Jeremiah 31:15-26

Revised Standard Version

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
    lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
    she refuses to be comforted for her children,
    because they are not.”

¹⁶ Thus says the Lord:
“Keep 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.
¹⁷ There is hope for your future,
                says the Lord,
    and your children shall come back to their own country.
¹⁸ I have heard E′phraim bemoaning,
‘Thou hast chastened me, and I was chastened,
    like an untrained calf;
bring me back that I may be restored,
    for thou art the Lord my God.
¹⁹ For after I had turned away I repented;
    and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
    because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’
²⁰ Is E′phraim my dear son?
    Is he my darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
    I do remember him still.
Therefore my heart yearns for him;
    I will surely have mercy on him,
                says the Lord.

²¹ “Set up waymarks for yourself,
    make yourself guideposts;
consider well the highway,
    the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel,
    return to these your cities.
²² How long will you waver,
    O faithless daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth:
    a woman protects a man.”