1 "At that time, declares the LORD, I will be God to all the clans of Israel, and they will be a people to me."
2 Thus says the LORD: "A people that escaped the sword found favor in the wilderness, Israel, when it went to find rest."
3 From far away the LORD appeared to me: "With an everlasting love I have loved you; therefore I have drawn you with steadfast love.
4 I will build you again, and you will be built, virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out in the dance of the merrymakers.
5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; planters will plant and enjoy the fruit.
6 For there is a day when watchmen will call out on Mount Ephraim, 'Get up, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God!'"
7 For thus says the LORD: "Shout with joy for Jacob, and cry out at the head of the nations; announce, praise and say, 'Save, O LORD, your people, the remnant of Israel!'
8 See, I am bringing them from the land of the north and gathering them from the remote parts of the earth, the blind and the lame among them, the woman with child and the one giving birth, together; a great assembly, they will return here.
9 With weeping they will come, and with supplications I will lead them; I will bring them to streams of water by a level road on which they will not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 "Hear the word of the LORD, you nations, and announce it in the distant coastlands; say, 'The one who scattered Israel will gather him and guard him as a shepherd guards his flock.'
11 For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand of one too strong for him.
12 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion, and they will stream to the goodness of the LORD, to the grain, the new wine and the oil, and to the young of flock and herd; their soul will be like a well-watered garden, and they will not languish anymore.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, young men and old men together; I will turn their mourning into gladness, comfort them, and make them rejoice after their grief.
14 I will drench the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be filled with my goodness, declares the LORD."
15 Thus says the LORD: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping most bitter: Rachel weeping for her sons; she refuses to be comforted for her sons, because they are no more."
16 Thus says the LORD: "Hold back your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your labor will be rewarded, declares the LORD; they will come back from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your latter end, declares the LORD; your sons will come back to their own borders.
18 "I have clearly heard Ephraim grieving: 'You disciplined me, and I took the discipline, like a calf not trained to the yoke. Turn me back, and I will turn back, for you are the LORD my God.
19 For after I turned away, I relented; and after I came to know myself, I slapped my thigh. I was ashamed and humiliated too, because I carried the reproach of my youth.'
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a child of delight? For as often as I speak against him, I remember him still; so my bowels yearn for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the LORD.
21 "Set up road signs for yourself; put up guideposts; set your mind on the highway, the way you went. Come back, virgin Israel, come back to these your towns.
22 How long will you turn this way and that, you turning-away daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land: a woman will encompass a man."
23 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Again they will say this word in the land of Judah and in its towns, when I restore their fortunes: 'May the LORD bless you, dwelling of righteousness, holy mountain!'
24 Judah and all its towns will live in it together, the farmers and those who travel with the flocks.
25 For I satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I fill."
26 Upon this I woke and looked, and my sleep had been pleasant to me.
27 "The days are coming, declares the LORD, 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 just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, to overthrow, destroy and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD.
29 In those days they will no more say, 'The fathers ate sour grapes, and the sons' teeth are set on edge.'
30 Rather, each will die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
31 "The days are coming, declares 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 I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was a husband to them, declares the LORD.
33 But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 No longer will each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
35 Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun as light by day, the statutes of moon and stars as light by night, who stirs the sea so that its waves roar, the LORD of hosts is his name:
36 "If these statutes ever give way before me, declares the LORD, then the seed of Israel too will cease from being a nation before me for all time."
37 Thus says the LORD: "If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be explored, then I too will reject all the seed of Israel for all they have done, declares the LORD."
38 "See, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city will be built for the LORD, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
39 The measuring line will go out again, straight on over the hill Gareb, and it will turn to Goah.
40 And the whole valley of corpses and ashes, and all the fields up to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate on the east, will be holy to the LORD; it will not be uprooted or thrown down again forever."