36 “Now therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to this city about which you said, ‘It has been handed over to Babylon’s king through sword, famine, and plague’: 37 I will certainly gather them from all the lands where I have banished them in my anger, fury and intense wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them live in safety.w 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God.x 39 I will give them integrity of hearty and actionE so that they will fear me always, for their good and for the good of their descendants after them.

40 “I will make a permanent covenant with them:z I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put fear of me in their hearts so they will never again turn away from me.aa 41 I will take delight in them to do what is good for them, and with all my heart and mind I will faithfully plant them in this land.ab

42 “For this is what the Lord says: Just as I have brought all this terrible disaster on these people,ac so am I about to bring on them all the good I am promising them. 43 Fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying,ad ‘It’s a desolationae without people or animals; it has been handed over to the Chaldeans!’ 44 Fields will be purchased, the transaction written on a scroll and sealed,af and witnesses will be called on in the land of Benjamin,ag in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in Judah’s cities—the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, and the cities of the Negev—because I will restore their fortunes.”F

This is the Lord’s declaration.