls round the heads of the wicked;
   24   the Lord's anger is not to be turned aside,
till he has finished and achieved his heart's desire.
In days to come you will understand.

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