The Excellence of the Restored Nation
And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying:
Thus says the LORD who does it, the LORD who forms it to establish it — the LORD is his name:
Call to me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and inaccessible things you have not known.
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 torn down for the siege ramps and for the sword —
they come to fight the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the corpses of the men whom I struck in my anger and in my wrath, and for whose evil I hid my face from this city:
See, I am bringing up for her recovery and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth.
And I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and I will build them as at the first.
And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they sinned against me; and I will forgive all their iniquities by which they sinned against me and by which they transgressed against me.
And she will be to me a name of joy, a praise and a beauty for all the nations of the earth who hear all the good that I am doing for them; and they will dread and tremble over all the good and over all the peace that I am doing for her.
Thus says the LORD: Again there will be heard in this place — of which you say, It is a ruin, 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 —
the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those saying: Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for his loyal love is forever! — bringing thanksgiving to the house of the LORD; for I will restore the fortunes of the land as at the first, says the LORD.
Thus says the LORD of hosts: Again in this place, the ruined one, without man and to beast, and in all his cities, there will be a pasture of shepherds making the flock lie down.
In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland and in the cities of the Negev, and in the land of Benjamin and in the surroundings of Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, the flock will again pass under the hands of one counting, says the LORD.
The Covenant with David
See, days are coming — the utterance of the LORD — when I will raise up the good word that I spoke to the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.
In those days and at that time I will make sprout for David a Branch of righteousness, and he will do judgment and righteousness in the land.
In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell secure; and this is what she will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.
For thus says the LORD: There will not be cut off for David a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel;
and for the priests, the Levites, there will not be cut off a man from before my face, offering up burnt offering and burning grain offering and making sacrifice, all the days.
And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying:
Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, so that day and night are not in their time,
then also my covenant with David my servant will be broken, so that he has no son reigning on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers.
As the host of the heavens cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the seed of David my servant and the Levites who minister to me.
And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying:
Have you not seen what this people have spoken, saying: The two families that the LORD chose — he has rejected them? And they spurn my people, so that they are no longer a nation before them.
Thus says the LORD: If my covenant with day and night does not stand, if I have not set the statutes of the heavens and the earth,
then also I will reject the seed of Jacob and David my servant, so as not to take from his seed rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — for I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.