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Vulgate: Jeremiah: Jeremiah Chapter 31

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This is Jeremiah 31 in the Latin Vulgate Bible, a prophetic poem in the tradition of Hebrew restoration oracles addressed to the exiled northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. The passage proclaims God's unconditional intention to gather scattered Israel from the far north and ends of the earth, leading the blind, lame, and pregnant home in weeping and mercy, restoring agricultural abundance and communal joy. A central and theologically distinctive passage is the promise of a "new covenant" (foedus novum, vv. 31–34), which explicitly breaks from the Sinai covenant: rather than law written on tablets, God will inscribe the law on human hearts, making external instruction unnecessary because every person, from least to greatest, will know God directly. Equally striking is the insistence on individual rather than inherited accountability (v. 29–30), overturning the proverb about fathers eating sour grapes while children suffer the consequences. The text also includes the famous lament of Rachel weeping for her lost children (v. 15), immediately countered by divine reassurance that exile is not permanent and return is certain. The oracle closes with cosmic guarantees of Israel's permanence—as unshakeable as the sun, moon, and sea—and a vision of an expanded, holy, indestructible Jerusalem.

Vulgate: Jeremiah: Jeremiah Chapter 31

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