 1 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 the maker of it, the Lord who formed it in order to establish it. The Lord Jehovah is His name. 3 Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and inscrutable things that you do not know. 4 For thus says the Lord the God of Israel concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah that are broken down to defend against the siege mounds and against the sword. 5 They are coming to fight with the Chaldeans and to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I have slain in my anger and in my fury and for all whose wickedness I have hid my presence+ from this city. 6 I will bring health and healing. I will heal them and show them the riches of peace and truth. 7 I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return and will build them as at the first. 8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquity that they have sinned against me. I will pardon all their iniquities that they have sinned and that they have transgressed against me. 9 It will be a name of joy to me, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth that will hear all the good that I do to them. They will fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the riches that I bring to it. 10 Thus says the Lord: Again there will be heard in this place that you say is a waste without man and without beast in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate without man and without inhabitant and without beast. 11 The voice of joy and the voice of gladness. The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. The voice of those who say, Praise the Lord of hosts for the Lord is good for His mercy endures forever. The voice of those who bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at the first, says the Lord. 12 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Again in this place which is a desert without man and without beast, and in all its cities, there shall be a home of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. 13 In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him who tallies, says the Lord. 14 The days are coming, says the Lord, that I will establish the good thing 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 branch of righteousness to grow up to David. He will do judgment and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live safely. This is the name by which she shall be called: The Lord Jehovah our Righteousness. 17 For thus says the Lord, David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. 18 Neither will the priests, the Levites, lack a man before me to offer burnt offerings and to kindle grain offerings and to do sacrifice forever. 19 The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, 20 Thus says the Lord: If you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season, 21 then also may my covenant with David my servant be broken, that he should not have a son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levites the priests, my ministers. 22 As the host of the heavens cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister to me. 23 The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, 24 Do you not consider what these people have spoken saying, The two families that the Lord has chosen, He has cast them off? They have despised my people so that they should no longer be a nation before them. 25 Thus says the Lord: If my covenant is not with day and night and if I have not given the ordinances of the heavens and the earth, 26 then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and my servant David so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will bring back their captivity and have mercy on them.
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