1 “At that time,” says Yehovah, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2 Yehovah says, “The people who survive the sword found favor in the backcountry; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”
3 Yehovah appeared of old to me, saying,
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
4 I will build you again,
and you will be built, O virgin of Israel.
You will again be adorned with your tambourines,
and will go out in the dances of those who make merry.
5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria.
The planters will plant,
and will enjoy its fruit.
6 For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry,
‘Arise! Let’s go up to Zion to Yehovah our God.’”
7 For Yehovah says,
“Sing with gladness for Jacob,
and shout for the chief of the nations.
Publish, praise, and say,
‘Yehovah, save your people,
the remnant of Israel!’
8 Look, I will bring them from the north country,
and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth,
along with the blind and the lame,
the woman with child and her who travails with child together.
They will return as a great company.
9 They will come with weeping.
I will lead them with petitions.
I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters,
in a straight way in which they won’t stumble;
for I am a father to Israel.
Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 “Hear Yehovah’s word, you nations,
and declare it in the distant islands. Say,
‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.’
11 For Yehovah has ransomed Jacob,
and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 They will come and sing in the height of Zion,
and will flow to the goodness of Yehovah,
to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil,
and to the young of the flock and of the herd.
Their soul will be as a watered garden.
They will not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance;
the young men and the old together;
for I will turn their mourning into joy,
and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness,
and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yehovah.
15 Yehovah says:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.”
16 Yehovah says:
“Refrain your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears;
for your work will be rewarded,” says Yehovah.
“They will come again from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your latter end,” says Yehovah.
“Your children will come again to their own territory.
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus,
‘You have chastised me,
and I was chastised, as an untrained calf.
Turn me, and I will be turned;
for you are Yehovah my God.
19 Surely after that I was turned.
I repented.
After that I was instructed.
I struck my thigh.
I was ashamed, yes, even confounded,
because I carried the reproach of my youth.’
20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he a darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I still earnestly remember him.
therefore my heart yearns for him.
I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yehovah.
21 “Set up road signs.
Make guideposts.
Set your heart toward the highway,
even the way by which you went.
Turn again, virgin of Israel.
Turn again to these your cities.
22 How long will you go here and there,
you backsliding daughter?
For Yehovah has created a new thing in the earth:
a woman will encompass a man.”
23 Yehovah of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘Yehovah bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’ 24 Judah and all its cities will dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks. 25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
26 On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 “Behold, the days come,” says Yehovah, “that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of animal. 28 It will happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” says Yehovah. 29 “In those days they will say no more,
“‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
31 “Behold, the days come,” says Yehovah,
“that I will make a new contract with the house of Israel,
and with the house of Judah:
32 not according to the contract 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 contract of mine they broke,
although I was a husband to them,” says Yehovah.
33 “But this is the contract that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,”
says Yehovah:
I will put my law in their inward parts,
and I will write it in their heart.
I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
34 They will no longer each teach his neighbor,
and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yehovah;’
for they will all know Me,
from their least to their greatest,” says Yehovah:
“for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more.”
35 Yehovah, who gives the sun for a light by day,
and the edicts of the moon and of the stars for a light by night,
who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar;
Yehovah of Armies is his name, says:
36 “If these edicts depart from before me,” says Yehovah,
“then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me forever.”
37 Yehovah says: “If heaven above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” says Yehovah.
38 “Behold, the days come,” says Yehovah, “that the city will be built to Yehovah from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. 39 The measuring line will go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and will turn toward Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, will be holy to Yehovah. It will not be plucked up or thrown down any more to a distant age.”