Take words of repentance with you and return to the Lord. Say to him, ‘Forgive all our iniquity and accept what is good, so that we may repay you with praise from our lips.
The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are instructed to know how to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens me each morning; he awakens my ear to listen like those being instructed.
I have put my words in your mouth, and covered you in the shadow of my hand, in order to plant the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’
‘As for me, this is my covenant with them,’ says the Lord: ‘My Spirit who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of your children’s children, from now on and for ever,’ says the Lord.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem. The bow of war will be removed, and he will proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will extend from sea to sea, from the River Euphrates to the ends of the earth.
But I will bring you health and will heal you of your wounds – this is the Lord’s declaration – for they call you Outcast, Zion whom no one cares about.