Jeremiah 33–35

CHAPTER 33

Yahweh Will Pardon the People’s Iniquity

¹Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still ^1aconfined in the court of the guard, saying,

²“Thus says ^aYahweh who made ¹the earth, Yahweh who formed it to establish it; ^bYahweh is His name,

³‘^aCall to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you ^bgreat and mighty things, ^cwhich you do not know.’

⁴“For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the ^ahouses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which are torn down to make a defense against the ^bsiege ramps and against the sword,

⁵‘While they are coming to ^afight with the Chaldeans and to fill them with the corpses of men whom I have struck down in My anger and in My wrath, and I have ^bhidden My face from this city because of all their evil:

⁶‘Behold, I will bring to it ^ahealth and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an ^babundance of peace and truth.

⁷‘I will ^1areturn the ²fortunes of Judah and the ³fortunes of Israel and will ^brebuild them as they were at first.

⁸‘And I will ^acleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.

⁹‘And ¹it will be to Me a ^aname of joy, praise, and beauty before ^ball the nations of the earth which will hear of all the ^cgood that I do for them, and they will ^dbe in dread and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.’

¹⁰“Thus says Yahweh, ‘Yet again there will be heard in this place, of which you say, “It is a ^awaste, without man and without beast,” that is, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are ^bdesolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast,

¹¹the voice of ^ajoy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say,

“^bGive thanks to Yahweh of hosts,

For Yahweh is good,

For His lovingkindness endures forever”;

and of those who bring a ^cthank offering into the house of Yahweh. For I will ¹return the ²fortunes of the land as they were at first,’ says Yahweh.

¹²“Thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘There will again be in this place which is waste, ^awithout man or beast, and in all its cities, ¹an abode of shepherds who cause their ^bflocks to lie down.

¹³‘In the ^acities of the hill country, in the cities of the ¹Shephelah, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the surroundings of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again ^bpass under the hands of the one who numbers them,’ says Yahweh.

The Righteous Branch of David

¹⁴‘Behold, ^adays are coming,’ declares Yahweh, ‘when I will ^bestablish the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

¹⁵‘In those days and at that time I will cause a ^arighteous Branch of David to branch forth; and He shall do ^bjustice and righteousness on the earth.

¹⁶‘In those days ^aJudah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell in security; and this is the name by which she will be called: ^bYahweh is our righteousness.’

¹⁷“For thus says Yahweh, ‘¹David shall ^anot have a man cut off from sitting on the throne of the house of Israel;

¹⁸¹and the ^aLevitical priests shall not have a man cut off from before Me who is to offer burnt offerings, to offer up grain offerings in smoke, and to ^bperform sacrifices ²continually.’”

¹⁹Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁰“Thus says Yahweh, ‘If you can ^abreak My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time,

²¹then ^aMy covenant may also be broken with David My servant so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical priests, My ministers.

²²‘As the ^ahost of heaven cannot be counted and the ^bsand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will ^cmultiply the seed of David My servant and the ^dLevites who minister to Me.’”

²³And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁴“Have you not seen what this people have spoken, saying, ‘The ^atwo families which Yahweh chose, He has ^brejected them’? Thus they have ^cspurned My people from being a nation any longer ¹in their sight.

²⁵“Thus says Yahweh, ‘If My ^acovenant for day and night stand not, and the statutes for heaven and earth I have ^bnot established,

²⁶then I would ^areject the seed of Jacob and David My servant, ¹not taking from his seed ^brulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But I will ^2creturn their ³fortunes and will have ^dcompassion on them.’”

CHAPTER 34

A Prophecy Against Zedekiah

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when ^aNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his military force, with ^ball the kingdoms of the earth that were under his ¹dominion and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying,

²“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘^aGo and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him: “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, ^bI am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and ^che will burn it with fire.

³‘^aAnd you will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be seized and given into his hand; and you will ^bsee the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you ¹face to face, and you will go to Babylon.’”’

⁴“Yet hear the word of Yahweh, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says Yahweh concerning you, ‘You will not die by the sword.

⁵‘You will die in peace; and as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will ^aburn spices for you; and ^bthey will lament for you, “Alas, lord!” ’ For I have spoken the word,” declares Yahweh.

⁶Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke ^aall these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem

⁷when the military force of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, that is, ^aLachish and ^bAzekah, for they alone remained as ^cfortified cities among the cities of Judah.

⁸The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after King Zedekiah had ^acut a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to ^bproclaim ¹release to them:

⁹that each man should let his male slave go free and each man his female slave, a ^aHebrew man or a Hebrew woman, so that ^bno one should enslave them, each being a Jew, his brother.

¹⁰And all the ^aofficials and all the people obeyed who had entered into the covenant that each man should let his male slave go free and each man his female slave, so that no one should enslave them any longer; they obeyed and let them go free.

¹¹But afterwards they turned around and returned to themselves the male slaves and the female slaves, whom they had let go as free, and subdued them to be male slaves and female slaves.

¹²Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

¹³“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘I ^acut a covenant with your fathers in the day that I ^bbrought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, saying,

¹⁴“^aAt the end of seven years each of you shall let his Hebrew brother go who ¹has been sold to you and has served you six years, and you shall let him go to be free from you; but your fathers ^bdid not obey Me or incline their ear to Me.

¹⁵“Although recently you had turned and ^adone what is right in My sight, each man proclaiming ¹release to his neighbor, and you had ^bcut a covenant before Me ^cin the house which is called by My name.

¹⁶“Yet you ^aturned and ^bprofaned My name, and each man ¹returned to themselves his male slave and each man his female slave whom you had let go as free according to their desire, and you subdued them to be your male slaves and female slaves.” ’

¹⁷“Therefore thus says Yahweh, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming ¹release each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am ^aproclaiming a ²release to you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘to the ^bsword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you a ^cterror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁸‘And I will give the men who have ^atrespassed against My covenant, who have not established the words of the covenant which they cut before Me, when they ^bcut the calf in two and passed between its parts—

¹⁹the ^aofficials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf—

²⁰And I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who ^aseek their life. And their ^bdead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

²¹‘^aAnd as for Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life and into the hand of the military force of the king of Babylon which has ^bgone away from you.

²²‘Behold, I am going to command,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and I will cause them to return to this city; and they will fight against it and ^acapture it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a ^bdesolation ^cwithout inhabitant.’”

CHAPTER 35

The Rechabites Listen to Jonadab

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of ^aJehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

²“Go to the house of the ^aRechabites and speak to them and bring them into the house of Yahweh, into one of the ^bchambers, and give them wine to drink.”

³Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites,

⁴and I brought them into the house of Yahweh, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the ^aman of God, which was beside the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, ^bthe doorkeeper.

⁵Then I put before the ¹men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine and cups; and I said to them, “^aDrink wine!”

⁶But they said, “We will not drink wine, for ^aJonadab the son of ^bRechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall ^cnot drink wine,…