Jeremiah 31:35–40

If This Ordered Cosmos Ever Fell to Pieces

³⁵God’s Message, from the God who lights up the day with sun and

brightens the night with moon and stars,

Who whips the ocean into a billowy froth,

whose name is God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

³⁶“If this ordered cosmos ever fell to pieces,

fell into chaos before me”—God’s Decree—

“Then and only then might Israel fall apart

and disappear as a nation before me.”

³⁷God’s Message:

“If the skies could be measured with a yardstick

and the earth explored to its core,

Then and only then would I turn my back on Israel,

disgusted with all they’ve done.” God’s Decree.

^38–40“The time is coming”—it’s God’s Decree—“when God’s city will be rebuilt, rebuilt all the way from the Citadel of Hanamel to the Corner Gate. The master plan will extend west to Gareb Hill and then around to Goath. The whole valley to the south where incinerated corpses are dumped—a death valley if there ever was one!—and all the terraced fields out to the Brook Kidron on the east as far north as the Horse Gate will be consecrated to me as a holy place.

“This city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”