The promise to restore Judah and Israel

36 “But now I will say something more about this city. You people of Jerusalem have been saying, ‘The army of the King of Babylon will conquer it, either by their swords or because of famines or diseases.’ But this is what I, Yahweh, the God whom you Israeli people say you belong to, say: 37 ‘I will certainly bring my people back here again, from all the countries to which I will force them to go because I am extremely angry [DOU] with them. I will bring them back to this city and allow them to live here safely. 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will cause them to have one way of thinking [IDM] and behaving, in order that they may revere me, for their good and for the good of their descendants. 40 I will make an agreement with them that will last forever: I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will encourage them to revere me and never turn away from me. 41 I will be happy to do good things for them, and I will surely enable them to return to this land and remain here [MET]; I will do that with all my inner being and all my strength.’

42 And this is also what I, Yahweh, say: ‘I have caused them to experience all these disasters. Similarly, some day I will do for them all the good things that I have promised. 43 By buying land you, Jeremiah, have predicted that some day people will buy and sell fields in this land about which you people of Jerusalem now say, “The Babylonian soldiers have destroyed it. It is now desolate. It is a land where there are no longer any people or animals.” 44 But some day people will again buy and sell fields here. People will sign documents about buying those fields, and other people will witness them doing that. That will happen in the land where the descendants of Benjamin live and here in the villages near Jerusalem, in other towns in Judah, in the hilly areas and in the foothills to the west, and in the southern desert area, too. Some day I will cause them to prosper again. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.’ ”