CHAPTER 31
1 In that time, saith the Lord, I shall be God to all the kindreds of Israel; and they shall be into a people to me.
2 The Lord saith these things, The people that was left of sword, found grace in desert; Israel shall go to his rest.
3 Far the Lord appeared to me, and in everlasting charity I loved thee; therefore I doing mercy drew thee.
4 And again I shall build thee, and thou, virgin Israel, shalt be builded; yet thou shalt be adorned with thy tympans, and shalt go out in the quire, either company, of players.
5 Yet thou shalt plant vines in the hills [or the mount] of Samaria; men planting shall plant, and till the time come, they shall not gather grapes.
6 For why a day shall be, wherein keepers shall cry in the hill [or the mount] of Samaria, and in the hill [or the mount] of Ephraim, Rise ye, and ascend we [or go we up] into Zion, to our Lord God.
7 For the Lord saith these things, Jacob, make ye full out joy in gladness, and neigh ye against the head of heathen men; sound ye, sing ye, and say ye, Lord, save thy people, the residues of Israel.
8 Lo! I shall bring them from the land of the north, and I shall gather them from the farthest parts of [the] earth; among which shall be a blind man, and crooked, and a woman with child, and travailing of child together, a great company of them that shall turn again hither.
9 They shall come in weeping, and I shall bring them again in mercy; and I shall bring them by the strands [or streams] of waters in a rightful [or right] way, they shall not spurn therein; for I am made a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my engendered son.
10 Ye heathen men, hear the word of the Lord, and tell ye in isles that be [a] far, and say, He that scattered Israel, shall gather it, and shall keep it, as a shepherd keepeth his flock.
11 For the Lord again-bought Jacob, and delivered him from the hand of the mightier.
12 And they shall come, and praise in the hill [or the mount] of Zion; and they shall flow together to the goods of the Lord, on wheat, wine, and oil, and on the fruit of sheep, and of neat; and the soul of them shall be as a watery garden, and they shall no more hunger.
13 Then a virgin shall be glad in a company, young men and eld together; and I shall turn the mourning of them into joy, and I shall comfort them, and I shall make them glad of their sorrow.
14 And I shall greatly fill the soul of [the] priests with fatness, and my people shall be [ful] filled with my goods, saith the Lord.
15 The Lord saith these things, A voice of wailing, and of weeping, and of mourning, was heard on high; the voice of Rachel beweeping her sons, and not willing to be comforted on them, for they be not.
16 The Lord saith these things, Thy voice rest of weeping, and thine eyes rest of tears; for why meed is to thy work, saith the Lord; and they shall turn again from the land of the enemy.
17 And hope is to thy last things, saith the Lord; and thy sons shall turn again to their ends.
18 I hearing heard Ephraim passing over; saying, thou chastisedest me, and I am learned as a young one untamed, either wild; turn thou me, and I shall be turned again, for thou art my Lord God.
19 For after that thou convertedest me, I did penance; and after that thou showedest to me, I smote mine hip; I am ashamed, and I am shamed, for I suffered the shame of my youth.
20 For Ephraim is a worshipful son to me, for he is a delicate child; for since I spake of him, yet I shall have mind on him; therefore mine entrails be troubled on him, I doing mercy shall have mercy on him, saith the Lord.
21 Ordain to thee an high lookout place, set to thee bitternesses; dress thine heart into a straight way, in which thou went; turn again, thou virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
22 How long, daughter of unsteadfast dwelling, art thou made dissolute in delights? for the Lord hath made a new thing on earth, a woman shall compass a man.
23 The Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things, Yet they shall say this word in the land of Judah, and in the cities thereof, when I shall turn the captivity of them, The Lord bless thee, thou fairness of rightfulness [or rightwiseness], thou holy hill [or mount].
24 And Judah, and all the cities thereof shall dwell in it together, earth-tillers, and they that drive flocks.
25 For I filled greatly a faint soul, and I have [full-]filled each hungry soul.
26 Therefore I am as raised from sleep, and I saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 Lo! days come, saith the Lord, and I shall sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of men, and with the seed of work beasts.
28 And as I waked on them, to draw up by the root, and to destroy, and to scatter, and to lose, and to torment; so I shall wake on or watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord.
29 In those days they shall no more say, The fathers ate a sour grape, and the teeth of [the] sons were astonied;
30 but each man shall die in his wickedness, each man that eateth a sour grape, his teeth shall be astonied.
31 Lo! days come, saith the Lord, and I shall smite a new bond of peace to the house of Israel, and to the house of Judah;
32 not by the covenant which I made with your fathers, in the day in which I took the hand of them, to lead them out of the land of Egypt, the covenant which they made void; and I was Lord of them, saith the Lord.
33 But this shall be the covenant, which I shall smite with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I shall give my law in the entrails of them, and I shall write it in the heart of them, and I shall be into God to them, and they shall be into a people to me.
34 And a man shall no more teach his neighbour, and a man his brother, and say, Know thou the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least of them unto the most, saith the Lord; for I shall be merciful to the wickednesses of them, and I shall no more be mindful on the sin of them.
35 The Lord saith these things, that giveth the sun in the light of day, the order of the moon and of the stars in the light of the night, which troubleth the sea, and the waves thereof sound, the Lord of hosts is name to him.
36 If these laws fail before me, saith the Lord, then and the seed of Israel shall fail, that it be not a folk before me in all days.
37 The Lord saith these things, If heavens above may be measured, and the foundaments of [the] earth beneath be sought out, and I shall cast away all the seed of Israel, for all things which they did, saith the Lord.
38 Lo! days come, saith the Lord, and a city shall be builded to the Lord, from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.
39 And it shall go out over the rule of [the] measure, in the sight thereof, on the hill [of] Gareb, and it shall compass Goath,
40 and all the valley of carrions, and it shall compass[the] ashes, and all the country of death, unto the strand [or stream] of Kidron, and to the corner of the east gate of horses; the holy thing of the Lord shall not be drawn out, and it shall no more be destroyed without end.