The Lord replies to Jeremiah
26 Then the Lord said to Jeremiah, 27 ‘I am the Lord, the God who rules all people. Nothing is too difficult for me to do. 28 So I, the Lord, tell you this: I will certainly give this city to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his army. They will get power over it. 29 The soldiers from Babylon who are attacking the city will come in. They will destroy it with fire. They will burn down the houses of the people. These people have made me angry. They went up on the roofs of their houses and they burned incense to worship Baal. They also poured out drink offerings to other false gods.
30 The people of Israel and Judah have continued to do things that I see are evil. They have done those things since they were a young nation. They have always done things that make me angry. That is what the Lord says.
31 The people of this city have made me very angry from the time when they built it, even until now. Because of that, I have decided to destroy it completely. 32 The people of Israel and Judah have made me angry because of all the wicked things that they have done. Their kings, officers, priests and prophets have all done wicked things. I will destroy this city because of the wicked things that the people of Jerusalem and all of Judah have done. 33 They should have come to me for help, but instead they turned away from me. Many times I taught them what was right. But they would not listen to me when I warned them. 34 They put their disgusting idols in the temple. I chose that place to be my special home, but they have made it unclean. 35 They have built altars in Ben-Hinnom valley to worship Baal. On those altars, they light fires to burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to Molech. I never commanded them to do that. I never even thought about it. It has caused Judah's people to be guilty of sin.
36 You are right to say, “War, famine and disease will cause the king of Babylon to get power over this city.” But I, the Lord, Israel's God, tell you this: 37 I will certainly bring my people back from the foreign countries where I will send them. I will send them away as prisoners because they have made me very angry. But I will bring them back to this place so that they can live here safely. 38 They will be my people and I will be their God. 39 I will make them all want to do one thing. They will want to live in a way that always pleases me. They will do that so that they enjoy good lives and their children also enjoy good lives after them. 40 I will make a covenant with them that will continue for ever. I will promise always to do good things for them. They will want to respect me and obey me so that they never turn away from me again. That is what I will do for them. 41 I will be happy to help them with good things. I promise them faithfully that I will put them in this land again. They will grow like strong plants.’
42 The Lord says this: ‘It is true that I have brought terrible trouble to this people. But in the same way, I will give them all the good things that I have promised. 43 At this time, you are saying, “Babylon's army will take power over our land. It will become like a desert. No people or animals will live in it.” But I tell you that one day people will again buy and sell fields in this land. 44 They will pay silver to buy fields. There will be pieces of paper that show the agreement for the sale. There will be seals on those papers. People will watch and agree that the sale has happened. People will buy fields in the land that belongs to Benjamin's tribe and in the villages round Jerusalem. They will buy land in the towns of Judah, in the hill country, in the low hills in the west and in the Negev region in the south. At that time, I will bring my people back to live safely in their land. I, the Lord, promise that this will happen!’
