³⁶The Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, “Jeremiah, the people are saying that war, starvation, and disease will make this city fall into the hands of the king of Babylonia. Now listen to what else I have to say. ³⁷I am going to gather the people from all the countries where I have scattered them in my anger and fury, and I am going to bring them back to this place and let them live here in safety. ³⁸Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. ³⁹I will give them a single purpose in life: to honour me for all time, for their own good and the good of their descendants. ⁴⁰I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from me. ⁴¹I will take pleasure in doing good things for them, and I will establish them permanently in this land.

⁴²“Just as I have brought this disaster on these people, so I am going to give them all the good things that I have promised. ⁴³The people are saying that this land will be like a desert where neither people nor animals live, and that it will be given over to the Babylonians. But fields will once again be bought in this land. ⁴⁴People will buy them, and the deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed. This will take place in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages round Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, and in the towns in the hill country, in the foothills, and in southern Judah. I will restore the people to their land. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Read in Logos