| 1 At that time, saith Jehovah, will I be the God of all the families
of Israel, and they shall be my people. 2 Thus saith Jehovah, The people
that were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when
I went to cause him to rest. 3 Jehovah appeared of old unto me,
saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore
with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. 4 Again will I build thee, and thou
shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: again shalt thou be adorned with thy
tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. 5 Again
shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall
plant, and shall enjoy the fruit thereof. 6 For there shall be a
day, that the watchmen upon the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let
us go up to Zion unto Jehovah our God. 7 For thus saith Jehovah, Sing with
gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish ye,
praise ye, and say, O Jehovah, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from
the uttermost parts 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 they return hither. 9 They shall come with weeping;
and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers
of waters, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a
father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born. 10 Hear the word of
Jehovah, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off; and say, He that
scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd doth his flock.
11 For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him
that was stronger than he. 12 And they shall come and sing in the height
of Zion, and shall flow unto the goodness of Jehovah, to the grain, and to
the new wine, and to the oil, and to 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, and the 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
satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be
satisfied with my goodness, saith Jehovah. 15 Thus saith Jehovah: A voice
is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her
children; she refuseth to be comforted for her children, because they are
not. 16 Thus saith Jehovah: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes
from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith Jehovah; and they shall
come again from the land of the enemy. 17 And there is hope for thy latter
end, saith Jehovah; and 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 calf unaccustomed to
the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art Jehovah 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 darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly
remember him still: therefore my heart yearneth for him; I will surely have
mercy upon him, saith Jehovah. 21 Set thee up waymarks, make thee
guide-posts; set thy heart toward the highway, even the way by which thou
wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
22 How long wilt thou go hither and thither, O thou backsliding daughter?
for Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a
man. 23 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Yet again shall
they use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I
shall bring again their captivity: Jehovah bless thee, O habitation of
righteousness, O mountain of holiness. 24 And Judah and all the cities
thereof shall dwell therein together, the husbandmen, and they that go about
with flocks. 25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful
soul have I replenished. 26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep
was sweet unto me. 27 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, 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 overthrow and to
destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant,
saith Jehovah. 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 iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grapes,
his teeth shall be set on edge. 31 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,
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 a husband unto them,
saith Jehovah. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward
parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people: 34 and they shall teach no more every man his
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all
know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for
I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
35 Thus saith Jehovah, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the
ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirreth up
the sea, so that the waves thereof roar; Jehovah of hosts is his name:
36 If these ordinances depart from before me, saith Jehovah, then the seed
of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 37 Thus
saith Jehovah: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the
earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel
for all that they have done, saith Jehovah. 38 Behold, the days come,
saith Jehovah, that the city shall be built to Jehovah from the tower of
Hananel unto the gate of the corner. 39 And the measuring line shall go
out further straight onward unto the hill Gareb, and shall turn about unto
Goah. 40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all
the fields unto the brook Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward
the east, shall be holy unto Jehovah; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown
down any more for ever.
Genesis - Public
Domain
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