ISRAEL’S RESTORATION

33 While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard,a the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time: 2 “The Lord who made the earth,A the Lord who forms it to establish it,b the Lord is his name,c says this: 3 Call to me and I will answer youd and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.e 4 For 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:f 5 The 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 faceg from this city because of all their evil. 6 Yet I will certainly bring healthh and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundanceB of true peace.i 7 I will restore the fortunes* of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times.j 8 I will purify them from all the iniquity they have committed against me,k and I will forgive all the iniquities they have committed against me, rebelling against me. 9 This city will bear on my behalf a name of joy, praise, and gloryl 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 peacem I will bring about for them.

10 “This is what the Lord says: In this place, which you say is a ruin,n 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 11 a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride,o 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.p 13 The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts themq in the cities of the hill country,r 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.