Jeremiah 50:4-6, 17-20, 33

The LORD says, “At that time the people of Israel and Judah will come together. They will cry and look for the LORD their God. Those people will ask how to go to Jerusalem and will start in that direction. They will come and join themselves to the LORD. They will make an agreement with him that will last forever, an agreement that will never be forgotten. “My people have been like lost sheep. Their leaders have led them in the wrong way and made them wander around in the mountains and hills. They forgot where their resting place was.

“The people of Israel are like a flock of sheep that are scattered from being chased by lions. The first lion to eat them up was the king of Assyria. The last lion to crush their bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” So this is what the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his country as I punished the king of Assyria. But I will bring the people of Israel back to their own pasture. They will eat on Mount Carmel and in Bashan. They will eat and be full on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.” The LORD says, “At that time people will try to find Israel’s guilt, but there will be no guilt. People will try to find Judah’s sins, but no sins will be found, because I will leave a few people alive from Israel and Judah, and I will forgive their sins.

This is what the LORD All-Powerful says: “The people of Israel and Judah are slaves. The enemy took them as prisoners and won’t let them go.