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The Remnant of Israel Saved

¹“At ⚓the same time,” says the Lord, ⚓“I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”
²Thus says the Lord:
“The people who survived the sword
Found grace in the wilderness—
Israel, when ⚓I went to give him rest.”
³The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:
“Yes, ⚓I have loved you with ⚓an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have ⚓drawn you.
⁴Again ⚓I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt,
O virgin of Israel!
You shall again be adorned with your ⚓tambourines,
And shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.
⁵⚓You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria;
The planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food.
⁶For there shall be a day
When the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim,
⚓‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion,
To the Lord our God.’ ”
⁷For thus says the Lord:
⚓“Sing with gladness for Jacob,
And shout among the chief of the nations;
Proclaim, give praise, and say,
‘O Lord, save Your people,
The remnant of Israel!’
⁸Behold, I will bring them ⚓from the north country,
And ⚓gather them from the ends of the earth,
Among them the blind and the lame,
The woman with child
And the one who labors with child, together;
A great throng shall return there.
⁹⚓They shall come with weeping,
And with supplications I will lead them.
I will cause them to walk ⚓by the rivers of waters,
In a straight way in which they shall not stumble;
For I am a Father to Israel,
And Ephraim is My ⚓firstborn.
¹⁰“Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,
And declare it in the isles afar off, and say,
‘He who scattered Israel ⚓will gather him,
And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’
¹¹For ⚓the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
And ransomed him ⚓from the hand of one stronger than he.
¹²Therefore they shall come and sing in ⚓the height of Zion,
Streaming to ⚓the goodness of the Lord—
For wheat and new wine and oil,
For the young of the flock and the herd;
Their souls shall be like a ⚓well-watered garden,
⚓And they shall sorrow no more at all.
¹³“Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance,
And the young men and the old, together;
For I will turn their mourning to joy,
Will comfort them,
And make them rejoice rather than sorrow.
¹⁴I will satiate the soul of the priests with abundance,
And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord.”

Mercy on Ephraim

¹⁵Thus says the Lord:
⚓“A voice was heard in ⚓Ramah,
Lamentation and bitter ⚓weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted for her children,
Because ⚓they are no more.”
¹⁶Thus says the Lord:
“Refrain your voice from ⚓weeping,
And your eyes from tears;
For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord,
And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
¹⁷There is ⚓hope in your future, says the Lord,
That your children shall come back to their own border.
¹⁸“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:
‘You have ⚓chastised me, and I was chastised,
Like an untrained bull;
⚓Restore me, and I will return,
For You are the Lord my God.
¹⁹Surely, ⚓after my turning, I repented;
And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh;
I was ⚓ashamed, yes, even humiliated,
Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
²⁰Is Ephraim My dear son?
Is he a pleasant child?
For though I spoke against him,
I earnestly remember him still;
⚓Therefore My heart yearns for him;
⚓I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.
²¹“Set up signposts,
Make landmarks;
⚓Set your heart toward the highway,
The way in which you went.
Turn back, O virgin of Israel,
Turn back to these your cities.
²²How long will you ⚓gad about,
O you ⚓backsliding daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—
A woman shall encompass a man.”

Future Prosperity of Judah

²³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ⚓‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and⚓mountain of holiness!’ ²⁴And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and ⚓in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. ²⁵For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
²⁶After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was ⚓sweet to me.
²⁷“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that ⚓I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸And it shall come to pass, that as I have ⚓watched over them ⚓to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them ⚓to build and to plant, says the Lord. ²⁹⚓In those days they shall say no more:
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
³⁰⚓But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

A New Covenant

³¹“Behold, the ⚓days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ³²not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that⚓I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. ³³⚓But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: ⚓I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; ⚓and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for ⚓they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For ⚓I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
³⁵Thus says the Lord,
⚓Who gives the sun for a light by day,
The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,
Who disturbs ⚓the sea,
And its waves roar
⚓(The Lord of hosts is His name):
³⁶“If ⚓those ordinances depart
From before Me, says the Lord,
Then the seed of Israel shall also cease
From being a nation before Me forever.”
³⁷Thus says 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, says the Lord.
³⁸“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord⚓from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹⚓The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. ⁴⁰And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, ⚓to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, ⚓shall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”