23. The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, “I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns.When I do, they will again say of Jerusalem, ‘May the Lord bless you, you holy mountain,the place where righteousness dwells.’
24. The land of Judah will be inhabited by people who live in its townsas well as by farmers and shepherds with their flocks.
25. I will fully satisfy the needs of those who are wearyand fully refresh the souls of those who are faint.
26. Then they will say, ‘Under these conditions I can enjoy sweet sleepwhen I wake up and look around.’”
27. “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will cause people and animals to sprout up in the lands of Israel and Judah.
28. In the past I saw to it that they were uprooted and torn down, that they were destroyed and demolished. But now I will see to it that they are built up and firmly planted. I, the Lord, affirm it!”
29. “When that time comes, people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but the children’s teeth have grown numb.’
30. Rather, each person will die for his own sins. The teeth of the person who eats the sour grapes will themselves grow numb.
31. “Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
32. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord.
33. “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people.
34. “People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
35. The Lord has made a promise to Israel.He promises it as the one who fixed the sun to give light by dayand the moon and stars to give light by night.He promises it as the one who stirs up the sea so that its waves roll.He promises it as the one who is known as the Lord who rules over all.
36. The Lord affirms, “The descendants of Israel will notcease forever to be a nation in my sight.That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lightswere to cease to operate before me.”
37. The Lord says, “I will not reject all the descendants of Israelbecause of all that they have done.That could only happen if the heavens above could be measuredor the foundations of the earth below could all be explored,”says the Lord.
38. “Indeed a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt as my special city. It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate.
39. The boundary line will extend beyond that, straight west from there to the Hill of Gareb and then turn southward to Goah.
40. The whole valley where dead bodies and sacrificial ashes are thrown and all the terraced fields out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far north as the Horse Gate will be included within this city that is sacred to the Lord. The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”