¹⁷ Ah, Lord God! You are the one who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing that is too difficult for you. ¹⁸ You show mercy to thousands, but you repay the guilt of the fathers into the laps of their children after them. Great and powerful God, the Lord of Armies is your name! ¹⁹ You give sound guidance, and your deeds are mighty. Your eyes are open to all the ways of mankind. You reward everyone according to what he has done, according to what his deeds deserve. ²⁰ Up to this day you have performed signs and wonders—in the land of Egypt, in Israel, and even among all mankind—and you made a name for yourself as it is today.

²¹ You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. ²² You gave them this land that you swore to give to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³ They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey you or follow your law. They have not done everything that you commanded them to do. Therefore you have brought all this disaster upon them.

²⁴ You see that the siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it. The city will be handed over to the Chaldeans, who fight against it by means of sword, famine, and plague. What you said has taken place, as you see. ²⁵ Lord God, you said to me, “Buy the field with silver and call witnesses,” even though the city was being handed over to the Chaldeans.

²⁷ Listen to me. I am the Lord, the God who rules over all flesh. Is there anything that is too difficult for me? ²⁸ Therefore, this is what the Lord says. Watch, I am going to hand over this city to the Chaldeans and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will capture it. ²⁹ The Chaldeans who attack this city will come and set fire to it. They will burn it, along with the houses. People offered incense to Baal on those rooftops, and they poured out drink offerings to other gods there, and they provoked me to anger.

³⁰ For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight ever since their youth. The people of Israel have committed only evil with what their hands have made, declares the Lord. ³¹ Because this city has aroused my anger and wrath from the day it was built until now, I will remove it from my sight. ³² The people of Israel and the people of Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done—they, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem. ³³ They have turned their backs to me and not their faces. Though I taught them again and again, they did not listen to me or accept correction. ³⁴ They set up their disgusting things in the house that bears my name, and they defiled it. ³⁵ They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molek, something I did not command them to do. It did not enter my mind that they would do such a disgusting thing and cause Judah to sin.

³⁶ About this city, you have been saying, “It will be handed over to the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and plague.” But now this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ³⁷ Watch, I will gather them from all the lands where I have driven them in my furious anger and great wrath. Then I will bring them back again to this place. I will let them live in safety. ³⁸ Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. ³⁹ I will give them one heart and direct them in one way, so that they always fear me. This will be for their good and for the good of their children after them. ⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will never stop doing good for them. I will put this fear in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. ⁴¹ I will rejoice in doing good for them. I will plant them in this land with all my heart and all my soul.

⁴² This is what the Lord says. Just as surely as I brought this great catastrophe on this people, so I will be the one to bring them all the good that I have promised them. ⁴³ Once again fields will be purchased in this land, which you say is desolate, without man or animal, and which you say is handed over to the Chaldeans. ⁴⁴ Men will buy fields for silver, sign the deeds, seal them, and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negev. I will restore them from their captivity, declares the Lord.

² This is what the Lord, who made the earth, ^[2] says, the Lord who formed it and who established it—the Lord is his name. ³ Call on me and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious things you did not know. ⁴ For the Lord, the God of Israel, says this concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah (which were being torn down to build up defenses against the siege ramps and the sword ⁵ during the fight against the Chaldeans): I will fill them with the corpses of men whom I have killed in my anger and my wrath. I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness.

⁶ But watch! I will bring it health and healing. I will heal them and reveal an abundance of peace and truth to them. ⁷ I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and I will build them up as they were in the beginning. ⁸ I will cleanse them from all the guilt they incurred by sinning against me. I will pardon all the guilt they incurred by sinning against me and by their rebellion against me. ⁹ This will provide a name of joy, praise, and glory for me, in the presence of all the nations of the earth. They will hear about all the good that I do for this city, and they will tremble in awe because of the good and because of the peace I provide for it.

¹⁰ This is what the Lord says. You say that this place is a wasteland, without man or animal, and that there is no man living in the cities of Judah or in the desolate streets of Jerusalem, not even an animal. ¹¹ But the sound of joy, the sound of gladness, and the voice of the bride and groom will be heard there once again. A voice will again be heard that says, “Give thanks to the Lord of Armies, for the Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever,” as they bring thank offerings into the House of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the lands as they were in the beginning, says the Lord.

¹² This is what the Lord of Armies says. In this place, which is desolate, without man and without animal, in all its cities there will once again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. ¹³ In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks will once again pass under the hand of the one who counts them, says the Lord.

¹⁴ Listen, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promises that I have spoken to the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.

David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. ¹⁸ Neither will the priests, who are Levites, fail to have a man to stand before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to offer sacrifices continually.

²⁰ This is what the Lord says. If you could break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that there would no longer be day or night at their appointed times, ²¹ only then could my covenant with my servant David be broken, so that he would not have a son to reign on his throne. Only then could my covenant with the priests who are Levites, my ministers, be broken. ²² Just as the stars of the sky cannot be counted and the sand of the seashore cannot be measured, in the same way I will multiply the offspring ^[4] of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me.

²⁴ Have you not considered what these people are saying—that the Lord rejected the two families that he chose? They despise my people in this way, and they do not consider them a nation. ²⁵ The Lord says: If I have not established my covenant with day and night, or the ordinances of heaven and earth, ²⁶ only then will I reject the offspring of Jacob and of my servant David, and only then will I fail to choose one of his sons to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So I will restore them from captivity, and I will have mercy on them.