1 AT that time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

2 Thus says the LORD: The people who escaped from the sword found compassion in the wilderness when Israel went into exile.

3 The LORD has appeared to me from afar, saying, Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you.

4 Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel; you shall again be adorned with your ornaments, and shall go forth in the assembly of those who make merry.

5 You shall again plant vineyards on the mountain of Samaria. Yea, you will plant vines and sing.

6 For the clay is coming when the watchmen on mount Ephraim shall cry, saying, Arise, and let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God.

7 For thus says the LORD: Sing with gladness, O house of Jacob, and rejoice among the chief of the nations; publish, give praise, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.

8 Behold, I will bring them from the north land, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and also the lame and the blind who are among them, the woman with child and her that is in travail together; a great company shall they return here.

9 They shall go with weeping, but they shall return with fervent prayer; I will lead them by the paths that have water, in straight ways in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.

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

11 For the LORD has saved his servant Jacob, and delivered him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

12 Therefore they shall come and sing on the height of Zion, and they shall be happy because of the goodness of the LORD, for the wheat, for the wine, and for the oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be like a watered garden; and they shall not lack any more.

13 Then shall the virgin rejoice and be glad, both young men and the 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 satisfy the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the LORD.

15 Thus says the LORD: A voice was heard in Ramtha, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel is weeping for her children, and she refuses to be comforted because they are not.

16 Thus says the LORD: Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your tears, says the LORD; and the people shall return from the land of the enemy.

17 And there is hope in your future, says the LORD, and the children shall come back to their own land.

18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning and saying, O LORD, thou hast chastised me, and I was chastened; I had become like a bullock which cannot be subdued; bring me back, and I will repent; for thou art the LORD my God.

19 Surely after I had repented, I have been comforted; and after I was instructed, I have found rest; I was ashamed, yea even reproved, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

20 Ephraim is my dear son, and a beloved child; for when I speak of him, I do earnestly remember him still; therefore I have my mercy upon him, I will surely have compassion on him, says the LORD.

21 Set up a standard for yourself, and dwell in the wilderness; set your heart towards the straight highway; repent, O virgin of Israel, says the LORD, and dwell in these your cities.

22 How long will you hesitate, O backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth, a woman shall love her husband.

23 Thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: From henceforth they shall use this saying in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring them back from their captivity: The LORD bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O holy mountain.

24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself and in all its cities together, farmers and shepherds of flocks.

25 For I have satisfied the thirsty soul and I have replenished every hungry soul.

26 This is why I awoke and beheld; and my sleep was sweet to me.

27 Behold 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 it shall come to pass that as I purposed against them, to uproot them and to break them down and to overthrow them and to destroy and to afflict; so will I be mindful of them, to build and to plant, says the LORD.

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

30 But every one shall die for his own sins; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

31 Behold, 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 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; and because they nullified my covenant, so I also despised them, says the LORD;

33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law in the midst of them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

34 And they shall teach no more every man his brother and every man his neighbor, saying, Know the LORD; for they shall all know me, from the youngest of them to the eldest of them, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more.

35 Thus says the LORD, who has ordained the sun for a light by day and the moon and the stars for a light by night, who rebukes the sea and stills its waves; the LORD of hosts is his name;

36 If those ordinances depart from before me, says the LORD, then the descendants of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.

37 Thus says the LORD: If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below explored, then I will also reject all the descendants of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD.

38 Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananael to the gate of the corner.

39 And the measuring line shall go forth straight upon the hill Gareb, and shall curve about to Goath.

40 And the whole valley in which they dump refuse and ashes, as far as the brook Kidron and as far as the corner of the horse gate towards the east, shall be holy to the LORD; it shall not be uprooted nor demolished any more for ever.