This is what the LORD says:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
a lament with bitter weeping —
Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted for her children
because they are no more.
This is what the LORD says:
Keep your voice from weeping
and your eyes from tears,
for the reward for your work will come —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
and your children will return from the enemy’s land.
There is hope for your future —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
and your children will return to their own territory.
I have surely heard Ephraim moaning,
“You disciplined me, and I have been disciplined
like an untrained calf.
Take me back, so that I can return,
for you, LORD, are my God.
After my return, I felt regret;
After I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief.
I was ashamed and humiliated
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”
Isn’t Ephraim a precious son to me,
a delightful child?
Whenever I speak against him,
I certainly still think about him.
Therefore, my inner being yearns for him;
I will truly have compassion on him.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
Set up road markers for yourself;
establish signposts!
Keep the highway in mind,
the way you have traveled.
Return, Virgin Israel!
Return to these cities of yours.
How long will you turn here and there,
faithless daughter?
For the LORD creates something new in the land —
a female will shelter a man.
This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore their fortunes, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the LORD bless you, righteous settlement, holy mountain.’ Judah and all its cities will live in it together — also farmers and those who move with the flocks — for I satisfy the thirsty person and feed all those who are weak.”
At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.
“Look, the days are coming” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of people and the seed of animals. Just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear them down, to demolish and to destroy, and to cause disaster, so will I watch over them to build and to plant them” — this is the LORD’s declaration. “In those days, it will never again be said,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
Rather, each will die for his own iniquity. Anyone who eats sour grapes — his own teeth will be set on edge.
“Look, the days are coming” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt — my covenant that they broke even though I am their master” — the LORD’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” — the LORD’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them” — this is the LORD’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
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