I will give the land back to the people of Judah and Israel
1The Lord talked to Jeremiah again when he was in jail in the courtyard of the guards. 2The Lord said: ‘This is the Lord who speaks, the Lord who made the earth and keeps it in its place. My name is the Lord. 3Jeremiah, you must pray to Me. I will answer you and show you great secrets of things that you did not know. 4I, the Lord, the God of Israel, will tell you what will happen to the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings_of_Judah. They broke down some of these houses to use the stones when they wanted to make the wall of the city stronger and higher when the war started. 5The Babylonians are coming. They will kill a lot of people and fill the houses with the bodies of dead people. I was very angry, and I did not want to see the people of this city any longer, because of the bad things that they had done.
6But now I will build the city again. I will heal the people and let them live safely. 7I will be good to the people of Judah and Israel again. I will build them up and they will be like they were before. 8I will purify them and forgive the sins that they did when they lived wrongly and rebelled_against Me. 9They will tell all the nations on earth about the good things that I did for Jerusalem and they will know that I am proud of the beautiful city that has my name. The nations will be surprised and shocked when they see all the good things and the peace that I will give to Jerusalem.’
10The Lord says: ‘You say: “Jerusalem is just a heap of stones. There are no people or animals in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Everything is destroyed. No one lives there and there are no animals.” But I say there will again be 11people who will be happy and rejoice. They will marry again and have wedding feasts. They will sing and say:
“Praise the Lord who rules over all,
because the Lord is good.
He always does what He has promised.”
People will bring thank-offerings to the temple again. They will do it because I will be good to them in the land, as before.’
This is what the Lord says. 12The Lord who rules over all says: ‘This place is just heaps of stones and there are no people or animals here. But there will again be fields of grass where shepherds will let their sheep and goats eat. 13It will happen in the towns of the western hills, the towns of the lowlands, the towns of the Negev, the land of Benjamin, around Jerusalem and in the towns and cities of Judah. The people will have sheep again, and will count them.’ This is what the Lord says. 14The Lord says:
‘The time will come when I will do what I promised when I said something good would happen to the Israelites and the people of Judah. 15At that time I will choose a king who will be from the family of King David and he will do what is right to the people in the land. 16At that time I will save Jerusalem, and its people will live safely. The name of the city will be: “The Lord does what is right to us.” ’
17Yes, the Lord says: ‘There will always be one of the descendants of King David who will be king of the people of Israel. 18And there will always be a priest or a Levite who will bring burnt-offerings and grain-offerings and other offerings to Me.’
19The Lord said to Jeremiah: 20‘I am the Lord and I say: I made an agreement with the day and night. The day and night will come when they have to come, and you can never break that agreement. 21It is the same with my covenant with David. No one can ever break it, and someone from his family will always be king. I will also never break my covenant with the priests and Levites who work for Me. 22I will make the number of descendants of King David and the Levites who work for Me become more and more, as many as the stars in the sky, and no one will be able to count them. They will be as many as the grains of sand of the sea, and no one will be able to measure it.’
23The Lord talked to Jeremiah again and He said to him: 24‘Have you heard what these people say? They say: “The Lord has turned away from the people of Israel and Judah that He chose.” They think my people are not a nation anymore and that they are worthless.
25But this is what I, the Lord, say: I will never break my agreement with the day and night, and I will never forget the laws that I made for the earth and the sky.
26That is how I will stay faithful to the descendants of Jacob. I will never leave them. I will always choose descendants of my servant David to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will be good to them again. I will feel sorry for them and help them.’
