1"At that time," says the LORD, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people."
2This is what the LORD says: "The people who were left alive from the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to give him rest."
3The LORD appeared to me long ago, saying, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. So with lovingkindness I have drawn you."
4"I will build you again, and you will be built, virgin of Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines, and go out in the dances of those who make merry."
5"You will yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will eat them as common things."
6"For there will be a day when the watchmen on Mount Ephraim will cry, 'Get up, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.'"
7For this is what the LORD says: "Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations. Make it known, give praise, and say, 'LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.'"
8"Look, I will bring them from the country of the north, and gather them from the ends of the earth. With them will come the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the woman in labour together. A great company will return there."
9"They will come with weeping, and with prayers I will lead them. I will make them walk by the rivers of water on a straight path, where they will not stumble. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn."
10"Hear the word of the LORD, you nations, and declare it in the islands far away. Say, 'He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd keeps his flock.'"
11"For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he."
12"So they will come and sing on the height of Zion. They will stream together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be like a watered garden, and they will sorrow no more at all."
13"Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, young men and old together. For I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them, and give them gladness instead of their sorrow."
14"I will fill the soul of the priests with rich food, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness," says the LORD.
15This is what the LORD says: "A voice was heard in Ramah, mourning and bitter weeping. Rachel was weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted for her children, because they were no more."
16This is what the LORD says: "Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears. For your work will be rewarded," says the LORD, "and they will come again from the land of the enemy."
17"And there is hope for your future," says the LORD, "that your children will come again to their own border."
18"I have surely heard Ephraim grieving to himself: 'You have corrected me, and I was corrected, like a young bull not used to the yoke. Turn me back, and I shall be turned, for you are the LORD my God.'"
19"'Surely after I was turned back, I repented. After I was taught, I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, humiliated, because I carried the disgrace of my youth.'"
20"Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For as often as I have spoken against him, I still remember him earnestly. So my heart is troubled for him. I will surely have mercy on him," says the LORD.
21"Set up road marks for yourself, make yourself high heaps of stones. Set your heart toward the highway, the very road you went. Turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these cities of yours."
22"How long will you wander about, you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall surround a man."
23This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Once again they will use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captives: 'The LORD bless you, home of justice, mountain of holiness.'"
24"And in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, there will live farmers and those who go out with flocks."
25"For I have satisfied the weary soul, and I have filled again every sorrowful soul."
26At this I woke up and looked, and my sleep had been sweet to me.
27"Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast."
28"And just as I watched over them to pull up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy and to bring trouble, so I will watch over them to build and to plant," says the LORD.
29"In those days they will no longer say, 'The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'"
30"But everyone will die for his own wrongdoing. Every man who eats the sour grape, his own teeth will be set on edge."
31"Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."
32"It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant of mine, although I was a husband to them," says the LORD.
33"But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the LORD: "I will put my law inside them, and write it in their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."
34"No longer will each man teach his neighbour, or each 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 iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
35This is what the LORD says, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the fixed orders of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divides the sea when its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is his name:
36"If those fixed orders ever depart from before me," says the LORD, "then the seed of Israel will also stop being a nation before me for ever."
37This is what the LORD says: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be searched out, then I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done," says the LORD.
38"Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when the city will be built for the LORD, from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner."
39"And the measuring line will go out further, straight on over the hill Gareb, and will turn round to Goath."
40"And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will never again be pulled up or thrown down, for ever."