The Lord has said, Grace came in the waste land to a people kept safe from the sword, even to Israel on the way to his resting-place.

I will again make new your buildings, O virgin of Israel, and you will take up your place: again you will take up your instruments of music, and go out in the dances of those who are glad.

For there will be a day when those who get in the grapes on the hills of Ephraim will be crying, Up! let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God.

See, I will take them from the north country, and get them from the inmost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the feeble-footed, the woman with child and her who is in birth-pains together: a very great army, they will come back here.

Give ear to the word of the Lord, O you nations, and give news of it in the sea-lands far away, and say, He who has sent Israel wandering will get him together and will keep him as a keeper does his flock.

So they will come with songs on the high places, flowing together to the good things of the Lord, to the grain and the wine and the oil, to the young ones of the flock and of the herd: their souls will be like a watered garden, and they will have no more sorrow.

I will give the priests their desired fat things, and my people will have a full measure of my good things, says the Lord.

The Lord has said this: Keep your voice from sorrow and your eyes from weeping: for your work will be rewarded, says the Lord and they will come back from the land of their hater.

Certainly Ephraim's words of grief have come to my ears, You have given me training and I have undergone it like a young cow unused to the yoke: let me be turned and come back, for you are the Lord my God.

Is Ephraim my dear son? is he the child of my delight? for whenever I say things against him, I still keep him in my memory: so my heart is troubled for him I will certainly have mercy on him, says the Lord.

How long will you go on turning this way and that, O wandering daughter? for the Lord has made a new thing on the earth, a woman changed into a man.

And Judah and all its towns will be living there together the farmers and those who go about with flocks.

At this, awaking from my sleep, I saw and my sleep was sweet to me.

And it will come about that, as I have been watching over them for the purpose of uprooting and smashing down and overturning and sending destruction and causing trouble so I will be watching over them for the purpose of building up and planting, says the Lord.

But everyone will be put to death for the evil which he himself has done: whoever has taken bitter grapes will himself have his teeth put on edge.

Not like the agreement which I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to be their guide out of the land of Egypt which agreement was broken by them, and I gave them up, says the Lord.

And no longer will they be teaching every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Get knowledge of the Lord: for they will all have knowledge of me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord: for they will have my forgiveness for their evil-doing, and their sin will go from my memory for ever.

If the order of these things before me is ever broken, says the Lord, then will the seed of Israel come to an end as a nation before me for ever.

See, the days are coming, says the Lord, for the building of the Lord's town, from the tower of Hananel to the doorway of the angle.

And all the valley of the dead bodies, and all the field of death as far as the stream Kidron, up to the angle of the horses' doorway to the east, will be holy to the Lord it will not again be uprooted or overturned for ever.

Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was round Jerusalem, shutting it in: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the place of the armed watchmen, in the house of the king of Judah.

And Zedekiah, king of Judah, will not get away from the hands of the Chaldaeans, but will certainly be given up into the hands of the king of Babylon, and will have talk with him, mouth to mouth, and see him, eye to eye.

And Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

So Hanamel, the son of my father's brother, came to me, as the Lord had said, to the place of the armed watchmen, and said to me, Give the price and get my property which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: for you have the nearest relation's right to the heritage so get it for yourself. Then it was clear to me that this was the word of the Lord.

And I put it in writing, stamping it with my stamp, and I took witnesses and put the money into the scales.

And I gave the paper to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, before the eyes of Hanamel, the son of my father's brother, and of the witnesses who had put their names to the paper, and before all the Jews who were seated in the place of the armed watchmen.

This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Take these papers, the witness of this business, the one which is rolled up and stamped, and the one which is open and put them in a vessel of earth so that they may be kept for a long time.

Now after I had given the paper to Baruch, the son of Neriah, I made my prayer to the Lord, saying,

You have mercy on thousands, and send punishment for the evil-doing of the fathers on their children after them: the great, the strong God, the Lord of armies is his name:

You have done signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day, in Israel and among other men and have made a name for yourself as at this day

And have given them this land, which you gave your word to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey

See, they have made earthworks against the town to take it and the town is given into the hands of the Chaldaeans who are fighting against it, because of the sword and need of food and disease: and what you have said has taken place, and truly you see it.

And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

So this is what the Lord has said: See, I am giving this town into the hands of the Chaldaeans and into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, and he will take it:

For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my eyes from their earliest years: the children of Israel have only made me angry with the work of their hands, says the Lord.

Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to make me angry, they and their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem.

But they put their disgusting images into the house which is named by my name, making it unclean.

And now the Lord, the God of Israel, has said of this town, about which you say, It is given into the hands of the king of Babylon by the sword and by need of food and by disease:

And they will be my people, and I will be their God:

And I will make an eternal agreement with them, that I will never give them up, but ever do them good and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they will not go away from me.

For the Lord has said: As I have made all this great evil come on this people, so I will send on them all the good which I said about them.

Men will get fields for money, and put the business in writing, stamping the papers and having them witnessed, in the land of Benjamin and in the country round Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill-country and in the towns of the lowland and in the towns of the South: for I will let their fate be changed, says the Lord.

Now Bethany was near to Jerusalem, about two miles away

When Martha had the news that Jesus was on the way, she went out to him, but Mary did not go from the house.

But I am certain that, even now, whatever request you make to God, God will give it to you.

Martha said to him, I am certain that he will come to life again when all come back from the dead at the last day.

And no one who is living and has faith in me will ever see death. Is this your faith?

And having said this, she went away and said secretly to her sister Mary, The Master is here and has sent for you.

Now Jesus had not at this time come into the town, but was still in the place where Martha had seen him.

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she went down at his feet, saying, Lord, if you had been here my brother would not be dead.

And said, Where have you put him? They said, Come and see, Lord.

So the Jews said, See how dear he was to him!

So Jesus, deeply troubled in heart, came to the place of the dead. It was a hole in the rock, and a stone was over the opening.

Jesus said to her, Did I not say to you that if you had faith you would see the glory of God?

I was certain that your ears are at all times open to me, but I said it because of these who are here, so that they may see that you sent me.

And he who was dead came out, with linen bands folded tightly about his hands and feet, and a cloth about his face. Jesus said to them, Make him free and let him go.

But some of them went to the Pharisees with the news of what Jesus had done.

If we let him go on in this way, everybody will have belief in him and the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.

You do not see that it is in your interest for one man to be put to death for the people, so that all the nation may not come to destruction.

And not for that nation only, but for the purpose of uniting in one body the children of God all over the world.

So Jesus no longer went about publicly among the Jews, but went from there into the country near to the waste land, to a town named Ephraim, where he was for some time with the disciples.

They were looking for Jesus and saying to one another while they were in the Temple, What is your opinion? Will he not come to the feast?