Jeremiah 30
30
Don’t Despair, Israel
1-2This is the Message Jeremiah received from God: “God’s Message, the God of Israel: ‘Write everything I tell you in a book.
3“‘Look. The time is coming when I will turn everything around for my people, both Israel and Judah. I, God, say so. I’ll bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors, and they’ll take up ownership again.’”
4This is the way God put it to Israel and Judah:
5-7“God’s Message:
“‘Cries of panic are being heard.
The peace has been shattered.
Ask around! Look around!
Can men bear babies?
So why do I see all these he-men
holding their bellies like women in labor,
Faces contorted,
pale as death?
The blackest of days,
no day like it ever!
A time of deep trouble for Jacob—
but he’ll come out of it alive.
8-9“‘And then I’ll enter the darkness.
I’ll break the yoke from their necks,
Cut them loose from the harness.
No more slave labor to foreigners!
They’ll serve their God
and the David-King I’ll establish for them.
10-11“‘So fear no more, Jacob, dear servant.
Don’t despair, Israel.
Look up! I’ll save you out of faraway places,
I’ll bring your children back from exile.
Jacob will come back and find life good,
safe and secure.
I’ll be with you. I’ll save you.
I’ll finish off all the godless nations
Among which I’ve scattered you,
but I won’t finish you off.
I’ll punish you, but fairly.
I won’t send you off with just a slap on the wrist.’
12-15“This is God’s Message:
“‘You’re a burned-out case,
as good as dead.
Everyone has given up on you.
You’re hopeless.
All your fair-weather friends have skipped town
without giving you a second thought.
But I delivered the knockout blow,
a punishment you will never forget,
Because of the enormity of your guilt,
the endless list of your sins.
So why all this self-pity, licking your wounds?
You deserve all this, and more.
Because of the enormity of your guilt,
the endless list of your sins,
I’ve done all this to you.
16-17“‘Everyone who hurt you will be hurt;
your enemies will end up as slaves.
Your plunderers will be plundered;
your looters will become loot.
As for you, I’ll come with healing,
curing the incurable,
Because they all gave up on you
and dismissed you as hopeless—
that good-for-nothing Zion.’
18-21“Again, God’s Message:
“‘I’ll turn things around for Jacob.
I’ll compassionately come in and rebuild homes.
The town will be rebuilt on its old foundations;
the mansions will be splendid again.
Thanksgivings will pour out of the windows;
laughter will spill through the doors.
Things will get better and better.
Depression days are over.
They’ll thrive, they’ll flourish.
The days of contempt will be over.
They’ll look forward to having children again,
to being a community in which I take pride.
I’ll punish anyone who hurts them,
and their prince will come from their own ranks.
One of their own people shall be their leader.
Their ruler will come from their own ranks.
I’ll grant him free and easy access to me.
Would anyone dare to do that on his own,
to enter my presence uninvited?’ God’s Decree.
22“‘And that’s it: You’ll be my very own people,
I’ll be your very own God.’”
23-24Look out! God’s hurricane is let loose,
his hurricane blast,
Spinning the heads of the wicked like dust devils!
God’s raging anger won’t let up
Until he’s made a clean sweep
completing the job he began.
When the job’s done
you’ll see it’s been well done.
* * *
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Jeremiah 30: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Jeremiah 30
30
Promises of Deliverance
1The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Write down for the record everything I have said to you, Jeremiah. 3For the time is coming when I will restore the fortunes of my people of Israel and Judah. I will bring them home to this land that I gave to their ancestors, and they will possess it again. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
4This is the message the Lord gave concerning Israel and Judah. 5This is what the Lord says:
“I hear cries of fear;
there is terror and no peace.
6Now let me ask you a question:
Do men give birth to babies?
Then why do they stand there, ashen-faced,
hands pressed against their sides
like a woman in labor?
7In all history there has never been such a time of terror.
It will be a time of trouble for my people Israel.#30:7 Hebrew Jacob; also in 30:10b, 18. See note on 5:20.
Yet in the end they will be saved!
8For in that day,”
says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
“I will break the yoke from their necks
and snap their chains.
Foreigners will no longer be their masters.
9For my people will serve the Lord their God
and their king descended from David—
the king I will raise up for them.
10“So do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant;
do not be dismayed, Israel,”
says the Lord.
“For I will bring you home again from distant lands,
and your children will return from their exile.
Israel will return to a life of peace and quiet,
and no one will terrorize them.
11For I am with you and will save you,”
says the Lord.
“I will completely destroy the nations where I have scattered you,
but I will not completely destroy you.
I will discipline you, but with justice;
I cannot let you go unpunished.”
12This is what the Lord says:
“Your injury is incurable—
a terrible wound.
13There is no one to help you
or to bind up your injury.
No medicine can heal you.
14All your lovers—your allies—have left you
and do not care about you anymore.
I have wounded you cruelly,
as though I were your enemy.
For your sins are many,
and your guilt is great.
15Why do you protest your punishment—
this wound that has no cure?
I have had to punish you
because your sins are many
and your guilt is great.
16“But all who devour you will be devoured,
and all your enemies will be sent into exile.
All who plunder you will be plundered,
and all who attack you will be attacked.
17I will give you back your health
and heal your wounds,” says the Lord.
“For you are called an outcast—
‘Jerusalem#30:17 Hebrew Zion. for whom no one cares.’”
18This is what the Lord says:
“When I bring Israel home again from captivity
and restore their fortunes,
Jerusalem will be rebuilt on its ruins,
and the palace reconstructed as before.
19There will be joy and songs of thanksgiving,
and I will multiply my people, not diminish them;
I will honor them, not despise them.
20Their children will prosper as they did long ago.
I will establish them as a nation before me,
and I will punish anyone who hurts them.
21They will have their own ruler again,
and he will come from their own people.
I will invite him to approach me,” says the Lord,
“for who would dare to come unless invited?
22You will be my people,
and I will be your God.”
23Look! The Lord’s anger bursts out like a storm,
a driving wind that swirls down on the heads of the wicked.
24The fierce anger of the Lord will not diminish
until it has finished all he has planned.
In the days to come
you will understand all this.
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
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