I have loved thee with an everlasting love. God will bring Israel back, and Rachel's weeping will end. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant, writing the law on their hearts, and I will forgive their iniquity.
1 At the same time , saith the LORD , will I be the God of all the families of Israel , and they shall be my people .
2 Thus saith the LORD , The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness ; even Israel , when I went to cause him to rest .
3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love : therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built , O virgin of Israel : thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets , and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry .
5 Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria : the planters shall plant , and shall eat them as common things .
6 For there shall be a day , that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry , Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God .
7 For thus saith the LORD ; Sing with gladness for Jacob , and shout among the chief of the nations : publish ye, praise ye, and say , O LORD , save thy people , the remnant of Israel .
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country , and gather them from the coasts of the earth , and with them the blind and the lame , the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together : a great company shall return thither.
9 They shall come with weeping , and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way , wherein they shall not stumble : for I am a father to Israel , and Ephraim is my firstborn .
10 Hear the word of the LORD , O ye nations , and declare it in the isles afar off , and say , He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock .
11 For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob , and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion , and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD , for wheat , and for wine , and for oil , and for the young of the flock and of the herd : and their soul shall be as a watered garden ; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance , both young men and old together : for I will turn their mourning into joy , and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow .
14 And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness , and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness , saith the LORD .
15 Thus saith the LORD ; A voice was heard in Ramah , lamentation , and bitter weeping ; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children , because they were not.
16 Thus saith the LORD ; Refrain thy voice from weeping , and thine eyes from tears : for thy work shall be rewarded , saith the LORD ; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy .
17 And there is hope in thine end , saith the LORD , that thy children shall come again to their own border .
18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised , as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the LORD my God .
19 Surely after that I was turned , I repented ; and after that I was instructed , I smote upon my thigh : I was ashamed , yea, even confounded , because I did bear the reproach of my youth .
20 Is Ephraim my dear son ? is he a pleasant child ? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD .
21 Set thee up waymarks , make thee high heaps : set thine heart toward the highway , even the way which thou wentest : turn again , O virgin of Israel , turn again to these thy cities .
22 How long wilt thou go about , O thou backsliding daughter ? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth , A woman shall compass a man .
23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts , the God of Israel ; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity ; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice , and mountain of holiness .
24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together , husbandmen , and they that go forth with flocks .
25 For I have satiated the weary soul , and I have replenished every sorrowful soul .
26 Upon this I awaked , and beheld ; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
27 Behold, the days come , saith the LORD , that 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 it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up , and to break down , and to throw down , and to destroy , and to afflict ; so will I watch over them, to build , and to plant , saith the LORD .
29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape , and the children's teeth are set on edge .
30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity : every man that eateth the sour grape , his teeth shall be set on edge .
31 Behold, the days come , saith the LORD , that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel , and with the house of Judah :
32 Not according to the covenant 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 my covenant they brake , although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD :
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ; After those days , saith the LORD , I will put my law in their inward parts , and write it in their hearts ; and will be their God , and they shall be my people .
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour , and every man his brother , saying , Know the LORD : for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD : for I will forgive their iniquity , and I will remember their sin no more.
35 Thus saith the LORD , which giveth the sun for a light by day , and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night , which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar ; The LORD of hosts is his name :
36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD , then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever .
37 Thus saith the LORD ; If heaven above can be measured , and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath , I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done , saith the LORD .
38 Behold, the days come , saith the LORD , that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner .
39 And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb , and shall compass about to Goath .
40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies , and of the ashes , and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron , unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east , shall be holy unto the LORD ; it shall not be plucked up , nor thrown down any more for ever .