Jeremiah 33-34

Contemporary English Version

The Lord Promises To Give the Land Back to His People

33 ^1-2 I was still being held prisoner in the courtyard of the palace guards when the Lord told me:

I am the Lord, and I created the whole world.^{[a] 3} Ask me, and I will tell you things that you don't know and can't find out.

^4-5 Many of the houses in Jerusalem and some of the buildings at the royal palace have been torn down to be used in repairing the walls to keep out the Babylonian attackers.^[b] Now there are empty spaces where the buildings once stood. But I am furious, and these spaces will be filled with the bodies of the people I kill. The people of Jerusalem will cry out to me for help, but they are evil, and I will ignore their prayers.

⁶ Then someday, I will heal this place and my people as well, and let them enjoy unending peace.^{[c] 7} I will give this land to Israel and Judah once again, and I will make them as strong as they were before. ⁸ They sinned and rebelled against me, but I will forgive them and take away their guilt. ⁹ When that happens, all nations on earth will see the good things I have done for Jerusalem, and how I have given it complete peace. The nations will celebrate and praise and honor me, but they will also tremble with fear because of the powerful things I have done.

¹⁰ Jeremiah, you say that this land is a desert without people or animals, and for now, you are right. The towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem are deserted, and people and animals are nowhere to be seen. But someday you will hear ^11 (A) happy voices and the sounds of parties and wedding celebrations. And when people come to my temple to offer sacrifices to thank me, you will hear them say:

The land will once again be productive. ^12-13 Now it is empty, without people or animals. But when that time comes, shepherds will take care of their flocks in pastures near every town in the hill country, in the foothills to the west, in the Southern Desert, in the land of the Benjamin tribe, and around Jerusalem and the towns of Judah.

I, the Lord, have spoken.

The Lord's Wonderful Promise

^14 (B) The Lord said:

I made a wonderful promise to Israel and Judah,^[d] and the days are coming when I will keep it.

^17 (C) The king of Israel will be one of David's descendants, ^18 (D) and there will always be priests from the Levi tribe serving at my altar and offering sacrifices to please me and to give thanks.^[e]

¹⁹ Then the Lord told me:

²⁰ I, the Lord, have an agreement with day and night, so they always come at the right time. You can't break the agreement I made with them, ²¹ and you can't break the agreements I have made with David's family and with the priests from the Levi tribe who serve at my altar. A descendant of David will always rule as king of Israel, ²² and there will be more descendants of David and of the priests from the Levi tribe than stars in the sky or grains of sand on the beach.

²³ The Lord also said:

²⁴ You've heard foreigners insult my people by saying, “The Lord chose Israel and Judah, but now he has rejected them, and they are no longer a nation.”

²⁵ Jeremiah, I will never break my agreement with the day and the night or let the sky and the earth stop obeying my commands. ²⁶ In the same way, I will never reject the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or break my promise that they will always have a descendant of David as their king. I will be kind to my people Israel, and they will be successful again.

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

34 ^(E) King Nebuchadnezzar^[f] had a large army made up of people from every kingdom in his empire. He and his army were attacking Jerusalem and all the nearby towns, when the Lord told me ² to say to King Zedekiah:^[g]

I am the Lord, and I am going to let Nebuchadnezzar capture this city and burn it down. ³ You will be taken prisoner and brought to Nebuchadnezzar, and he will speak with you face to face. Then you will be led away to Babylonia.

⁴ Zedekiah, I promise that you won't die in battle. ⁵ You will die a peaceful death. People will mourn when you die, and they will light bonfires in your honor, just as they did for your ancestors, the kings who ruled before you.

⁶ I went to Zedekiah and told him what the Lord had said. ⁷ Meanwhile, the king of Babylonia was trying to break through the walls of Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem, the only three towns of Judah that had not been captured.

The People Break a Promise

^8-10 King Zedekiah,^[h] his officials, and everyone else in Jerusalem made an agreement to free all Hebrew^[i] men and women who were slaves. No Jew would keep another as a slave. And so, all the Jewish slaves were given their freedom.

¹¹ But those slave owners changed their minds and forced their former slaves back into slavery.

¹² That's when the Lord told me to say to the people:

¹³ I am the Lord God of Israel, and I made an agreement with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, where they had been slaves. ^14 (F) As part of this agreement, you must let a Hebrew slave go free after six years of service.

Your ancestors did not obey me, ^15-16 but you decided to obey me and do the right thing by setting your Hebrew slaves completely free. You even went to my temple, and in my name you made an agreement to set them free. But you have abused my name, because you broke that agreement and forced your former slaves back into slavery.

¹⁷ You have disobeyed me by not giving your slaves their freedom. So I will give you freedom—the freedom to die in battle or from disease or hunger. I will make you disgusting to all other nations on earth.

¹⁸ You asked me to be a witness when you made the agreement to set your slaves free. And as part of the ceremony you cut a calf into two parts, then walked between the parts. But you people of Jerusalem have broken that agreement as well as my agreement with Israel. So I will do to you what you did to that calf. ^19-20 I will let your enemies take all of you prisoner, including the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the royal officials, the priests, and everyone else who walked between the two parts of the calf. These enemies will kill you and leave your bodies lying on the ground as food for birds and wild animals.

^21-22 These enemies are King Nebuchadnezzar^[j] of Babylonia and his army. They have stopped attacking Jerusalem, but they want to kill King Zedekiah and his high officials. So I will command them to return and attack again. This time they will conquer the city and burn it down, and they will capture Zedekiah and his officials. I will also let them destroy the towns of Judah, so that no one can live there any longer.