Chapter
31
At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
Thus says Yahweh, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause her to rest.
Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again shall you be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.
Again shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit of it.
For there shall be a day, that the watchwomen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise you, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.
For thus says Yahweh, Sing with gladness for Jacoba, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish you, praise you, and say, Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel.
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 man with child and him who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.
They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a mother to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
Hear the word of Yahweh, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, She who scattered Israel will gather her, and keep her, as shepherd does her flock.
For Yahweh has ransomed Jacoba, and redeemed her from the hand of her who was stronger than she.
They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, 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.
Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young women and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Yahweh.
Thus says Yahweh: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for his children; he refuses to be comforted for his children, because they are no more.
Thus says Yahweh: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
There is hope for your latter end, says Yahweh; and your children shall come again to their own border.
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning herself thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
Is Ephraim my dear daughter? is she a darling child? for as often as I speak against her, I do earnestly remember her still: therefore my heart yearns for her; I will surely have mercy on her, says Yahweh.
Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.
How long will you go here and there, you backsliding son? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a man shall encompass a woman.
Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities of it, when I shall bring again their captivity: Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.
Judah and all the cities of it shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.
For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished.
On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of woman, and with the seed of animal.
It shall happen 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, says Yahweh.
In those days they shall say no more, The mothers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.
But everyone shall die for her own iniquity: every woman who eats the sour grapes, her teeth shall be set on edge.
Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
not according to the covenant that I made with their mothers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a wife to them, says Yahweh.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: 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:
and they shall teach no more every woman her neighbor, and every woman her sister, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar; Yahweh of Armies is her name:
If these ordinances depart from before me, says Yahweh, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.
Thus says Yahweh: 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, says Yahweh.
Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that the city shall be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.
The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah.
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, shall be holy to Yahweh; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.