Jeremiah 32:16-44

After I had entrusted the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed: “Lord YAHWEH, you stretched out your mighty arm and created the heavens and the earth by your awesome power. Nothing is impossible with you! You show your loyal, tender love to thousands and thousands. But you also repay the guilt of fathers upon their children. You are the great and mighty God, whose name is YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies. You surpass all with your wise counsel and wise planning. Your miracles reveal your mighty power. Your eyes see everything people do, and you repay each one according to what their ways and actions deserve. You performed signs and wonders in Egypt as you still do in Israel even to this day. Your name is famous yesterday, today, and forever. Your signs and wonders in Egypt resulted in rescuing your people Israel. You stretched out your mighty hand and bared your omnipotent arm and terrifying power. Then you gave them this land that you had promised their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. But when they entered and took possession of it, they would neither listen to your voice nor follow your law. They would do nothing you commanded them to do, so you brought this disaster on them. Look! The Babylonians have already set up siege ramps to take the city! Jerusalem is now within their clutches. The people will suffer from war, food shortages, and disease when they attack the city. What you prophesied has now come true, as you see. Yet you, Lord YAHWEH, are the one who told me: ‘Buy the field, pay for it, and get witnesses,’ even though the Babylonians are about to capture the city.” The word of YAHWEH came to me, saying, “Behold, I am YAHWEH, God of all the world. Nothing is impossible with me. Therefore, I say to you, I will hand Jerusalem over to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar the king, and he will conquer it. The attacking army of Babylon will seize this city, set it on fire, and burn it to the ground. The people offered sacrifices to Baal on those same rooftops and poured out drink offerings to other idols, provoking my anger. From their earliest history, the people of Israel and Judah alike have done evil in my presence. In fact, the people of Israel have done nothing but make me angry by their actions, declares YAHWEH. From the day they built this city, these people have made me angry and furious. Therefore, I will destroy it because of all the wickedness of the people of Israel and Judah. They have all provoked my anger, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, the people of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned their backs to me and not their faces. Even though I taught them so untiringly over and over, they would not listen or accept correction. Instead, they have defiled the house that bears my name by placing their detestable idols inside it. And in the Valley of Hinnom, they have built shrines to Baal. They have sacrificed their little sons and daughters to Molech in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it ever enter my thoughts!” YAHWEH, God of Israel, says, “You say that because of war, plague, and food shortages that Jerusalem will fall and be handed over to the king of Babylon, but this is what YAHWEH, the God of Israel, says: I will graciously regather the people of Jerusalem although I was previously filled with anger and scattered them in foreign countries by my great indignation. Yes, I will bring them back to this place, and they will live under my protection. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one single purpose and one wonderful way to live so that they will always honor me, for their own good and for the good of their descendants. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and I will never stop doing good things for them. I will inspire them to honor and respect me so that they will never walk away from me again. What delight I will have in doing good things for them! With all my heart and soul, I promise that they will be planted firmly in this land once again. “For YAHWEH promises: Just as I have brought great disaster on the people, I will someday do all these great things for them. People will again buy fields in this land that you call a wasteland without men or animals. I have given it over to the Babylonians. Yes, people will pay cash for property, draw up deeds, seal them, and have them witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, throughout the villages around Jerusalem, the towns of Judah, the highlands, the western foothills, and the southern desert. For I will restore what was lost and bring the captives back to their land,” declares YAHWEH.