The Secret of Redemption

33 Then the word of Adonai came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, saying:

⁴ For thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “Concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are torn down against the siege ramps and against the sword, ⁵ they are coming to fight with the Chaldeans, but they are about to fill them with the dead bodies of the people whom I will slay in My anger and in My fury. I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness.

⁶ “Indeed, I will bring it health and healing, and I will surely heal them. I will reveal to them an abundance of shalom and truth. ⁷ I will restore Judah from exile and Israel from exile, and will rebuild them, as in former times. ⁸ I will also cleanse them from all their iniquity^[b] in which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their wrongs in which they have sinned against Me and in which they have rebelled against Me.

⁹ “Then this city will be to Me for a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth, which will hear all the good that I do for them, so they will fear and tremble because of all the good and for all the shalom that I do for it.”

Voice of the Bridegroom

¹⁰ Thus says Adonai: “Yet again in this place—which you are saying is a waste without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the desolate, without man, without inhabitant and without beast—there will be heard ¹¹ the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them who say:

as they bring offerings of thanksgiving into the House of Adonai. For I will restore the land from the exile as it was at first,” declares Adonai.

¹² Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “Yet again will there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, a pasture of shepherds making their flocks lie down. ¹³ In the towns of the hill country, in the towns of the foothills, in the towns of the South, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, will the flocks again pass under the hands of one who counts them,” declares Adonai.

Righteous Branch of David

¹⁷ For thus says Adonai: “For David, there will not be cut off a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel, ¹⁸ nor will the Levitical kohanim ever lack a man before Me to offer burnt offering, to burn grain offerings and to make sacrifices continually.”

¹⁹ And the word of Adonai came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁰ thus says Adonai: “If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night would not be at in their appointed time, ²¹ only then may My covenant be broken with My servant David, that he would not have a son to reign on his throne, and the Levitical kohanim would not be My ministers. ²² As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David My servant, and the Levites who minister to Me.”

²³ The word of Adonai came to Jeremiah, saying: ²⁴ “Have you not noticed what this people have spoken, saying: ‘The two families which Adonai did choose, He has rejected them’? Thus they despise My people—no longer a nation before them.” ²⁵ Thus says Adonai: “If I have not made My covenant of day and night firm, and the fixed patterns ordering the heavens and earth, ²⁶ only then would I reject the offspring of Jacob,^[c] and of My servant David so that I would not take from his offspring rulers over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore them from their exile, and have compassion on them.”

Warning to Zedekiah

34 The word which came to Jeremiah from Adonai, when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion and all the peoples were warring against Jerusalem and its towns, saying, ² thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “Go, speak to King Zedekiah of Judah and tell him, thus says Adonai: ‘I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire, ³ and you will not escape out of his hand, but will surely be captured and given into his hand. Your eyes will behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon.”

⁴ Yet hear the word of Adonai, O Zedekiah king of Judah, thus says Adonai concerning you: “You will not die by the sword; ⁵ you will die in peace. As there were burning ceremonies for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you, and they will lament for you: ‘Oy, lord!’ For it is a word I have spoken,” declares Adonai.

Covenant Breaking With Slaves

⁶ Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke all these words to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem, ⁷ when the army of the king of Babylon was warring against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left—against Lachish and against Azekah, for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities. ⁸ The word that came to Jeremiah from Adonai, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them, ⁹ so that everyone should let his manservant and his maidservant—Hebrew man or Hebrew woman—go free, so that no one should make a slave of a Jew, his brother. ¹⁰ So all the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone would free his manservant and his maidservant and not make them slaves any more—they obeyed, and freed them. ¹¹ But afterward they turned around and made the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, return, and brought them back into subjection as servants and as handmaids.”

¹² So the word of Adonai came to Jeremiah from Adonai, saying, ¹³ thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying: ¹⁴ ‘At the end of seven years you are to set free every man his brother that is a Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you are let him go free from you.’ But your fathers did not obey Me, nor inclined their ear. ¹⁵ Now you had repented, and had done that which is right in My eyes, by proclaiming liberty everyone to his neighbor. You even had made a covenant before Me in the House where My Name is called. ¹⁶ But you turned around and profaned My Name, and made everyone his servant and his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their will, return, and you brought them back into subjection, to be your servants and handmaids.”

¹⁷ Therefore thus says Adonai: “You have not obeyed Me, to proclaim liberty, everyone to his brother and everyone to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim for you a liberty,” declares Adonai, “to the sword, to plague and to famine! So I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸ I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts ¹⁹ —the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the officers, the kohanim, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf— ²⁰ I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them who seek their life, and their dead bodies will be for food to the birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth. ²¹ King Zedekiah of Judah and his princes I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, who were withdrawing from you. ²² Indeed, I will command,” declares Adonai, “and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a wasteland, with no one living.”

Advice to a Young Leader

4 Now the Ruach clearly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, following deceitful spirits and teachings of demons ² through the hypocrisy of false speakers—whose own conscience has been seared. ³ They forbid people to marry; they command people to abstain from foods that God created for the faithful to share with thanksgiving, having come to know the truth. ⁴ For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; ⁵ for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer.

⁶ In pointing out these things to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Messiah Yeshua, nourished in the words of the faith and the sound teaching that you have been following. ⁷ But avoid godless myths and old wives’ tales; instead, train yourself in godliness. ⁸ For physical exercise has some benefit; but godliness is beneficial for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the one to come. ⁹ Trustworthy is the saying and deserving of complete acceptance ¹⁰ (for to this end we work hard and strive): “We have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially those who trust.” ¹¹ Insist on these things and teach them.

¹² Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but become an example of the faithful—in speech, in conduct, in love, in faithfulness, and in purity. ¹³ Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to encouragement, and to teaching. ¹⁴ Do not neglect the spiritual gift^[a] within you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands of the elders. ¹⁵ Practice these things—be absorbed in them, so that your progress may be clear to all. ¹⁶ Give attention to yourself and your teaching. Persevere in these things, for in doing so you will save yourself^[b] and those who hear you.

Covenant with David’s Seed

Psalm 89