29. They will enter the city, set it on fire, and burn it down—including the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and drink offerings to other gods, which made me especially angry.
30. The people of Israel and Judah have done nothing but evil in my eyes since their youth; the people of Israel and Judah have done nothing but anger me by the work of their hands, declares the Lord.
31. This city has enraged me from the day it was built to this very day, and so it must be removed from my sight—
32. because of all the evil done by the people of Israel and Judah to make me angry—they, their kings and officials, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah, and those who live in Jerusalem.
33. They turned their backs to me and not their faces; and though I taught them over and over, they wouldn’t accept my correction.
34. They set up their disgusting idols in the temple that bears my name and violated it;
35. and they built shrines to Baal in the Ben-hinnon Valley, where they sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded them—nor did it even cross my mind—that they should do such detestable things, leading Judah to sin.
36. You have been saying, "This city will be handed over to the king of Babylon through sword, famine, and disease." But this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:
37. I will gather them from all the countries where I have scattered them in my fierce anger and rage. I will bring them back to this place to live securely.
38. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
39. I will give them one heart and one mind so that they may worship me all the days of their lives, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to stop treating them graciously. I will put into their hearts a sense of awe for me so that they won’t turn away from me.
41. I will rejoice in treating them graciously, and I will plant them in this land faithfully and with all my heart and being.
42. The Lord proclaims: Just as I brought this great disaster on this people, so I will bring on them all the good I promised them.
43. Fields will be bought in this land, a land you have said is bleak and uninhabited and in the possession of the Babylonians.
44. Fields will be bought, and deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed in the land of Benjamin and in the outlying areas of Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the highlands, in the towns of the western foothills and the arid southern plain; for I will bring them back from their captivity, declares the Lord.