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Restoration of Israel (continued)
31:1 At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the
God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my
people.
31:2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the
sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I
went to cause him to rest.
31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with
lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
31:4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O
virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy
tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make
merry.
31:5 Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of
Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as
common things.
31:6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the
mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion
unto the LORD our God.
31:7 For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob,
and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise
ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
31:8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and
gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the
blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that
travaileth with child together: a great company shall return
thither.
31:9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications
will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of
waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble:
for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
31:10 Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare
it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel
will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
31:11 For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him
from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
31:12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of
Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD,
for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of
the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a
watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
31:13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both
young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning
into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from
their sorrow.
31:14 And I will satiate the soul of the priests with
fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
saith the LORD.
31:15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah,
lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her
children refused to be comforted for her children, because
they were not.
31:16 Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping,
and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded,
saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of
the enemy.
31:17 And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that
thy children shall come again to their own border.
31:18 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.
31:19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after
that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed,
yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my
youth.
31:20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for
since I spake 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.
31:21 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.
31:22 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.
31:23 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.
31:24 And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the
cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth
with flocks.
31:25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have
replenished every sorrowful soul.
31:26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was
sweet unto me.
31:27 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.
31:28 And it shall come to pass, that like 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.
31:29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers
have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on
edge.
31:30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every
man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on
edge.
31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the
house of Judah:
31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring
them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake,
although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I
will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their
hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour,
and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they
shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest
of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more.
31:35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light
by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for
a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves
thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
31:36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the
LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a
nation before me for ever.
31:37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured,
and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I
will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they
have done, saith the LORD.
31:38 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city
shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto
the gate of the corner.
31:39 And the measuring line shall yet go forth over
against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to
Goath.
31:40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the
ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the
corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto
the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any
more for ever. |
Cults 
Why Did God Permit Sin?
