Study Desk

Get married and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons, and let your daughters be married so they also may have sons and daughters. Have many children in Babylon; don't become fewer in number.

Also do good things for the city where I sent you as captives. Pray to the Lord for the city where you are living, because if good things happen in the city, good things will happen to you also."

This is what the Lord says: "Babylon will be powerful for seventy years. After that time I will come to you, and I will keep my promise to bring you back to Jerusalem.

I say this because I know what I am planning for you," says the Lord . "I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.

You will search for me. And when you search for me with all your heart, you will find me!

Jeremiah has sent this message to us in Babylon: You will be there for a long time, so build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they grow.'"

So the Lord says, I will soon punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his family. He will not see the good things I will do for my people, says the Lord . None of his family will be left alive among the people, because he has taught the people to turn against me.'"

This will be a terrible day! There will never be another time like this. This is a time of great trouble for the people of Jacob, but they will be saved from it."

There is no one to argue your case and no cure for your sores. So you will not be healed.

Why are you crying out about your injury? There is no cure for your pain. I did these things to you because of your great guilt, because of your many sins.

This is what the Lord says: "Be happy and sing for the people of Jacob. Shout for Israel, the greatest of the nations. Sing your praises and shout this: ‘ Lord , save your people, those who are left alive from the nation of Israel!'

The Lord will pay for the people of Jacob and will buy them back from people stronger than they were.

The people of Israel will come to the high points of Jerusalem and shout for joy. Their faces will shine with happiness about all the good things from the Lord : the grain, new wine, oil, young sheep, and young cows. They will be like a garden that has plenty of water, and they will not be troubled anymore.

This is what the Lord says: "A voice was heard in Ramah of painful crying and deep sadness: Rachel crying for her children. She refused to be comforted, because her children are dead!"

But this is what the Lord says: "Stop crying; don't let your eyes fill with tears. You will be rewarded for your work!" says the Lord . "The people will return from their enemy's land.

So there is hope for you in the future," says the Lord . "Your children will return to their own land.

Lord , after I wandered away from you, I changed my heart and life. After I understood, I beat my breast with sorrow. I was ashamed and disgraced, because I suffered for the foolish things I did when I was young.'

The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: "I will again do good things for the people of Judah. At that time the people in the land of Judah and its towns will again use these words: ‘May the Lord bless you, home of what is good, holy mountain.'

Instead, each person will die for his own sin; the person who eats sour grapes will grind his own teeth.

People will no longer have to teach their neighbors and relatives to know the Lord , because all people will know me, from the least to the most important," says the Lord . "I will forgive them for the wicked things they did, and I will not remember their sins anymore."