Good News Translation GNT
World English Bible WEB
1 The Lord says, "The time is coming when I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they will be my people.
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At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 In the desert I showed mercy to those people who had escaped death. When the people of Israel longed for rest,
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Thus says Yahweh, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
3 I appeared to them from far away. People of Israel, I have always loved you, so I continue to show you my constant love.
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Yahweh appeared of old to me, [saying], Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you.
4 Once again I will rebuild you. Once again you will take up your tambourines and dance joyfully.
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Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again shall you be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.
5 Once again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria, and those who plant them will eat what the vineyards produce.
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Again shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy [the fruit of it].
6 Yes, the time is coming when sentries will call out on the hills of Ephraim, "Let's go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.' "
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For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise you, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God.
7 The Lord says, "Sing with joy for Israel, the greatest of the nations. Sing your song of praise, "The Lord has saved his people; he has rescued all who are left.'
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For thus says Yahweh, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish you, praise you, and say, Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel.
8 I will bring them from the north and gather them from the ends of the earth. The blind and the lame will come with them, pregnant women and those about to give birth. They will come back a great nation.
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Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, [and] with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here.
9 My people will return weeping, praying as I lead them back. I will guide them to streams of water, on a smooth road where they will not stumble. I am like a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my oldest son."
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They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by 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 The Lord says, "Nations, listen to me and proclaim my words on the far-off shores. I scattered my people, but I will gather them and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock.
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Hear the word of Yahweh, you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off; and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd does his flock.
11 I have set Israel's people free and have saved them from a mighty nation.
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For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 They will come and sing for joy on Mount Zion and be delighted with my gifts - gifts of grain and wine and olive oil, gifts of sheep and cattle. They will be like a well-watered garden; they will have everything they need.
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They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then the young women will dance and be happy, and men, young and old, will rejoice. I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joy, their sorrow into gladness.
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Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, 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.
14 I will fill the priests with the richest food and satisfy all the needs of my people. I, the Lord, have spoken."
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I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Yahweh.
15 The Lord says, "A sound is heard in Ramah, the sound of bitter weeping. Rachel is crying for her children; they are gone, and she refuses to be comforted.
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Thus says Yahweh: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.
16 Stop your crying and wipe away your tears. All that you have done for your children will not go unrewarded; they will return from the enemy's land.
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Thus says Yahweh: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your future; your children will come back home. I, the Lord, have spoken.
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There is hope for your latter end, says Yahweh; and [your] children shall come again to their own border.
18 "I hear the people of Israel say in grief, "Lord, we were like an untamed animal, but you taught us to obey. Bring us back; we are ready to return to you, the Lord our God.
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I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.
19 We turned away from you, but soon we wanted to return. After you had punished us, we hung our heads in grief. We were ashamed and disgraced because we sinned when we were young.'
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Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
20 "Israel, you are my dearest child, the one I love best. Whenever I mention your name, I think of you with love. My heart goes out to you; I will be merciful.
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Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh.
21 Set up signs and mark the road; find again the way by which you left. Come back, people of Israel, come home to the towns you left.
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Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.
22 How long will you hesitate, faithless people? I have created something new and different, as different as a woman protecting a man."
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How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man.
23 The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, "When I restore the people to their land, they will once again say in the land of Judah and in its towns, "May the Lord bless the sacred hill of Jerusalem, the holy place where he lives.'
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Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities of it, when I shall bring again their captivity: Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.
24 People will live in Judah and in all its towns, and there will be farmers, and shepherds with their flocks.
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Judah and all the cities of it shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks.
25 I will refresh those who are weary and will satisfy with food everyone who is weak from hunger.
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For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished.
26 So then, people will say, "I went to sleep and woke up refreshed.'
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On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 "I, the Lord, say that the time is coming when I will fill the land of Israel and Judah with people and animals.
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Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal.
28 And just as I took care to uproot, to pull down, to overthrow, to destroy, and to demolish them, so I will take care to plant them and to build them up.
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It shall happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says Yahweh.
29 When that time comes, people will no longer say, "The parents ate the sour grapes, But the children got the sour taste.'
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In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.
30 Instead, those who eat sour grapes will have their own teeth set on edge; and everyone will die because of their own sin."
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But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31 The Lord says, "The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
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Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant.
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not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh.
33 The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
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But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
34 None of them will have to teach a neighbor to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken."
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and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
35 The Lord provides the sun for light by day, the moon and the stars to shine at night. He stirs up the sea and makes it roar; his name is the Lord Almighty.
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Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that the waves of it roar; Yahweh of hosts is his name:
36 He promises that as long as the natural order lasts, so long will Israel be a nation.
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If these ordinances depart from before me, says Yahweh, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.
37 If one day the sky could be measured and the foundations of the earth explored, only then would he reject the people of Israel because of all they have done. The Lord has spoken.
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Thus says Yahweh: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Yahweh.
38 "The time is coming," says the Lord, "when all of Jerusalem will be rebuilt as my city, from Hananel Tower west to the Corner Gate.
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Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that the city shall be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner.
39 And the boundary line will continue from there on the west to the hill of Gareb and then around to Goah.
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The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb, and shall turn about to Goah.
40 The entire valley, where the dead are buried and garbage is dumped, and all the fields above Kidron Brook as far as the Horse Gate to the east, will be sacred to me. The city will never again be torn down or destroyed."
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The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.