1At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be
the God of all the families of Israel, and they
shall be my people.
2Thus saith the LORD, The people which
were left of the sword found grace in the
wilderness; even Israel,
when I went to cause him to rest.
3The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying,
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
4Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be
built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be
adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the
dances of them that make merry.
5Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the
mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and
shall eat them as
common things.
6For there shall be a day, that the
watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye,
and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.
7For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness
for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations:
publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy
people, the remnant of Israel.
8Behold, I will bring them from the north
country, and gather them from the coasts of the
earth, and with
them the blind and the lame, the woman with child
and her that travaileth with child together: a great
company shall return thither.
9They shall come with weeping, and with
supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to
walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way,
wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to
Israel, and Ephraim is my
firstborn.
10Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations,
and declare it in
the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered
Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his
flock.
11For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and
ransomed him from the hand of him
that was stronger than he.
12Therefore they shall come and sing in the
height of Zion, and shall flow together to the
goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and
for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the
herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden;
and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance,
both young men and old together: for I will turn
their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and
make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14And I will satiate the soul of the priests
with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with
my goodness, saith the LORD.
15Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in
Ramah, lamentation, and bitter
weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to
be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from
weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work
shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall
come again from the land of the enemy.
17And there is hope in thine end, saith the
LORD, that thy children shall come again to their
own border.
18I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself thus;
Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a
bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned;
for thou art the
LORD my God.
19Surely after that I was turned, I repented;
and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh:
I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did
bear the reproach of my youth.
20Is Ephraim
my dear son? is
he a pleasant child? for since I spake against
him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my
bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have
mercy upon him, saith the LORD.
21Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps:
set thine heart toward the highway, even the
way which thou
wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again
to these thy cities.
22How long wilt thou go about, O thou
backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a
new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
23Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the
land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I
shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless
thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain
of holiness.
24And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and
in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and
they that go
forth with flocks.
25For I have satiated the weary soul, and I
have replenished every sorrowful soul.
26Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my
sleep was sweet unto me.
27Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
I will sow the house of Israel and the house of
Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of
beast.
28And it shall come to pass, that like
as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to
break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and
to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and
to plant, saith the LORD.
29In those days they shall say no more, The
fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's
teeth are set on edge.
30But every one shall die for his own
iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his
teeth shall be set on edge.
31Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel,
and with the house of Judah:
32Not according to the covenant that I made
with their fathers in the day that I
took them by the hand to bring them out of the land
of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I
was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33But this shall
be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will
put my law in their inward parts, and write it in
their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall
be my people.
34And they shall teach no more every man his
neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least
of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD:
for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more.
35Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun
for a light by day, and the
ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light
by night, which divideth the sea when the waves
thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his
name:
36If those ordinances depart from before me,
saith the LORD, then the
seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation
before me for ever.
37Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be
measured, and the foundations of the earth searched
out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of
Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
38Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that
the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower
of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.
39And the measuring line shall yet go forth
over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall
compass about to Goath.
40And the whole valley of the dead bodies,
and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook
of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward
the east, shall
be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked
up, nor thrown down any more for ever.