Israel’s Restoration

1While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time: 2“The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it, the Lord is his name, says this: 3Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know. 4For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah’s kings, the ones torn down for defense against the assault ramps and the sword: 5The people coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the corpses of their own men that I strike down in my wrath and fury. I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil. 6Yet I will certainly bring health and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance of true peace. 7I will restore the fortunes of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times. 8I will purify them from all the iniquity they have committed against me, and I will forgive all the iniquities they have committed against me, rebelling against me. 9This city will bear on my behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the prosperity I will give them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them.

10“This is what the Lord says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without people or animals — that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without people, without inhabitants, and without animals — there will be heard again 11a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying,

Give thanks to the Lord of Armies,

for the Lord is good;

his faithful love endures forever

as they bring thanksgiving sacrifices to the temple of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the Lord.

12“This is what the Lord of Armies says: In this desolate place — without people or animals — and in all its cities there will once more be a grazing land where shepherds may rest flocks. 13The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them in the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, the cities of the Negev, the land of Benjamin — the areas around Jerusalem and in Judah’s cities, says the Lord.

God’s Covenant with David

14“Look, the days are coming” —

this is the Lord’s declaration —

“when I will fulfill the good promise

that I have spoken

concerning the house of Israel

and the house of Judah.

15In those days and at that time

I will cause a Righteous Branch

to sprout up for David,

and he will administer justice

and righteousness in the land.

16In those days Judah will be saved,

and Jerusalem will dwell securely,

and this is what she will be named:

The Lord Is Our Righteousness.

17“For this is what the Lord says: David will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel. 18The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.”

19The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 20“This is what the Lord says: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time, 21then also my covenant with my servant David may be broken. If that could happen, then he would not have a son reigning on his throne and the Levitical priests would not be my ministers. 22Even as the stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so too I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.”

23The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 24“Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, ‘The Lord has rejected the two families he had chosen.’ My people are treated with contempt and no longer regarded as a nation among them. 25This is what the Lord says: If I do not keep my covenant with the day and with the night, and if I fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth, 26then I might also reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David. That is, I would not take rulers from his descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in fact, I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.”