Jeremiah 33:1-13

The Restoration of Prosperity to Jerusalem

33¹ Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still shut up in the place of the armed watchmen, saying, ² These are the words of the Lord, who is doing it, the Lord who is forming it, to make it certain; the Lord is his name; ³ Let your cry come to me, and I will give you an answer, and let you see great things and secret things of which you had no knowledge. ⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said about the houses of this town and the houses of the kings of Judah, which have been broken down to make earthworks and ...; ⁵ ... and to make them full of the dead bodies of men whom I have put to death in my wrath and in my passion, and because of whose evil-doing I have kept my face covered from this town. ⁶ See, I will make it healthy and well again, I will even make them well; I will let them see peace and good faith in full measure. ⁷ And I will let the fate of Judah and of Israel be changed, building them up as at first. ⁸ And I will make them clean from all their sin, with which they have been sinning against me; I will have forgiveness for all their sins, with which they have been sinning against me, and with which they have done evil against me. ⁹ And this town will be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth, who, hearing of all the good which I am doing for them, will be shaking with fear because of all the good and the peace which I am doing for it.

¹⁰ This is what the Lord has said: There will again be sounding in this place, of which you say, It is a waste, without man and without beast; even in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem which are waste and unpeopled, without man and without beast, ¹¹ Happy sounds, the voice of joy, the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who say, Give praise to the Lord of armies, for the Lord is good, for his mercy is unchanging for ever: the voices of those who go with praise into the house of the Lord. For I will let the land come back to its first condition, says the Lord. ¹² This is what the Lord of armies has said: Again there will be in this place, which is a waste, without man and without beast, and in all its towns, a resting-place where the keepers of sheep will make their flocks take rest. ¹³ In the towns of the hill-country, in the towns of the lowland, and in the towns of the South and in the land of Benjamin and in the country round Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, the flocks will again go under the hand of him who is numbering them, says the Lord.