Jeremiah 33:1-13 ▼

1 MOREOVER, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying,

2 Thus says the LORD who made you and formed you and established you: the LORD is his name:

3 Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not.

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, which the robbers have uprooted by the sword:

5 They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill the streets with the dead bodies of men whom I have slain in my anger and in my wrath; for I have turned my face from this city because of the evil which they did before me.

6 Behold, I will bring to it a long period of healing, and I will heal them and will reveal to them the paths of peace and truth.

7 And I will bring back the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel, and I will build them as at first.

8 And I will cleanse them from their iniquity whereby they have committed evil against me; and I will pardon all their trespasses whereby they have sinned against me, and whereby they have transgressed against me.

9 And Israel shall be to me for a name and for a delight, and for rejoicing and for glory before all the nations of the earth, who shall hear of all the good that I do to them; and they shall fear and be angry because of all the goodness and all the peace that I bring to them.

10 Thus says the LORD: Again there shall be heard in this country which you say is a waste without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, which 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 and pleasant, and his mercy endures for ever; even of those who bring a sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will bring back the captivity of the land, as at the first, says the LORD of hosts.

12 Thus says the LORD of hosts: From henceforth in this place which is waste, without men and without beast, and in all its cities there shall be habitations of shepherds and folds of the flocks.

13 In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the plain and in the cities of the south and in the land of Benjamin and in the places about Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again pass under the hands of those who count them, says the LORD.