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 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 as often as I speak 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 guide-posts: set thine 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 the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall encompass a man.
23. Thus saith the Lord 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: The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, 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 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 overthrow 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 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 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.