1. At the same time,
2. Thus says the LORD,
3. The LORD has appeared of old unto me, saying,
4. Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: you shall again be adorned with your timbrels, and shall go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
5. You shall 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 mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.
7. For thus says the LORD;
8. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travails with child together: a great company shall return there.
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, in which they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10. Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the coastlands afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.
11. For the LORD has 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 grain, 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 fill to the full the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the LORD.
15. Thus says the LORD;
16. Thus says the LORD; Restrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17. And there is hope in your end, says the LORD, that your children shall come again to their own border.
18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: restore me, and I shall return; for you are the LORD my God.
19. Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck myself upon the 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 spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart is troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him,
21. Set up signposts, make yourself landmarks: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.
22. How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter? for the LORD has created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall protect a man.
23. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel;
24. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers, and they that go forth with flocks.
25. For I have fully satisfied 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, says 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 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, says 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 everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31. Behold, the days come, says 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; my covenant which they broke, although I was a husband unto them, says the LORD:
33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says 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 neighbor, 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,
35. Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the fixed order of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divides the sea when its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
36. If those fixed orders depart from before me,
37. Thus says the LORD;
38. Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that the city shall be built for the LORD from the tower of Hananel unto the gate of the corner.
39. And the measuring line shall yet go straight over to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah.
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 forever.