Jeremiah 33
33
The Lord Promises To Give the Land Back to His People
1-2I 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.#33.1,2 the whole world: One ancient translation; Hebrew “it.” 3Ask me, and I will tell you things that you don't know and can't find out.
4-5Many 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.#33.4,5 have been torn down … Babylonian attackers: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. 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.
6Then someday, I will heal this place and my people as well, and let them enjoy unending peace.#33.6 let them enjoy unending peace: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. 7I will give this land to Israel and Judah once again, and I will make them as strong as they were before. 8They sinned and rebelled against me, but I will forgive them and take away their guilt. 9When 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.
10Jeremiah, 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#1 Ch 16.34; 2 Ch 5.11-13; 7.3; Ezra 3.11; Ps 100.5; 106.1; 107.1; 118.1; 136.1. 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:
“We praise you,
Lord All-Powerful!
You are good to us,
and your love never fails.”
The land will once again be productive. 12-13Now 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 #
Jr 23.5,6. The Lord said:
I made a wonderful promise to Israel and Judah,#33.14 Israel and Judah: See the note at 2.4. and the days are coming when I will keep it.
15I promise that the time will come
when I will appoint a king
from the family of David,
a king who will be honest
and rule with justice.
16In those days,
Judah will be safe;
Jerusalem will have peace
and will be named,
“The Lord Gives Justice.”
17 #
2 S 7.12-16; 1 K 2.4; 1 Ch 17.11-14. The king of Israel will be one of David's descendants, 18#Nu 3.5-10. and there will always be priests from the Levi tribe serving at my altar and offering sacrifices to please me and to give thanks.#33.18 sacrifices to please me and to give thanks: See the notes at 14.12.
19Then the Lord told me:
20I, 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, 21and 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, 22and 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.
23The Lord also said:
24You'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.”
25Jeremiah, I will never break my agreement with the day and the night or let the sky and the earth stop obeying my commands. 26In 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.
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Jeremiah 33: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 33
33
The Promise of God
1While Jeremiah was still locked up in the courtyard of the guardhouse, the message from the Lord came to him a second time: 2“The Lord made the earth, and he keeps it safe. The Lord is his name. He says, 3‘Judah, pray to me, and I will answer you. I will tell you important secrets. You have never heard these things before.’ 4The Lord is the God of Israel. This is what he says about the houses in Jerusalem and about the palaces of the kings of Judah: ‘The enemy will pull these houses down. They will build ramps up to the top of the city walls. They will use swords and fight the people in these cities.
5“‘The people in Jerusalem have done many bad things. I am angry with them. I have turned against them, so I will kill many people there. The Babylonian army will come to fight against Jerusalem. There will be many dead bodies in the houses in Jerusalem.
6“‘But then I will heal the people in that city. I will let them enjoy peace and safety. 7I will make good things happen to Judah and Israel again and make them strong as in the past. 8They sinned against me, but I will wash away that sin. They fought against me, but I will forgive them. 9Then Jerusalem will be a wonderful place. The people will be happy. People from other nations will praise it when they hear about the good things happening there. They will hear about the good things I am doing for Jerusalem.’
10“This is what the Lord says: ‘You people say that your country is an empty desert. There are no people or animals living there.’ It is now quiet in the streets of Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah. But it will be noisy there soon. 11There will be sounds of joy and happiness. There will be the happy sounds of a bride and groom. There will be the sounds of people bringing their gifts to the Lord’s Temple. They will say, ‘Praise the Lord All-Powerful! The Lord is good! His faithful love will last forever!’ They will say this because I will again do good things to Judah. It will be as it was in the beginning.” This is what the Lord said.
12The Lord All-Powerful says, “This place is empty now. There are no people or animals living here. But there will be people in all the towns of Judah. There will be shepherds, and there will be pastures where they will let their flocks rest. 13Shepherds will count their sheep as the sheep walk in front of them. They will be counting their sheep all around the country—in the hill country, in the western foothills, in the Negev, and in all the other towns of Judah.”
The Good Branch
14This message is from the Lord: “I made a special promise to the people of Israel and Judah. The time is coming when I will do what I promised. 15At that time I will make a good ‘branch’ grow from David’s family. That branch will do what is good and right for the country. 16When he rules, Judah will be saved. The people of Jerusalem will live in safety. This will be his name: ‘The Lord Makes Things Right For Us.’”
17The Lord says, “Someone from David’s family will always sit on the throne and rule the family of Israel. 18And there will always be priests from the family of Levi. They will always stand before me and offer burnt offerings and sacrifice grain offerings and give sacrifices to me.”
19This message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. 20The Lord says, “I have an agreement with day and night. I agreed that they would continue forever. You cannot change that agreement. Day and night will always come at the right time. If you could change that agreement, 21then you could change my agreement with David and Levi. Then descendants from David would not be the kings, and the family of Levi would not be priests. 22But I will give many descendants to my servant David and to the tribe of Levi. They will be as many as the stars in the sky—no one can count all the stars. And they will be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore—no one can count the grains of sand.”
23Jeremiah received this message from the Lord: 24“Jeremiah, have you heard what the people are saying? They are saying, ‘The Lord turned away from the two families of Israel and Judah. He chose those people, but now he does not even accept them as a nation.’”
25The Lord says, “If my agreement with day and night does not continue, and if I had not made the laws for the sky and earth, maybe I would leave those people. 26Then maybe I would turn away from Jacob’s descendants. And then maybe I would not let David’s descendants rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But David is my servant, and I will be kind to those people. I will again cause good things to happen to them.”
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