“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.”

“Refrain your voice from weeping,
    and your eyes from tears;
    for your work will be rewarded,” says Yahweh.
    “They will come again from the land of the enemy.
¹⁷ There is hope for your latter end,” says Yahweh.
    “Your children will come again to their own territory.

¹⁸ “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus,
    ‘You have chastised me,
    and I was chastised, as an untrained calf.
Turn me, and I will be turned;
    for you are Yahweh my God.
¹⁹ Surely after that I was turned.
    I repented.
After that I was instructed.
    I struck my thigh.
I was ashamed, yes, even confounded,
    because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son?
    Is he a darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
    I still earnestly remember him.
therefore my heart yearns for him.
    I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.