Jeremiah 30:1-24
The Lord makes promises to his people
‘People are shouting because they are afraid!
Listen to them!
There is no
Do men ever give birth to babies?
So why are these strong men weak with pain?
They seem like a woman who is giving birth.
All their faces have become white with
worse than anything that has happened before.
It will be a time of great trouble for Jacob's
But I will
‘When that day comes,
I will break the
I will remove the
My people will no longer be slaves
under the power of foreign people.
They will serve David's descendant.
I will raise that man up to be their king.’
‘Do not be afraid, descendants of Jacob, my servants.
People of Israel, do not be
I will rescue you and your descendants from your enemies.
I will bring you back from the land far away,
where you are
Jacob's descendants will return to their own land.
They will live there safely in peace.
There will be no enemies to make them afraid.’
‘I am with you and I will save you.
I have sent you away to live in foreign lands.
That was the
I will completely destroy the
But I will not completely destroy you.
I will certainly
but only as much as you deserve.’
‘You have received very bad
Nobody can make you well again.
There is no medicine that can make you well.
They do not want to help you in your troubles.
I have hurt you,
in the way that an enemy might attack you.
You have lived in a very
and you are
So I had to punish you,
to teach you what is right.
You say that your pain will never get better.
But I had to punish you,
because you are very wicked,
and you are guilty of many sins.
All of them will go as
They took your valuable things for themselves.
Now I will take away their valuable things.
people of Zion.
They say that I have chased you out of your land.
But I will give you back your health.
I will make your
That is what the Lord says.
‘I will bring back Jacob's
Enemies have knocked down their houses,
but I will repair the homes where they lived.
I will be kind to them,
so that each family can live safely.
The city will stand again in its right place.
The
as people thank God.
People will laugh aloud because they are so happy.
I will make them grow in number.
Their descendants will be many.
I will cause other nations to give them
They will no longer
as they were long ago.
They will serve me together as one group of people.
I will
I will ask him to come near to me,
and he will come near.
Nobody would be brave enough to come near to me,
unless I asked him to come.’
That is what the Lord says.
and I will be your God. ’
like a strong storm.
Like a strong wind,
it will blow away the heads of wicked people.
until he has finished what he has decided to do.
When the time comes,
you will understand this clearly.