I will make a lasting covenant ¹  with them that I will never stop doing good to them. ²  I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that ³  they will never again turn ⁴  away from me.

But I, the Lord, make the following promise: ¹  I have made a covenant governing the coming of day and night. I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth.

All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. ¹ 

“The Lord God of Israel has a message for you. ¹  ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors ²  when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. ³  It stipulated, ⁴ 

They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it. They will come ¹  and bind themselves to the Lord in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ² 

Then you will remember your conduct, and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on account of my covenant with you.

“‘As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, surely in the city ¹  of the king who crowned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke – in the middle of Babylon he will die!

“‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and will rid the land of wild beasts, so that they can live securely ¹  in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods. ² 

When you bring foreigners, those uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, into my sanctuary, you desecrate ¹  it – even my house – when you offer my food, the fat and the blood. You ²  have broken my covenant by all your abominable practices.

I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way: “O Lord, ¹  great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant ²  with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Then the king of the north ¹  will return to his own land with much property. His mind will be set against the holy covenant. He will take action, and then return to his own land.

Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites! ¹  For the Lord has a covenant lawsuit ²  against the people of Israel. ³  For there is neither faithfulness nor loyalty in the land, nor do they acknowledge God. ⁴ 

This is what the Lord says: “Because Israel has committed three covenant transgressions ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  They sold the innocent ⁴  for silver, the needy for a pair of sandals. ⁵ 

“Certainly when ¹  I punish Israel for their ²  covenant transgressions, ³  I will destroy ⁴  Bethel’s ⁵  altars. The horns ⁶  of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground.

“My covenant with him was designed to bring life and peace. I gave its statutes to him to fill him with awe, and he indeed revered me and stood in awe before me.

You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; ¹  you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” ²  says the Lord who rules over all.

Do we not all have one father? ¹  Did not one God create us? Why do we betray one another, in this way making light of the covenant of our ancestors?

He said, “See, I am going to make ¹  a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done ²  in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you. ³ 

Moreover, you must season every one of your grain offerings with salt; you must not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be missing from your grain offering ¹  – on every one of your grain offerings you must present salt.

In spite of this, however, when they are in the land of their enemies I will not reject them and abhor them to make a complete end of them, to break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.