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And the young men and the old together;

For I will turn their mourning into joy,

And will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

¹⁴And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness,

And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness,

Saith the Lord.

 

¹⁵Thus saith the Lord:

A voice is heard in Ramah,

Lamentation, and bitter weeping,

Rachel weeping for her children;

She refuseth to be comforted for her children,

Because they are not.

 

¹⁶Thus saith the Lord:

Refrain thy voice from weeping,

And thine eyes from tears;

For thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord;

And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷And there is hope for thy future, saith the Lord;

And thy children shall return to their own border.

¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:

'Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised,

As a calf untrained;

Turn thou me, and I shall be turned,

For Thou art the Lord my God.

¹⁹Surely after that I was turned, I repented,

And after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh;

I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,

Because I did bear the reproach of my youth.'

²⁰Is Ephraim a darling son unto Me?

Is he a child that is dandled?

For as often as I speak of him,

I do earnestly remember him still;

Therefore My heart yearneth for him,

I will surely have compassion upon him, saith the Lord.

 

²¹Set thee up waymarks,

Make thee guide-posts;

Set thy heart toward the highway,

Even the way by which thou wentest;

Return, O virgin of Israel,

Return to these thy cities.

²²How long wilt thou turn away coyly,

O thou backsliding daughter?

For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth:

A woman shall court a man.

 

²³Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:

Yet again shall they use this speech

In the land of Judah and in the cities thereof,

When I shall turn their captivity:

'The Lord bless thee, O habitation of righteousness,

O mountain of holiness.'

²⁴And Judah and all the cities thereof

Shall dwell therein together:

The husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.

²⁵For I have satiated the weary soul,

And every pining soul have I replenished.

 

²⁶Upon this I awaked, and beheld;

And my sleep was sweet unto me.

²⁷Behold, 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. ²⁸And it shall come to pass,

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