Jeremiah 33–35

Promise of Restoration

33While Jeremiah was still confined^b in the courtyard^c 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}‘Call^g to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable^h things you do not know.’ ⁴For 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 ramps^j and the sword ⁵in the fight with the Babylonians^a: ‘They will be filled with the dead bodies of the people I will slay in my anger and wrath.^k I will hide my face^l from this city because of all its wickedness.

⁶“ ‘Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal^m my people and will let them enjoy abundant peaceⁿ and security. ⁷I will bring Judah^o and Israel back from captivity^bp and will rebuild^q them as they were before.^{r 8}I will cleanse^s them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive^t all their sins of rebellion against me. ⁹Then this city will bring me renown,^u joy, praise^v and honor^w before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it; and they will be in awe and will tremble^x 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 ¹¹the sounds of joy and gladness,^a the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings^b 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 fortunes^e of the land as they were before,^f’ says the Lord.

¹²“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In this place, desolate^g and without people or animals^h—in all its towns there will again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.^{i 13}In the towns of the hill^j 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 hand^l of the one who counts them,’ says the Lord.

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

¹⁵“ ‘In those days and at that time

I will make a righteousⁿ Branch^o sprout from David’s line;^p

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

¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved^q

and Jerusalem will live in safety.^r

This is the name by which it^c will be called:^s

The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’^t

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

¹⁹The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁰“This is what the Lord says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day^y and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time,^{z 21}then my covenant^a with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites^b 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 countless^d as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.’ ”

²³The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁴“Have you not noticed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdoms^de he chose’? So they despise^f 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 night^h and established the lawsⁱ of heaven and earth,^{j 26}then I will reject^k the descendants of Jacob^l 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 fortunes^em and have compassionⁿ on them.’ ”

Warning to Zedekiah

34While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples^o in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem^p 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 Zedekiah^q 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 fire^u 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.’ ”

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

Freedom for Slaves

⁸The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people^y in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom^z for the slaves. ⁹Everyone 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. ¹¹But afterward they changed their minds^b and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.

¹²Then 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 ancestors^c 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.’^ae Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention^f to me. ¹⁵Recently 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 profaned^j 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, plague^l and famine.^m I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.^{n 18}Those who have violated my covenant^o 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, ²⁰I will deliver^r 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 Zedekiah^u king of Judah and his officials^v into the hands of their enemies^w who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon,^x which has withdrawn^y from you. ²²I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take^z it and burn^a it down. And I will lay waste^b the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

The Rekabites

35This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord during the reign of Jehoiakim^c son of Josiah king of Judah: ²“Go to the Rekabite^d family and invite them to come to one of the side rooms^e of the house of the Lord and give them wine to drink.”

³So 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. ⁴I 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 Shallum^g the doorkeeper.^{h 5}Then I set bowls full of wine and some cups before the Rekabites and said to them, “Drink some wine.”

⁶But they replied, “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadab^ai 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 land^l where you are nomads.’ ⁸We have obeyed everything our forefather^m Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine ⁹or 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. ¹¹But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded^o this land, we said, ‘Come, we must go to Jerusalem^p to escape the Babylonian^b and Aramean armies.’ So we have remained in Jerusalem.”

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