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So there is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children will return to their own land.
Jeremiah 31:17 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB There is hope for your latter end,” says Yahweh; “and your children shall come again to their own border.
  • KJV And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
  • NKJV There is hope in your future, says the Lord, That your children shall come back to their own border.
  • NASB “There is hope for your future,” declares the Lord, “And your children will return to their own territory.
  • NLT There is hope for your future,” says the Lord. “Your children will come again to their own land.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God promises hope for Israel's future, that her children will return to their own border. There is a hopeful end beyond present sorrow.

Overview

The explicit promise of 'hope for your latter end' answers Rachel's grief with the certainty of return. God's restoration secures a future for His people beyond their loss. This forward-looking hope mirrors the believer's confidence that God works all things toward a good and final restoration.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 16

  • Lam 3:21Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:
  • Hos 3:5Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.
  • Lam 3:26It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
  • Jer 29:11–16For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
  • Hos 2:15There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
  • Lam 3:18So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
  • Rom 11:23–26And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
  • Ezek 37:25They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever.
  • Isa 11:11–16On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
  • Matt 24:22If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.
  • Isa 6:13And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”
  • Jer 46:27–28But you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid, and do not be dismayed, O Israel. For I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return to quiet and ease, with no one to make him afraid.
  • Ps 102:13–14You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show her favor—the appointed time has come.
  • Amos 9:8–9Surely the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the LORD.
  • Ezek 37:11–14Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
  • Ezek 39:28Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, when I regather them to their own land, not leaving any of them behind after their exile among the nations.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Jeremiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Jeremiah 31:17YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JeremiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.

How Jeremiah 31:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.