The Israelites will come back
1The Lord says:
‘On that day I will be
the God of all the Israelites,
and they will be my people.’
2The Lord also says:
‘The people who did not die in the war
found mercy in the desert.
I helped them.
The Israelites will come
and they will live safely and rest.’
3The Lord came to his people who were far away from Him and He said:
‘I loved you and I will love you forever.
You belong to Me and I will
hold on to you and show that I am faithful.
4Israelites, you will have children again,
and I will make you a strong nation.
You will again play tambourines
and dance with other people who are happy.
5You will plant vineyards again
on the mountains of Samaria.
The farmers will plant them
and they will eat the first grapes.
6Yes, the day will come when the guards
on the hills of Samaria shout and say:
“Let's go to Jerusalem,
to the Lord our God.” ’
7Yes, the Lord says:
‘You must be happy and sing,
and rejoice over the people of Jacob,
the greatest of all nations.
You must sing loudly and praise the Lord
so that all people can hear it.
You must say: “Lord, please save your people.
Save the Israelites who are still_alive.”
8I will bring my people
from the land in the north.
I will bring them together
from all the far away places on earth.
Some of them will be blind or crippled,
some women will be expecting babies
and some will be going
to have babies very soon.
9They will cry and pray that I must
come and help and bring them back.
I will bring them back to streams of water
on a road that is easy to walk on
where they will not stumble and fall.
I am Israel's Father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn son.’
10‘Nations, you must listen
to what the Lord says.
You must tell it to everyone
in the lands far away near the sea,
and you must say: “The Lord who chased away
the Israelites and made them flee
will bring them back again.
He will take care of them
like a shepherd cares
for his own flock of sheep.”
11Because the Lord has paid
to save the descendants of Jacob
and to free them from someone
who was stronger than they were.
12The Israelites will come
and sing on the high Mount_Zion.
They will be happy about all the good things
that the Lord gives them: wheat,
wine, olive oil, lambs and calves.
They will be like gardens with a lot of water,
and they will not become thirsty again.
13Then the young women will be happy
and rejoice and dance again,
and the young men and old men
will dance with them.
I will change their mourning
and they will rejoice.
I will change their lives.
They were sad, but I will make them happy.
14I will give a lot of good food
to the priests who are hungry.
I will give my people enough food to eat,
and good things that I want to give them.’
This is what the Lord said. 15The Lord also says:
‘Someone is crying in the
town of Ramah. She is very sad.
It is Rachel crying because of her children.
She does not want anyone to comfort her,
and she cries because her children are gone.’
16The Lord says: ‘Stop crying,
and stop the tears that flow from your eyes.
I will reward you for what you have done.’
This is what the Lord says:
‘Your children will come back
from the land of the enemies.
17And you will know that
good things will come to you.
Your children will come back to their land.’
This is what the Lord says.
18Ephraim begs and says:
‘Lord, You have punished me,
and You have beaten me like they
beat a calf that does not obey.
Please bring me back to You
and let me turn back to You
because You are the Lord my God.
19I ask this, because
after I went away from You,
I felt sorry that I had done it.
Now I know better, and I beat_my_chest
because I am ashamed.
I feel ashamed because
of what I did when I was young.’
20The Lord says:
‘Ephraim is my child that I love best.
I love him more than I love any other.
Every time that I rebuke him,
I do not stop thinking of him
and I become very sad and upset.
I feel sorry for him and
I will help him, that is sure.’
This is what the Lord said.
21‘You must make heaps of stones
to be road signs, and you must look carefully
where you must walk to come home.
People of Israel, you must come back
to your towns and cities.
22How long do you have to wait
and doubt before you come home?
Why are you like an unfaithful daughter?
The Lord is going to start something new
that will happen on earth:
As a woman turns to her husband
when they dance, that is how
the Israelites will turn to the Lord.’
The Lord will be good to the people of Judah
23The God who rules over all, the God of Israel, says: ‘When I bring back the people of Judah and do good things for them, the people in the land_of_Judah and all the cities will say: “We pray that the Lord will bless his holy_mountain, Mount_Zion, where the people who do what is right live.”
24All the people of Judah and its towns will live together in Jerusalem, the farmers and the shepherds with their sheep and goats. 25I will give new strength to everyone who is tired. I will give more than enough food to everyone who is hungry. 26That is why I woke up and I saw that the time had come to save my people.’
27The Lord says: ‘The time will come when I will make the number of the Israelites and the people of Judah become more and more. There will be more and more of them and their animals. 28Long ago I wanted to pull them out like a plant and break them, I wanted to break and destroy them, and I wanted bad things to happen to them. But now I want to build and plant them. 29Before, the people said: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and that is why the children's teeth became bad.”
But they will not say that anymore. 30Every person will die for the sins that he has done. Everyone who eats sour grapes will have bad teeth, but not other people.’
The new covenant
31The Lord says: ‘The time will come when I will make a new covenant with the Israelites and the people of Judah. 32This covenant will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers. I took their hands to save them out of the land of Egypt, but they broke my covenant. I was like a husband to them, but they broke that agreement.’
33The Lord says: ‘The covenant that I will now make with the Israelites will be like this: I will put my laws in them, and I will write them onto their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. 34They will not teach each other anymore and say: “You must know the Lord.” They will all know Me, the unimportant people and the important people, because I will forgive their sins, and all the things that they have done wrong. I will not remember their sins.’
35The Lord gives the sun
to give us light in the day,
and at night He gives the stars
and the moon to give us light.
He moves the sea
so that the waves become wild.
His name is the Lord who rules over all.
36The Lord says:
‘These things will always happen,
and will never stop.
That is how the descendants
of Israel will never stop.
They will always be a nation to Me.’
37The Lord says:
‘No one can measure the heaven above,
and no one can see
if the foundations of the world are strong enough.
If any of you could have done that,
then I would have left
the descendants of Israel
for what they had done,
but that will never happen.’
38The Lord says: ‘The time will now come when they will build the city of the Lord again, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate, 39and from the Corner Gate they will measure straight to the Gareb Hill and from there to Goah. 40The whole valley where dead people are buried, and where they threw away the altar ashes, and the whole field to the Kidron Valley will be consecrated to the Lord, as well as the field to the Horse Gate towards the Eastern Gate. No one will destroy this city and break down its walls again.’
