I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. They will be as many as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, and they will capture the cities of their enemies.
If you do, I will force Israel to leave the land I have given them, and I will leave this Temple that I have made holy. All the nations will make fun of Israel and speak evil about them.
Israel, your people are many, like the grains of sand by the sea. But only a few of them will be left alive to return to the Lord. God has announced that he will destroy the land completely and fairly.
The Lord All-Powerful says this: “I will fight against those people; I will destroy Babylon and its people, its children and their descendants,” says the Lord.
I will pour out water for the thirsty land and make streams flow on dry land. I will pour out my Spirit into your children and my blessing on your descendants.
because you will spread out to the right and to the left. Your children will take over other nations, and they will again live in cities that once were destroyed.
If they do, I will make their names remembered within my Temple and its walls. It will be better for them than children. I will give them a name that will last forever, that will never be forgotten.
“I will make new heavens and the new earth, which will last forever,” says the Lord. “In the same way, your names and your children will always be with me.
But I will give many descendants to my servant David and to the family group of Levi who serve me in the Temple. They will be as many as the stars in the sky that no one can count. They will be as many as the grains of sand on the seashore that no one can measure.”
“But the number of the Israelites will become like the grains of sand of the sea, which no one can measure or count. They were called, ‘You are not my people,’ but later they will be called ‘children of the living God.’
“I will punish Judah and all the people living in Jerusalem. I will remove from this place all signs of Baal, the false priests, and the other priests.
Get away so that I may destroy them and make the whole world forget who they are. Then I will make another nation from you that will be bigger and stronger than they are.”
The Canaanites and all the other people in this country will hear about this and will surround and kill us all! Then what will you do for your own great name?”
I am also taking Ruth, the Moabite who was the wife of Mahlon, as my wife. I am doing this so her dead husband’s property will stay in his name and his name will not be separated from his family and his hometown. You are witnesses today.”