Mourning Turned to Joy
1 “At that time,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2 The Lord says,
“The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness,
when Israel sought rest.”
3 From ancient times, the Lord appeared to Israel, saying,
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
4 I will build you again, and you will be built,
O virgin of Israel.
You will again be adorned with your tambourines
and will go out in the dances with those who celebrate.
5 You will plant vineyards again on the mountains of Samaria.
The planters will plant and will enjoy its fruit.
6 For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry,
‘Arise! Let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God.’ ”
7 For the Lord says,
“Sing with gladness for Jacob
and shout for the chief of the nations.
Publish, praise, and say,
‘O Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel!’
8 I will bring them from the north country
and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth,
along with the blind and the lame,
the woman with child and she who labors with child together.
They will return as a great company.
9 They will come with weeping.
I will lead them with petitions.
I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters,
in a straight way in which they will not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel.
Ephraim is my firstborn.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, you nations
and declare it in the distant islands. Say:
“He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him,
as a shepherd does his flock.
11 For the Lord has ransomed Jacob
and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 They will come and sing in the height of Zion
and will flow to the goodness of God,
to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil,
and to the young of the flock and of the herd.
Their soul will be like a watered garden.
They will no longer mourn any more at all.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice with dancing,
the young men and the old together,
for I will turn their mourning into joy
and will give them comfort joy for their sorrow.
14 The soul of the priests, I will satiate with fatness,
and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says the Lord.
15 The Lord says:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.”
16 The Lord says:
“Refrain your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,” says the Lord.
“They will come back from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your future,” says the Lord.
“Your children will return to their own territory.
18 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus,
‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised,
like an untrained calf.
Restore me, and I will be restored,
for you are the Lord my God.
19 After I returned, I repented.
After that I was instructed.
I struck my thigh.
I was ashamed, yes, confounded,
because I bore 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 still earnestly remember him.
Therefore my heart yearns for him.
I will surely have mercy on him,” says the Lord.
21 “Set up road signs.
Make guideposts.
Set your heart toward the highway,
the way by which you went.
Turn back, virgin of Israel.
Turn back to these your cities.
22 How long will you go here and there,
you backsliding daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth,
like a woman protecting a man.”
23 The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘The Lord bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’ 24 Judah and all its cities will dwell in it together, the farmers and those who go about with flocks. 25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful heart.”
A New Covenant
26 On this I awakened and saw and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 “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 animal. 28 It will happen that, as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” says the Lord.
29 “In those days they will no longer say,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.
31 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 It will not be 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 covenant of mine they broke,
although I was a husband to them,” says the Lord.
33 “But this is 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 I will write it in their heart.
I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
34 They will no longer each teach his neighbor
and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they will all know me,
from their least to their greatest,” says the Lord,
“for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more.”
35 The Lord, who gives the sun as a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars as a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar. The Lord of Hosts is his name, says:
36 “If these ordinances depart from before me,” says the Lord,
“then the offspring of Israel also will cease
from being a nation before me forever.”
37 The Lord says:
“If heaven above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,” says the Lord.
38 “The days are coming,” says the Lord, “when the city will be rebuilt to the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. 39 The measuring line will once again stretch out to the hill Gareb and will turn toward Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, will be holy to the Lord. It will never again be uprooted or cast down.”