I will tell the north: Give my people to me. I will tell the south: Don’t keep my people in prison. Bring my sons from far away and my daughters from faraway places.
They will say instead, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites from the northern land and from all the countries where he had sent them . . . ’ And I will bring them back to the land I gave to their ancestors.
But people will say something new: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where he had sent them away . . . ’ Then the people of Israel will live in their own land.”
Go and speak this message toward the north: ‘Come back, unfaithful people of Israel,’ says the Lord. ‘I will stop being angry at you, because I am full of mercy,’ says the Lord. ‘I will not be angry with you forever.
The days will come when I will bring Israel and Judah back from captivity,” says the Lord. “I will return them to the land I gave their ancestors, and they will own it!” says the Lord.
Look, I will soon bring Israel from the country in the north, and I will gather them from the faraway places on earth. Some of the people are blind and crippled. Some of the women are pregnant, and some are ready to give birth. A great many people will come back.
The Lord says, “At that time people will try to find Israel’s guilt, but there will be no guilt. People will try to find Judah’s sins, but no sins will be found, because I will leave a few people alive from Israel and Judah, and I will forgive their sins.
Those people will ask how to go to Jerusalem and will start in that direction. They will come and join themselves to the Lord. They will make an agreement with him that will last forever, an agreement that will never be forgotten.
“So say: ‘This is what the Lord God says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you together from the countries where you have been scattered. Then I will give you back the land of Israel.’
The people of Judah and Israel will join together again and will choose one leader for themselves. They will come up from the land, because the day of Jezreel will be truly great.
“Plead with your mother. Accuse her, because she is no longer my wife, and I am no longer her husband. Tell her to stop acting like a prostitute, to stop behaving like an unfaithful wife.
“I will strengthen the people of Judah and save the people of Joseph. I will bring them back, because I care about them. It will be as though I had never left them, because I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them.