Mourning Turned to Joy

(Matthew 2:16-18)

1At the same time, said the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

2Thus said 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.

3The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.

4Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: you shall again be adorned with your tabrets, and shall go forth in the dances of them that make merry.

5You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.

6For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise you, and let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God.

7For thus said the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish you, praise you, and say, O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

8Behold, 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 travails with child together: a great company shall return thither.

9They 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.

10Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.

11For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

12Therefore 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.

13Then 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.

14And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, said the LORD.

15Thus said 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.

16Thus said the LORD; Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for your work shall be rewarded, said the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

17And there is hope in your end, said the LORD, that your children shall come again to their own border.

18I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are the LORD my God.

19Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

20Is 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 on him, said the LORD.

21Set you up markers, make you high heaps: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

22How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter? for the LORD has created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.

23Thus said 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 you, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.

24And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, farmers, and they that go forth with flocks. 25For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. 26On this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet to me.

27Behold, the days come, said 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. 28And 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, said the LORD.

29In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

30But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

A New Covenant

31Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32Not 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 broke, although I was an husband to them, said the LORD: 33But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, said 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. 34And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, said the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

35Thus said the LORD, which gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divides the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:

36If those ordinances depart from before me, said the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.

37Thus said 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, said the LORD.

38Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner. 39And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it on the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath. 40And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook of Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.