1“At that time,” declares Yahweh, “I will be God to all the clans of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2Thus says Yahweh: “The people who survived the sword found favor in the wilderness—Israel, as he went to give him rest.”
3From afar Yahweh appeared to me: “With an everlasting love I have loved you; therefore I have drawn you with loyal love.”
4Again I will build you, and you will be built, virgin Israel. Again you will adorn yourself with your tambourines and go out in the dance of the merrymakers.
5Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the planters will plant and will enjoy the fruit.
6For there will be a day when watchmen will call out on the hill country of Ephraim: ‘Rise, let us go up to Zion, to Yahweh our God.’
7For thus says Yahweh: “Sing aloud with joy for Jacob, and shout at the head of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel!’”
8Look, I am bringing them from the land of the north, and I will gather them from the remotest parts of the earth—among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is giving birth together—a great assembly; they will return here.
9With weeping they will come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them; I will guide them to streams of water, on a straight path where they will not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10Hear the word of Yahweh, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far off; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’
11For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from a hand too strong for him.
12They will come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they will stream to the goodness of Yahweh—over the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil, over the young of the flock and herd; their life will be like a well-watered garden, and they will never languish again.
13Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, young men and old alike; I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will comfort them and give them joy instead of their sorrow.
14I will saturate the throat of the priests with fatness, and my people will be filled to satisfaction with my goodness, declares Yahweh.
15Thus says Yahweh: “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.”
16Thus says Yahweh: “Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares Yahweh, and they will return from the land of the enemy.”
17“And there is hope for your future,” declares Yahweh, “and your children will return to their own territory.”
18I have surely heard Ephraim rocking in grief: ‘You disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may return, for you are Yahweh my God.’
19“For after my turning back I repented, and after I came to understand I struck my thigh; I was ashamed and also disgraced, for I bore the reproach of my youth.”
20Is Ephraim my precious son, or my delightful child? For as often as I speak against him, I still remember him fervently; therefore my inward parts yearn for him. I will surely have compassion on him, declares Yahweh.
21Set up road markers for yourself; put up guideposts; fix your heart on the highway, the way you went. Return, virgin Israel; return to these your cities.
22How long will you waver about, O faithless daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing on the earth: a woman will encompass a man.
23Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they will say this word in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes: ‘May Yahweh bless you, O abode of righteousness, O holy mountain.’”
24And Judah and all its cities will dwell in it together—farmers and those who move about with the flock.
25For I have saturated the weary soul, and every languishing soul I have filled.
26At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep had been sweet to me.
27“Look, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast.”
28“And it will be, just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear down, to overthrow and to destroy and to bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares Yahweh.
29In those days they will no longer say, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30Rather, each will die for his own iniquity; every person who eats the sour grapes—his own teeth will be set on edge.
31“Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
32not like the covenant that I cut with their fathers on the day I took hold of their hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt — my covenant that they themselves broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares Yahweh.
33“But this is the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh: “I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be God to them, and they themselves will be a people to me.
34And no longer will they teach, each his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares Yahweh, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
35Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for light by day, the fixed order of the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — Yahweh of Hosts is his name:
36“If these fixed orders depart from before me,” declares Yahweh, “then also the offspring of Israel will cease from being a nation before me all the days.”
37Thus says Yahweh: “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below can be searched out, then also I will reject all the offspring of Israel because of all that they have done,” declares Yahweh.
38“Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when the city will be rebuilt for Yahweh, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
39And the measuring line will yet go out, straight ahead over the hill of Gareb, and turn toward Goah.
40And the whole valley of the corpses and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Wadi Kidron, as far as the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, will be holy to Yahweh. It will not be uprooted or torn down again, forever.
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