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The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they will be my people.
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In the desert I showed mercy to those people who had escaped death. When the people of Israel longed for rest,
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I appeared to them from far away. People of Israel, I have always loved you, so I continue to show you my constant love.
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Once again I will rebuild you. Once again you will take up your tambourines and dance joyfully.
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Once again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria, and those who plant them will eat what the vineyards produce.
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Yes, the time is coming when sentries will call out on the hills of Ephraim, 'Let's go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.' "
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The LORD says, "Sing with joy for Israel, the greatest of the nations. Sing your song of praise, 'The LORD has saved his people; he has rescued all who are left.'
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I will bring them from the north and gather them from the ends of the earth. The blind and the lame will come with them, pregnant women and those about to give birth. They will come back a great nation.
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My people will return weeping, praying as I lead them back. I will guide them to streams of water, on a smooth road where they will not stumble. I am like a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my oldest son."
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The LORD says, "Nations, listen to me and proclaim my words on the far-off shores. I scattered my people, but I will gather them and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock.
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I have set Israel's people free and have saved them from a mighty nation.
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They will come and sing for joy on Mount Zion and be delighted with my gifts--- gifts of grain and wine and olive oil, gifts of sheep and cattle. They will be like a well-watered garden; they will have everything they need.
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Then the young women will dance and be happy, and men, young and old, will rejoice. I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joy, their sorrow into gladness.
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I will fill the priests with the richest food and satisfy all the needs of my people. I, the LORD, have spoken."
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The LORD says, "A sound is heard in Ramah, the sound of bitter weeping. Rachel is crying for her children; they are gone, and she refuses to be comforted.
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Stop your crying and wipe away your tears. All that you have done for your children will not go unrewarded; they will return from the enemy's land.
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There is hope for your future; your children will come back home. I, the LORD, have spoken.
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"I hear the people of Israel say in grief, ' LORD, we were like an untamed animal, but you taught us to obey. Bring us back; we are ready to return to you, the LORD our God.
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We turned away from you, but soon we wanted to return. After you had punished us, we hung our heads in grief. We were ashamed and disgraced because we sinned when we were young.'
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"Israel, you are my dearest child, the one I love best. Whenever I mention your name, I think of you with love. My heart goes out to you; I will be merciful.
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Set up signs and mark the road; find again the way by which you left. Come back, people of Israel, come home to the towns you left.
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How long will you hesitate, faithless people? I have created something new and different, as different as a woman protecting a man."
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The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says, "When I restore the people to their land, they will once again say in the land of Judah and in its towns, 'May the LORD bless the sacred hill of Jerusalem, the holy place where he lives.'
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People will live in Judah and in all its towns, and there will be farmers, and shepherds with their flocks.
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I will refresh those who are weary and will satisfy with food everyone who is weak from hunger.
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So then, people will say, 'I went to sleep and woke up refreshed.'
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"I, the LORD, say that the time is coming when I will fill the land of Israel and Judah with people and animals.
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And just as I took care to uproot, to pull down, to overthrow, to destroy, and to demolish them, so I will take care to plant them and to build them up.
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When that time comes, people will no longer say, 'The parents ate the sour grapes, But the children got the sour taste.'
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Instead, those who eat sour grapes will have their own teeth set on edge; and everyone will die because of their own sin."
31
The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
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It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant.
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The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
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None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the LORD, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the LORD, have spoken."
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The LORD provides the sun for light by day, the moon and the stars to shine at night. He stirs up the sea and makes it roar; his name is the LORD Almighty.
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He promises that as long as the natural order lasts, so long will Israel be a nation.
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If one day the sky could be measured and the foundations of the earth explored, only then would he reject the people of Israel because of all they have done. The LORD has spoken.
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"The time is coming," says the LORD, "when all of Jerusalem will be rebuilt as my city, from Hananel Tower west to the Corner Gate.
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And the boundary line will continue from there on the west to the hill of Gareb and then around to Goah.
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The entire valley, where the dead are buried and garbage is dumped, and all the fields above Kidron Brook as far as the Horse Gate to the east, will be sacred to me. The city will never again be torn down or destroyed."
1
The LORD spoke to me in the tenth year that Zedekiah was king of Judah, which was also the eighteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia.
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At that time the army of the king of Babylonia was attacking Jerusalem, and I was locked up in the courtyard of the royal palace.
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King Zedekiah had imprisoned me there and had accused me of announcing that the LORD had said, "I am going to let the king of Babylonia capture this city,
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and King Zedekiah will not escape. He will be handed over to the king of Babylonia; he will see him face-to-face and will speak to him in person.
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Zedekiah will be taken to Babylonia, and he will remain there until I deal with him. Even if he fights the Babylonians, he will not be successful. I, the LORD, have spoken."
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that Hanamel, my uncle Shallum's son, would come to me with the request to buy his field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, because I was his nearest relative and had the right to buy it for myself.
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Then, just as the LORD had said, Hanamel came to me there in the courtyard and asked me to buy the field. So I knew that the LORD had really spoken to me.
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I bought the field from Hanamel and weighed out the money to him; the price came to seventeen pieces of silver.
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I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and weighed out the money on scales.
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Then I took both copies of the deed of purchase---the sealed copy containing the contract and its conditions, and the open copy---
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and gave them to Baruch, the son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. I gave them to him in the presence of Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase and of the people who were sitting in the courtyard.
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Before them all I said to Baruch,
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"The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, has ordered you to take these deeds, both the sealed deed of purchase and the open copy, and to place them in a clay jar, so that they may be preserved for years to come.
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The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, has said that houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land."
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After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch, I prayed,
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"Sovereign LORD, you made the earth and the sky by your great power and might; nothing is too difficult for you.
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You have shown constant love to thousands, but you also punish people for the sins of their parents. You are a great and powerful God; you are the LORD Almighty.
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You make wise plans and do mighty things; you see everything that people do, and you reward them according to their actions.
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Long ago you performed miracles and wonders in Egypt, and you have continued to perform them to this day, both in Israel and among all the other nations, so that you are now known everywhere.
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By means of miracles and wonders that terrified our enemies, you used your power and might to bring your people Israel out of Egypt.
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You gave them this rich and fertile land, as you had promised their ancestors.
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But when they came into this land and took possession of it, they did not obey your commands or live according to your teaching; they did nothing that you had ordered them to do. And so you brought all this destruction on them.
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"The Babylonians have built siege mounds around the city to capture it, and they are attacking. War, starvation, and disease will make the city fall into their hands. You can see that all you have said has come true.
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Yet, Sovereign LORD, you are the one who ordered me to buy the field in the presence of witnesses, even though the city is about to be captured by the Babylonians."
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Then the LORD said to me,
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"I am the LORD, the God of all people. Nothing is too difficult for me.
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I am going to give this city over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army; they will capture it
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and set it on fire. They will burn it down, together with the houses where people have made me angry by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out wine offerings to other gods.
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From the very beginning of their history the people of Israel and the people of Judah have displeased me and made me angry by what they have done.
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The people of this city have made me angry and furious from the day it was built. I have decided to destroy it
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because of all the evil that has been done by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, together with their kings and leaders, their priests and prophets.
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They turned their backs on me; and though I kept on teaching them, they would not listen and learn.
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They even placed their disgusting idols in the Temple built for my worship, and they have defiled it.
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They have built altars to Baal in Hinnom Valley, to sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. I did not command them to do this, and it did not even enter my mind that they would do such a thing and make the people of Judah sin."
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The LORD, the God of Israel, said to me, "Jeremiah, the people are saying that war, starvation, and disease will make this city fall into the hands of the king of Babylonia. Now listen to what else I have to say.
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I am going to gather the people from all the countries where I have scattered them in my anger and fury, and I am going to bring them back to this place and let them live here in safety.
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Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.
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I will give them a single purpose in life: to honor me for all time, for their own good and the good of their descendants.
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I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from me.
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I will take pleasure in doing good things for them, and I will establish them permanently in this land.
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"Just as I have brought this disaster on these people, so I am going to give them all the good things that I have promised.
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The people are saying that this land will be like a desert where neither people nor animals live, and that it will be given over to the Babylonians. But fields will once again be bought in this land.
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People will buy them, and the deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed. This will take place in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, and in the towns in the hill country, in the foothills, and in southern Judah. I will restore the people to their land. I, the LORD, have spoken."
1
My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to have the Spirit, but test them to find out if the spirit they have comes from God. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere.
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This is how you will be able to know whether it is God's Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God.
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But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already.
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But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit who is in you is more powerful than the spirit in those who belong to the world.
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Those false prophets speak about matters of the world, and the world listens to them because they belong to the world.
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But we belong to God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever does not belong to God does not listen to us. This, then, is how we can tell the difference between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
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Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.
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Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
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And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.
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This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.
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Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another.
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No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.
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We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit.
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And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
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If we declare that Jesus is the Son of God, we live in union with God and God lives in union with us.
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And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them.
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Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on the Judgment Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ's.
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There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear. So then, love has not been made perfect in anyone who is afraid, because fear has to do with punishment.
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We love because God first loved us.
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If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.
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The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also.
