20. Is Ephraim 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,declares the Lord.
21. “Set up road markers 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 encircles a man.”
23. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes: “‘The Lord bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O holy hill!’
24. And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks.
25. For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”
26. At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.
27. “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I 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 watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord.
29. In those days they shall no longer say: “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’