31:1 At the same time, saith the LORD, I will be the God of all
the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
31:2 Thus saith the LORD, The people [who were] left by the
sword found grace in the wilderness; [even] Israel, when I went
to cause him to rest.
31:3 The LORD appeared of old to me, [saying], I have loved thee
with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I
drawn thee.
31:4 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.
31:5 Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria:
the planters shall plant, and shall eat [them] as common
things.
31:6 For there shall be a day, [that] the watchmen upon the
mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion to
the LORD our God.
31:7 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.
31:8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and
gather them from the borders 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.
31:9 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 first-born.
31:10 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.
31:11 For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from
the hand of [him that was] stronger than he.
31:12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the hight 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.
31:13 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.
31:14 And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the
LORD.
31:15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah,
lamentation, [and] bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her
children refused to be comforted for her children, because they
[were] not.
31:16 Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and
thy eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the
LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
31:17 And there is hope in thy end, saith the LORD, that thy
children shall come again to their own border.
31:18 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.
31:19 Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was
instructed, I smote upon [my] thigh: I was ashamed, and even
confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.
31:20 [Is] Ephraim my dear son? [is he] a pleasant child? for
since I spoke 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.
31:21 Set thee up way-marks, make thee high heaps: set thy heart
towards the highway, [even] the way [which] thou wentest; turn
again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
31:22 How long wilt thou wander about, O thou backsliding
daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A
woman shall compass a man.
31:23 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet
they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in her
cities, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD
bless thee, O habitation of justice, mountain of holiness.
31:24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all her
cities together, husbandmen, and they [that] go forth with
flocks.
31:25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished
every sorrowful soul.
31:26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet to
me.
31:27 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.
31:28 And it shall come to pass, [that] 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.
31:29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have
eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.
31:30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man
that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31:31 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:
31:32 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 broke,
although I was a husband to them, saith the LORD:
31:33 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.
31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and
every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall
all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,
saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will
remember their sin no more.
31:35 Thus saith the LORD, who giveth the sun for a light by
day, [and] the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a
light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The
LORD of hosts [is] his name:
31:36 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.
31:37 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.
31:38 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall
be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of
the corner.
31:39 And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it
upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath.
31:40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes,
and all the fields to the brook of Kidron, to the corner of the
horse-gate towards the east, [shall be] holy to the LORD; it
shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.
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