Jeremiah 33–35

Israel’s Restoration

33While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, ^fthe word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time: ²“The Lord who made the earth, ^gthe Lord who forms it to establish it, ^hYahweh is His name, ⁱsays this: ³Call to Me and I will answer you ^jand tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know. ^k4For 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 siege ramps and the sword: ^l5The 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 rage. I have hidden My face ^mfrom this city because of all their evil. ⁶Yet I will certainly bring health ⁿand healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance ^oof peace and truth. ^p7I will restore the fortunes ^qof Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times. ^r8I will purify them from all the wrongs they have committed against Me, ^sand I will forgive all the wrongs they have committed against Me, rebelling against Me. ⁹This city will bear on My behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory ^tbefore all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I will do for them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace ^uI will bring about for them.

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

Praise the Lord of Hosts,

for the Lord is good;

His faithful love endures forever

as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes ^xof the land as in former times, says the Lord.

¹²“This is what the Lord of Hosts says: In this desolate place—without man or beast—and in all its cities there will once more be a grazing land where shepherds may rest flocks. ^y13The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them ^zin the cities of the hill country, ^athe cities of the Judean foothills, the cities of the Negev, the land of Benjamin—the cities surrounding Jerusalem and 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 promises

that I have spoken

concerning the house of Israel

and the house of Judah. ^b

¹⁵In those days and at that time

I will cause a Righteous Branch ^c

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, ^d

and this is what she will be named:

Yahweh 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. ^e18The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.” ^f

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, ^g21then also My covenant with My servant David ^hmay be broken so that he will not have a son reigning on his throne, and the Levitical priests will not be My ministers. ⁱ²²The hosts of heaven cannot be counted; the sand of the sea cannot be measured. ^jSo, too, I will make the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister to Me innumerable.”

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.’ ^kMy 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 fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth, ^l26then I might also reject the seed of Jacob and of My servant David—not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Instead, I will restore their fortunes ^mand have compassion on them.” ⁿ

Jeremiah’s Word to King Zedekiah

34This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, ^oall his army, all the earthly kingdoms under his control, ^pand all other nations were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities: ²“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Go, speak to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him: This is what the Lord says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, ^qand he will burn it down. ³As for you, you will not escape ^rfrom his hand but are certain to be captured and handed over to him. You will meet the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak face to face; ^styou will go to Babylon.

⁴“Yet hear the Lord’s word, Zedekiah, king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; ⁵you will die peacefully. There will be a burning ceremony for you just like the burning ceremonies for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you. ^u‘Our king is dead!’ ^vwill be the lament for you, for I have spoken this word.” This is the Lord’s declaration.

⁶So Jeremiah the prophet related all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem ⁷while the king of Babylon’s army was attacking Jerusalem and all of Judah’s remaining cities—against Lachish and Azekah, ^wfor they were the only ones left of Judah’s fortified cities.

The People and Their Slaves

⁸This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom ^xto them, ⁹so each man would free his male and female Hebrew slaves and no one would enslave his Judean brother. ^y10All the officials and people who entered into covenant to free their male and female slaves—in order not to enslave them any longer—obeyed and freed them. ¹¹Afterward, however, they changed their minds and took back their male and female slaves they had freed and forced them to become slaves again.

¹²Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ¹³“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant ^zwith your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, saying: ¹⁴At the end of seven years, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who sold himself ^ato you. He may serve you six years, but then you must send him out free from you. ^bBut your ancestors did not obey Me or pay any attention. ¹⁵Today you repented and did what pleased Me, each of you proclaiming freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me ^cat the temple called by My name. ^d16But you have changed your minds ^eand profaned My name. ^fEach has taken back his male and female slaves who had been freed to go wherever they wanted, and you have again subjugated them to be your slaves.

¹⁷“Therefore, this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed Me by proclaiming freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. ^gI hereby proclaim freedom for you” ^h—this is the Lord’s declaration—“to the sword, to plague, and to famine! I will make you a horror to all the earth’s kingdoms. ⁱ¹⁸As for those who disobeyed My covenant, ^jnot keeping the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat them like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces. ^k19The officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf ²⁰will be handed over to their enemies, to those who want to take their life. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land. ^l21I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies, to those who want to take their lives, to the king of Babylon’s army that is withdrawing. ²²I am about to give the command”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. ^mI will make Judah’s cities a desolation, ⁿwithout inhabitant.”

The Rechabites’ Example

35This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim ^oson of Josiah, king of Judah: ²“Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, ^pand bring them to one of the chambers ^qof the temple of the Lord to offer them a drink of wine.”

³So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons—the entire house of the Rechabites— ⁴and I brought them into the temple of the Lord to a chamber occupied by the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God, ^rwho had a chamber near the officials’ chamber, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper. ⁵I set jars filled with wine and some cups before the sons of the house of the Rechabites and said to them, “Drink wine!”

⁶But they replied, “We do not drink wine, for Jonadab, ^sson of our ancestor Rechab, commanded: ‘You and your sons must never drink wine. ⁷You must not build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Rather, you must live in tents your whole life, so you may live a long time on the soil where you stay as a temporary resident.’ ^t8We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab, son of our ancestor Rechab, in all he commanded us. So we haven’t drunk wine our whole life—we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters. ⁹We also have not built houses to live in and do not have vineyard, field, or seed. ¹⁰But we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done as our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. ¹¹However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched into the land, ^uwe said: Come, let’s go into Jerusalem to get away from the Chaldean and Aramean…