17. There is hope in your future, says the Lord,That your children shall come back to their own border.
18. “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself:‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised,Like an untrained bull;Restore me, and I will return,For You are the Lord my God.
19. Surely, after my turning, I repented;And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh;I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated,Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’
20. Is Ephraim My dear son?Is he a pleasant child?For though I spoke against him,I earnestly remember him still;Therefore My heart yearns for him;I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.
21. “Set up signposts,Make landmarks;Set your heart toward the highway,The way in which you went.Turn back, O virgin of Israel,Turn back to these your cities.
22. How long will you gad about,O you backsliding daughter?For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—A woman shall encompass a man.”
23. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!’
24. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks.
25. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”
26. After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was sweet to me.
27. “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that 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, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.