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.”
Currently Selected:
Jeremiah 33: ERV
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
© 1987, 2004 Bible League International
Jeremiah 33
33
1 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined to the atrium of the prison, saying:
2 "Thus says the Lord, who will prepare, and form, and accomplish it; the Lord is his name.
3 Cry out to me and I will heed you. And I will announce to you great things, things that are certain, though you do not know them.
4 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to the houses of this city, and to the houses of the king of Judah, which have been destroyed, and to the fortifications, and to the sword
5 of those who have arrived, so that they may fight with the Chaldeans, and so that they may have their fill of the dead bodies of the men whom I have struck down in my fury and in my indignation, concealing my face from this city, because of all their wickedness:
6 Behold, I will lead over them scars and health, and I will cure them. And I will reveal to them an invocation of peace and truth.
7 And I will convert the turning away of Judah and the turning away of Jerusalem. And I will build them up, just as from the beginning.
8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me. And I will forgive all their iniquities, by which they have offended against me and have despised me.
9 And this will be for me: a name, and a joy, and a praise, and an exultation, among all the nations of the earth who will hear about all the good things that I will accomplish for them. And they will be afraid and troubled over all these good things, and over all the peace, that I will accomplish for them.
10 Thus says the Lord: Still shall there be heard in this place, (which you say is desolate, because there is neither man nor beast,) and in the cities of Judah and outside of Jerusalem, (which are desolate, without man, and without an inhabitant and without cattle,)
11 the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: 'Confess to the Lord of hosts! For the Lord is good! For his mercy is eternal!' and the voice of those fulfilling their vows in the house of the Lord. For I will lead back the turning away of the land, just as from the beginning, says the Lord."
12 Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Still shall there be in this place, (which is desolate without man and without beast,) and in all of its cities: a habitation for the shepherds giving rest to their flocks.
13 For even in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities on the plains, and in the cities that are toward the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and all around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, still shall the flocks travel by the hand of him who numbers them, says the Lord.
14 Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the good word that I have spoken to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
15 In those days and at that time, I will cause the seedling of justice to spring up from David, and he will accomplish judgment and justice upon the earth.
16 In those days, Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in confidence. And this is the name that they will call him: 'The Lord, our Just One.'
17 For thus says the Lord: There shall not cease to be a man from David sitting upon the throne of the house of Israel.
18 And there shall not cease to be a man from the priests and from the Levites before my face, who offers holocausts, and burns sacrifices, and kills victims, for days without end."
19 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying:
20 "Thus says the Lord: If my covenant with the day is able to be nullified, or my covenant with the night, such that there would be no day and no night in their time,
21 then, too, my covenant with David, my servant, may be nullified, such that he would not have a son who reigns upon his throne, with both the Levites and the priests as my ministers.
22 Just as the stars of heaven are not able to be numbered, and the sand of the sea is not able to be measured, so will I multiply the offspring of David, my servant, and the Levites, my ministers."
23 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying:
24 "Have you not seen what this people has spoken? They say: 'The two families which the Lord had chosen have been rejected.' And so they have despised my people, as if they were no longer a nation in their sight.
25 Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with the day and the night, and my laws over heaven and earth,
26 then truly I will also cast aside the offspring of Jacob, and of David, my servant, so that I do not take up any of his offspring to be leaders over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will lead back their turning way, and I will take pity on them."
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in