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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.
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