¹ Paul, a prisoner [for the sake] of Christ Jesus (the Messiah), and our brother Timothy, to Philemon our dearly beloved sharer with us in our work,

² And to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier [in the Christian warfare], and to the church [assembly that meets] in your house:

³ Grace (spiritual blessing and favor) be to all of you and [heart] peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).

⁴ I give thanks to my God for you always when I mention you in my prayers,

⁵ Because I continue to hear of your love and of your loyal faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and [which you show] toward all the saints (God’s consecrated people).

⁶ [And I pray] that the participation in and sharing of your faith may produce and promote full recognition and appreciation and understanding and precise knowledge of every good [thing] that is ours in [our identification with] Christ Jesus [and unto His glory].

⁷ For I have derived great joy and comfort and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints [who are your fellow Christians] have been cheered and refreshed through you, [my] brother.

⁸ Therefore, though I have abundant boldness in Christ to charge you to do what is fitting and required and your duty to do,

⁹ Yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you just for what I am—I, Paul, an ambassador [of Christ Jesus] and an old man and now a prisoner for His sake also—

¹⁰ I appeal to you for my [own spiritual] child, Onesimus [meaning profitable], whom I have begotten [in the faith] while a captive in these chains.

¹¹ Once he was unprofitable to you, but now he is indeed profitable to you as well as to me.

¹² I am sending him back to you in ^[a]his own person, [and it is like sending] my very heart.

¹³ I would have chosen to keep him with me, in order that he might minister to my needs in your stead during my imprisonment for the Gospel’s sake.

¹⁴ But it has been my wish to do nothing about it without first consulting you and getting your consent, in order that your benevolence might not seem to be the result of compulsion or of pressure but might be voluntary [on your part].

¹⁵ Perhaps it was for this reason that he was separated [from you] for a while, that you might have him back as yours forever,

¹⁶ Not as a slave any longer but as [something] more than a slave, as a brother [Christian], especially dear to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh [as a servant] and in the Lord [as a fellow believer].

¹⁷ If then you consider me a partner and a ^[b]comrade in fellowship, welcome and receive him as you would [welcome and receive] me.

¹⁸ And if he has done you any wrong in any way or owes anything [to you], charge that to my account.

¹⁹ I, Paul, write it with my own hand, I promise to repay it [in full]—and that is to say nothing [of the fact] that you owe me your very self!

²⁰ Yes, brother, let me have some profit from you in the Lord. Cheer and refresh my heart in Christ.

²¹ I write to you [perfectly] confident of your obedient compliance, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.

²² At the same time prepare a guest room [in expectation of extending your hospitality] to me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be granted [the gracious privilege of coming] to you.

²³ Greetings to you from Epaphras, my fellow prisoner here in [the cause of] Christ Jesus (the Messiah),

²⁴ And [from] Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

²⁵ The grace (blessing and favor) of the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) be with your spirit. Amen (so be it).

33 Moreover, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard, saying,

² Thus says the Lord Who made [the earth], the Lord Who formed it to establish it—the Lord is His name:

³ Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).

⁴ For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah which are torn down to make a defense against the siege mounds and before the sword:^(A)

⁵ They [the besieged Jews] are coming in to fight against the Chaldeans, and they [the houses] will be filled with the dead bodies of men whom I shall slay in My anger and My wrath; for I have hidden My face [in indignation] from this city because of all their wickedness.

⁶ Behold, [in the future restored Jerusalem] I will lay upon it health and healing, and I will cure them and will reveal to them the abundance of peace (prosperity, security, stability) and truth.

⁷ And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to be reversed and will rebuild them as they were at first.

⁸ And I will cleanse them from all the guilt and iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will forgive all their guilt and iniquities by which they have sinned and rebelled against Me.

⁹ And [Jerusalem] shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth that hear of all the good I do for it, and they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace, prosperity, security, and stability I provide for it.

¹⁰ Thus says the Lord: Yet again there shall be heard in this place of which you say, It is a desolate waste, without man and without beast—even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast—

¹¹ [There shall be heard again] the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord, Give praise and thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good; for His mercy and kindness and steadfast love endure forever! For I will cause the captivity of the land to be reversed and return to be as it was at first, says the Lord.

¹² Thus says the Lord of hosts: In this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, there shall again be dwellings and pastures of shepherds resting their flocks.

¹³ In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the South (the Negeb), in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah shall flocks pass again under the hands of him who counts them, says the Lord.

¹⁴ Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promise I have made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

¹⁵ In those days and at that time will I cause a righteous Branch [the Messiah] to grow up to David; and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.^(B)

¹⁶ In those days Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name by which it will be called, The Lord is Our Righteousness (our Rightness, our Justice).

¹⁷ For thus says the Lord: David shall never fail [to have] a man [descendant] to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,

¹⁸ Nor shall the Levitical priests fail [to have] a man [descendant] to offer burnt offerings before Me and to burn cereal offerings and to make sacrifices continually (all day long).

¹⁹ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁰ Thus says the Lord: If you can break My covenant with the day, and My covenant with the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season,

²¹ Then can also My covenant be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne, and [My league be broken also] with the Levitical priests, My ministers.

²² As the host of [the stars of] the heavens cannot be numbered nor the sand of the sea be measured, so will I multiply the offspring of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.

²³ Moreover, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

²⁴ Have you not noticed that these people [the Jews] are saying, The Lord has cast off the two families [Israel and Judah] which He chose? Thus My people have despised [themselves in relation to God as His covenant people], so that they are no more a nation in their [own] sight.

²⁵ Thus says the Lord: If My covenant with day and night does not stand, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of the heavens and the earth [the whole order of nature],

²⁶ Then will I also cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant and will not choose one of his offspring to be ruler over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captivity to be reversed, and I will have mercy, kindness, and steadfast love on and for them.^(C)