1 ¶ At the same time, the LORD says, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.

2 The LORD says, The people who escaped the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest.

3 The LORD has appeared to him from afar, saying, Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.

4 I will again build you, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel: you will again be adorned with tambourines, and will go out dancing with happy people.

5 You will yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters will plant, and will eat them as common fare.

6 For there will be a day, when the watchmen on mount Ephraim will cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God.

7 For the LORD says; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: proclaim praise, and say, O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the distant places of the earth, and the blind and the lame will be among them, the woman with child and she who labors in childbirth together: a great company will return here.

9 They will come with weeping, and plead for pardon as I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters on a level road, on which they will not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

10 ¶ Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.

11 For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

12 Therefore they will come and sing on Zion’s height, and will flow together to enjoy the good things from the LORD, fresh grain, wine, oil, lambs from the flock and calves: and their soul will be like a watered garden; and they will no longer grow weak from hunger.

13 Then the virgin will delight in dancing, young men and old happy together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them glad after their sorrow.

14 And I will satisfy the priests with abundance, and my people will be satisfied with my good things, says the LORD.

15 The LORD says; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel is weeping for her children and refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.

16 The LORD says; Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for you will be rewarded for your labor, says the LORD; and they will return from the land of the enemy.

17 There is hope for your future, says the LORD, your children will come back to their own country.

18 ¶ I have surely heard Ephraim weeping over himself thus; You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like a young bull unaccustomed to the yoke: turn me, and I will be turned; for you are the LORD my God.

19 Surely after I turned away, I repented; and after I was taught, I struck my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even humiliated, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.

20 Isn’t Ephraim my dear son? Isn’t he a delightful child? for whenever I speak against him, I continue to cherish him in my memory: therefore my heart yearns for him; and I will surely have mercy upon him, says the LORD.

21 Set up highway markers, make yourself guideposts: keep in mind the highway, the road on which you went away: come back, O virgin of Israel, come back to these your cities.

22 How long will you turn this way and that, O you backsliding daughter? for the LORD has created a new thing on the earth, A woman will woo and win a man.

23 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel says this; Once again they will use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring them back from exile; The LORD bless you, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.

24 And Judah itself, and all its cities will dwell there together, with the farmers, and those who go out with their flocks.

25 For I will satisfy the thirsty soul, and I will feed the starving soul.

26 Thereupon I awoke, and looked around; my sleep had been sweet to me.

27 ¶ Behold, the days come, says the LORD, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of men, and with the seed of cattle.

28 And it will come to pass, that just as I have watched over them, to pluck up, tear down, wreck, ruin, and afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, says the LORD.

29 In those days they will no longer say, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.

30 But every one will die for his own sin: every man who eats the sour grapes, will have his own teeth set on edge.

31 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

32 Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers at the time that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; my covenant that they broke, although I was a husband to them, says the LORD:

33 But this will be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they will be my people.

34 And they will no longer each instruct his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I will forgive their wrongdoing, and I will not remember their sin any longer.

35 ¶ The LORD, who makes the sun shine during the day, and directs the moon and the stars to provide light by night, who divides the sea when its waves roar; whose name is the LORD of hosts, says this:

36 If these things cease to take place before me, says the LORD, then the seed of Israel will also forever cease being a nation before me.

37 The LORD says; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also discard all the descendants of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD.

38 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, when the city will be rebuilt to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner.

39 And the measuring line will go out further, onward to the hill Gareb, and will then turn to Goath.

40 And the whole valley with its dead bodies, and ashes, and all the fields to the brook of Kidron, as far as the corner of the horse gate to the east, will be holy to the LORD; it will never be pulled up, or thrown down again.