15. Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thy eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17. And there is hope in thy end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.
19. Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, and even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.
20. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.
21. Set thee up way-marks, make thee high heaps: set thy heart towards 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 wander 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 her cities, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, mountain of holiness.
24. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all her cities 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 to me.
27. Behold, the days come saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
28. And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build and to plant, saith the LORD.
29. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.