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Chapter 31 |
| 1 | At the same
time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they
shall be my people. |
| 2 | Thus saith the LORD, The people which were
left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to
cause him to rest. |
| 3 | The LORD hath appeared of old unto me,
saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with
lovingkindness have I drawn thee. |
| 4 | Again I will build thee, and
thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy
tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. |
| 5 |
Thou shalt 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 the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up
to Zion unto the LORD our God. |
|
7 | For thus saith the LORD; Sing with
gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye,
praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. |
| 8 |
Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the
coasts 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 return
thither. |
| 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, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim
is my firstborn. |
|
10 | Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and
declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather
him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. |
| 11 | For the LORD
hath 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 wheat, 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 satiate the soul
of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
saith the LORD. |
|
15 | Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah,
lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be
comforted for her children, because they were not. |
| 16 | Thus saith
the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy
work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land
of the enemy. |
|
17 | And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD,
that 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 bullock 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 since
I spake 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 high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway,
even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to
these thy cities. |
| 22 | How long wilt thou go about, O thou
backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A
woman shall compass a man. |
|
23 | Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God
of Israel; As yet they shall 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, and mountain of holiness. |
| 24 | And there
shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together,
husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. |
| 25 | For I have
satiated 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, 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 throw down, 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 a
sour grape, 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 grape, 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: |
|
33 | But this shall be the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel; After those days, saith 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 neighbour, 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, saith the LORD:
for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
|
| 35 | Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the
ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth
the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: |
| 36 |
If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of
Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. |
| 37 | Thus
saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the
earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all
that they have done, saith the LORD. |
| 38 | Behold, the days come, saith
the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel
unto the gate of the corner. |
|
39 | And the measuring line shall yet go
forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to
Goath. |
| 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 for ever. |
