Study Desk

The Lord says, "The time is coming when Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me—everything from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

"Then it happened just as the Lord had said. My cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said to me, ‘Buy for yourself my field near Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. It is your right and duty to buy it and own it.' So I knew this was a message from the Lord .

"I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, weighing out seven ounces of silver for him.

This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: In the future my people will once again buy houses and fields for grain and vineyards in the land of Israel.'

Oh, Lord God , you made the skies and the earth with your very great power. There is nothing too hard for you to do.

You show love and kindness to thousands of people, but you also bring punishment to children for their parents' sins. Great and powerful God, your name is the Lord All-Powerful.

You plan and do great things. You see everything that people do, and you reward people for the way they live and for what they do.

They came into this land and took it for their own, but they did not obey you or follow your teachings. They did not do everything you commanded. So you made all these terrible things happen to them.

"I am the Lord , the God of every person on the earth. Nothing is impossible for me.

I will make them truly want to be one people with one goal. They will truly want to worship me all their lives, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

This is what the Lord says: "I have brought this great disaster to the people of Israel and Judah. In the same way I will bring the good things that I promise to do for them.

They will use their money to buy fields. They will sign and seal their agreements and call in witnesses. They will again buy fields in the land of Benjamin, in the area around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the mountains, in the western hills, and in southern Judah. I will make everything as good for them as it once was," says the Lord .

There will be sounds of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of brides and bridegrooms. There will be the sounds of people bringing to the Temple of the Lord their offerings of thanks to the Lord . They will say, ‘Praise the Lord All-Powerful, because the Lord is good! His love continues forever!' They will say this because I will again do good things for Judah, as I did in the beginning," says the Lord .

This is what the Lord says: "If I had not made my agreement with day and night, and if I had not made the laws for the sky and earth,

You will die in a peaceful way. As people made funeral fires to honor your ancestors, the kings who ruled before you, so people will make a funeral fire to honor you. They will cry for you and sadly say, "Ah, master!" I myself make this promise to you, says the Lord .'"

I said to your ancestors: ‘At the end of every seven years, each one of you must set his Hebrew slaves free. If a fellow Hebrew has sold himself to you, you must let him go free after he has served you for six years.' But your ancestors did not listen or pay attention to me.

So I will hand them over to their enemies and to everyone who wants to kill them. Their bodies will become food for the birds of the air and for the wild animals of the earth.

Maybe the family of Judah will hear what disasters I am planning to bring on them and will stop doing wicked things. Then I would forgive them for the sins and the evil things they have done."

So Jeremiah called for Baruch son of Neriah. Jeremiah spoke the messages the Lord had given him, and Baruch wrote those messages on the scroll.

Now King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with a message to Jeremiah the prophet. This was the message: "Jeremiah, please pray to the Lord our God for us."