1. Moreover the Lord’s word came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still locked up in the court of the guard, saying,
2. “the Lord who does it, the Lord who forms it to establish it—the Lord is his name, says:
3. ‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great and difficult things, which you don’t know.’
4. For the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are broken down to make a defence against the mounds and against the sword;
5. while men come to fight with the Kasdim, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hidden my face from this city:
6. ‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.
7. I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
8. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against me. I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against me and by which they have transgressed against me.
9. This city will be to me for a name of joy, for praise, and for glory, before all the nations of the earth, which will hear all the good that I do to them, and will fear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that I provide to it.’”
10. the Lord says: “Yet again there will be heard in this place, about which you say, ‘It is waste, without man and without animal, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal,’
11. the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, ‘Give thanks to the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is good, for his loving kindness endures forever;’ who bring thanksgiving into the Lord’s house. For I will cause the captivity of the land to be reversed as at the first,” says the Lord.
12. the Lord of Hosts says: “Yet again there will be in this place, which is waste, without man and without animal, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
13. In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the South, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of him who counts them,” says the Lord.