The mother-to-be and her who hath borne.
In concourse great back they come hither.
With weeping forth did they go,[637] 9
With consolations[638] I bring them,
I lead them by[639] streams of water,
On an even way,
They stumble not on it][640]
For a father I am become to Israel,
And my first-born is Ephraim!
This couplet may well be Jeremiah's; but whether it should immediately follow verse 6 is doubtful. The next lines are hardly his, bearing the same marks of the late exile as we have seen in verses 7-9a.