Jeremiah 33:1–35:19

Promise of Restoration

33 While Jeremiah was still confinedb in the courtyardc of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time:d 2 “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth,e the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name:f 3 ‘Callg to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchableh things you do not know.’ 4 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses in this city and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used against the siegei rampsj and the sword 5 in the fight with the Babyloniansa: ‘They will be filled with the dead bodies of the people I will slay in my anger and wrath.k I will hide my facel from this city because of all its wickedness.

6 “ ‘Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will healm my people and will let them enjoy abundant peacen and security. 7 I will bring Judaho and Israel back from captivityb p and will rebuildq them as they were before.r 8 I will cleanses them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgivet all their sins of rebellion against me. 9 Then this city will bring me renown,u joy, praisev and honorw before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremblex at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it.’

10 “This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.”y Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted,z inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more 11 the sounds of joy and gladness,a the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offeringsb to the house of the Lord, saying,

“Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,

for the Lord is good;c

his love endures forever.”d

For I will restore the fortunese of the land as they were before,f’ says the Lord.

12 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In this place, desolateg and without people or animalsh—in all its towns there will again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.i 13 In the towns of the hillj country, of the western foothills and of the Negev,k in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, flocks will again pass under the handl of the one who counts them,’ says the Lord.

14 “ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promisem I made to the people of Israel and Judah.

15 “ ‘In those days and at that time

I will make a righteousn Brancho sprout from David’s line;p

he will do what is just and right in the land.

16 In those days Judah will be savedq

and Jerusalem will live in safety.r

This is the name by which itc will be called:s

The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’t

17 For this is what the Lord says: ‘David will never failu to have a man to sit on the throne of Israel, 18 nor will the Leviticalv priestsw ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices.x’ ”

19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 20 “This is what the Lord says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the dayy and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time,z 21 then my covenanta with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levitesb who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne.c 22 I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countlessd as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.’ ”

23 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 24 “Have you not noticed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdomsd e he chose’? So they despisef my people and no longer regard them as a nation.g 25 This is what the Lord says: ‘If I have not made my covenant with day and nighth and established the lawsi of heaven and earth,j 26 then I will rejectk the descendants of Jacobl and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunese m and have compassionn on them.’ ”

Warning to Zedekiah

34 While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peopleso in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalemp and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiahq king of Judah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.r 3 You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands.s You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.

4 “ ‘Yet hear the Lord’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword;t 5 you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fireu in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas,v master!” I myself make this promise, declares the Lord.’ ”

6 Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, 7 while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out—Lachishw and Azekah.x These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.

Freedom for Slaves

8 The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the peopley in Jerusalem to proclaim freedomz for the slaves. 9 Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.a 10 So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. 11 But afterward they changed their mindsb and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.

12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestorsc when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.d I said, 14 ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’a e Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attentionf to me. 15 Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people.g You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name.h 16 But now you have turned aroundi and profanedj my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.

17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you,k declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plaguel and famine.m I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.n 18 Those who have violated my covenanto and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.p 19 The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials,q the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, 20 I will deliverr into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them.s Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.t

21 “I will deliver Zedekiahu king of Judah and his officialsv into the hands of their enemiesw who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon,x which has withdrawny from you. 22 I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, takez it and burna it down. And I will lay wasteb the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

The Rekabites

35 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord during the reign of Jehoiakimc son of Josiah king of Judah: 2 “Go to the Rekabited family and invite them to come to one of the side roomse of the house of the Lord and give them wine to drink.”

3 So I went to get Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons—the whole family of the Rekabites. 4 I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God.f It was next to the room of the officials, which was over that of Maaseiah son of Shallumg the doorkeeper.h 5 Then I set bowls full of wine and some cups before the Rekabites and said to them, “Drink some wine.”

6 But they replied, “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadaba i son of Rekab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine.j 7 Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents.k Then you will live a long time in the landl where you are nomads.’ 8 We have obeyed everything our forefatherm Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine 9 or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops.n 10 We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab commanded us. 11 But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invadedo this land, we said, ‘Come, we must go to Jerusalemp to escape the Babylonianb and Aramean armies.’ So we have remained in Jerusalem.”

12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: 13 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go and tellq the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘Will you not learn a lessonr and obey my …