22. How long will you hem and haw,my rebellious daughter?The Lord has created something new on earth:Virgin Israel will once again embrace her God!
23. The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: When I bring my people back from captivity, they will once again utter these words in the land and towns of Judah:The Lord bless you,righteous dwelling place,holy mountain.
24. Those who live in Judah and its towns will dwell together with farmers and shepherds.
25. I will strengthen the weary and renew those who are weak.
26. Then I woke up and looked around. What a pleasant sleep I had!
27. The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will plant seeds in Israel and Judah, and both people and animals will spring up.
28. Just as I watched over them to dig up and pull down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and plant, declares the Lord.
29. In those days, people will no longer say:Sour grapes eaten by parentsleave a bitter taste in the mouths of their children.
30. Because everyone will die for their own sins:whoever eats sour grapeswill have a bitter taste in their own mouths.
31. The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
32. It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant with me even though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
33. No, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34. They will no longer need to teach each other to say, "Know the Lord!" because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.
35. The Lord proclaims:The one who established the sun to light up the dayand ordered the moon and stars to light up the night,who stirs up the sea into crashing waves,whose name is the Lord of heavenly forces:
36. If the created order should vanish from my sight,declares the Lord, only then would Israel’s descendants ever stop being a nationbefore me.