Repentance and Restoration

21 Set up road markers(A) for yourself;
establish signposts!
Keep the highway in mind,
the way you have traveled.
Return, Virgin Israel!
Return to these cities of yours.
22 How long will you turn here and there,
faithless daughter?(B)
For the Lord creates something new in the land[a]
a female[b] will shelter[c] a man.

23 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore their fortunes,[d] they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the Lord bless you, righteous settlement,(C) holy mountain.’(D) 24 Judah and all its cities will live in it together—also farmers and those who move[e] with the flocks— 25 for I satisfy the thirsty person and feed all those who are weak.”(E)

26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.

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Footnotes

  1. 31:22 Or new on earth
  2. 31:22 Or woman
  3. 31:22 Or female surrounds, or female courts; Hb obscure
  4. 31:23 Or I end their captivity
  5. 31:24 Tg, Vg, Aq, Sym; MT reads and they will move

21 Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

22 How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.

23 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.

24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.

25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.

26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.

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