Top of Page
Page Style
Jeremiah will still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time: 2 “The Lord, the Maker, the One who forms and establishes, the Lord is His name, declares: 3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and wondrous things, hidden things that you do not know’.
4 “For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the palaces of the kings of Judah that have been torn down to make a defence against the siege ramp’s and the sword: 5 ‘The men who are coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the bodies of their own dead, whom I will strike down in My anger and My wrath. For I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness.
6 “Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal them and reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth. 7 I will restore the fortunes of Judah and Israel and rebuild them as they were in former times. 8 I will purge them of all their iniquity they have committed against Me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sins of rebellion against Me. 9 Then this city will be to Me on My behalf a name of joy, praise, and honour before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I do for them. Then they will be in awe and tremble at all the good and all the prosperity I will provide for it’.
10 “This is what the Lord says: ‘In this place of which you say, “It is a desolate ruin, without man and without beast”, in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, without man, without inhabitant, and without beast, there will again be heard 11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride, and the voice of those who will say:
“Praise the Lord of Hosts,
for the Lord is good;
His faithful love endures forever”,
as they bring thank offerings to the House of the Lord! For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before’, declares the Lord.
12 “This is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘In this desolate place, without man and without beast, and in all its cities there will again be pastures where shepherds may rest their flocks. 13 The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Judean foothills, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the area surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah’, declares the Lord.
14 ‘Behold, the days are coming’, declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfil the gracious promises that I have made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah:
15 ‘In those days and at that time
I will cause to sprout up for David
a Branch of Righteousness;
He will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
16 In those days Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will dwell in safety.
This is the name by which it will be called:
17 “For this is what the Lord says: ‘David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, 18 neither will the priests, the Levites, ever lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices continually’.”
19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 20 “This is what the Lord says: ‘If you break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night would no longer come at their appointed time, 21 then also My covenant with David My servant may be broken, so that he would not have a son to reign on his throne, and the Levites who minister to Me. 22 Just as the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor can the sand of the sea be measured, so will I increase the descendants of David My servant, and the Levites who minister to Me’.”
23 And again, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 24 “Have you not noticed how these people say, ‘The Lord has rejected the two families that he had chosen’? So My people are despised and no longer regarded as a nation among them. 25 This is what the Lord says: ‘If I fail to keep My covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, 26 then I would also reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, and not choose one of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and have mercy upon them’.”