18 “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:

‘You have dchastised me, and I was chastised,

Like an untrained bull;

eRestore me, and I will return,

For You are the Lord my God.

19 Surely, fafter my turning, I repented;

And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh;

I was gashamed, yes, even humiliated,

Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’

20 Is Ephraim My dear son?

Is he a pleasant child?

For though I spoke against him,

I earnestly remember him still;

hTherefore My 5heart yearns for him;

iI will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.

21 “Set up signposts,

Make landmarks;

jSet your heart toward the highway,

The way in which you went.

6Turn back, O virgin of Israel,

Turn back to these your cities.

22 How long will you kgad about,

O you lbacksliding daughter?

For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—

A woman shall encompass a man.”

Future Prosperity of Judah

23 Thus 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: m‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and nmountain of holiness!’ 24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and oin all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. 25 For I have 7satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

26 After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was psweet to me.

27 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that qI will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 And it shall come to pass, that as I have rwatched over them sto pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them tto build and to plant, says the Lord. 29 uIn those days they shall say no more:

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

30 vBut 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 wdays are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that xI took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, 8though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 yBut this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: zI will put My law in their minds, and write it on their 9hearts; aand I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for bthey all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For cI will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

35 Thus says the Lord,

dWho gives the sun for a light by day,

The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,

Who disturbs ethe sea,

And its waves roar

f(The Lord of hosts is His name):

36 “If gthose ordinances depart

From before Me, says the Lord,

Then the seed of Israel shall also cease

From being a nation before Me forever.”

37 Thus says the Lord:

h“If heaven above can be measured,

And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,

I will also icast off all the seed of Israel

For all that they have done, says the Lord.