25. I will give rest and strength to those who are weak and tired.”
26. After hearing that, I, Jeremiah, woke up and looked around. My sleep had been very pleasant.
27. The Lord says, “The days are coming when I will help the families of Israel and Judah to grow. I will help their children and animals to grow, too. It will be like planting and caring for a plant.
28. In the past I watched over Israel and Judah, but I watched for the time to pull them up. I tore them down. I destroyed them. I brought disaster to them. But now I will watch over them to build them up and make them strong,” says the Lord.
29. “At that time people will no longer say:‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes.And that caused the children to grind their teeth from the sour taste.’
30. But each person will die for his own sin. The person who eats sour grapes will grind his own teeth.
31. “Look, the time is coming,” says the Lord,“when I will make a new agreement.It will be with the people of Israeland the people of Judah.
32. It will not be like the agreementI made with their ancestors.That was when I took them by the handto bring them out of Egypt.I was a husband to them,but they broke that agreement,” says the Lord.
33. “I will make this agreementwith the people of Israel,” says the Lord.“I will put my teachings in their minds.And I will write them on their hearts.I will be their God,and they will be my people.
34. People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relativesto know the Lord.This is because all people will know me,from the least to the most important,” says the Lord.“I will forgive them for the wicked things they did.I will not remember their sins anymore.”
35. This is what the Lord says:“The Lord makes the sun shine in the day.And he makes the moon and stars shine at night.He stirs up the sea so that its waves crash on the shore.The Lord of heaven’s armies is his name.
36. “Only if these laws should ever fail,”says the Lord,“will Israel’s descendants stopbeing a nation before me.”