Jeremiah 32:27–44

²⁷“Look, I am the Lord, the God over every creature.^l Is anything too difficult for me?^{m 28}Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am about to hand this city over to the Chaldeans,ⁿ to Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzar, and he will capture it. ²⁹The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come and set this city on fire. They will burn it, including the houses where incense has been burned to Baal on their rooftops and where drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to anger me.^{o 30}From their youth, the Israelites and Judeans have done nothing but what is evil in my sight! They have done nothing but anger me by the work of their hands”^p —this is the Lord’s declaration—³¹“for this city has caused my wrath and fury from the day it was built until now. I will therefore remove it from my presence^{q 32}because of all the evil the Israelites and Judeans have done to anger me—they, their kings,^r their officials, their priests, and their prophets, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem. ³³They have turned their backs to me and not their faces.^s Though I taught them time and time again,^At they do not listen and receive discipline. ³⁴They have placed their abhorrent things^u in the house that bears my name and have defiled it. ³⁵They have built the high places of Baal in Ben Hinnom Valley to sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire^B to Molech^v —something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought^C that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!

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’: ³⁷I 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 heart^y and action^D 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. ⁴³Fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying,^ad ‘It’s a desolation^ae without people or animals; it has been handed over to the Chaldeans!’ ⁴⁴Fields 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.”^E

This is the Lord’s declaration.