Jeremiah 33 - Easy To Read Version

¹ The message from the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time. Jeremiah was still locked up in the courtyard {\cf2\super [276]} of the guards.

² The Lord made the earth, and he keeps it safe. The Lord is his name. The Lord says,

³ “Judah, pray to me, and I will answer you. I will tell you important secrets. You have never heard these things before.

⁴ The Lord is the God of Israel. The Lord says these things about the houses in Jerusalem and about the palaces {\cf2\super [277]} of the kings of Judah. The enemy will pull those houses down. The enemy will build ramps up to the top of the city walls. The enemy will use swords and fight the people in these cities.

⁵ “The people in Jerusalem have done many bad things. I am angry at those people. I have turned against them. So I will kill many, many people there. The Babylonian army will come to fight against Jerusalem. There will be many, many dead bodies in the houses in Jerusalem.

⁶ “But then I will heal the people in that city. I will let those people enjoy peace and safety.

⁷ I will make good things happen to Judah and Israel again. I will make those people strong like in the past.

⁸ They sinned against me—but I will wash away that sin. They fought against me—but I will forgive them.

⁹ Then Jerusalem will be a wonderful place. People will be happy. And people from other nations will praise it. This will happen at the time those people hear about the good things happening there. They will hear about the good things I am doing for Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “You people are saying, ‘Our country is an empty desert. There are no people or animals living there.’ It is now quiet in the streets of Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah. But it will be noisy there soon.

¹¹ There will be sounds of joy and happiness. There will be the happy sounds of a bride and groom. There will be the sounds of people bringing their gifts to the Lord’s temple. {\cf2\super [278]} Those people will say, ‘Praise the Lord All-Powerful! The Lord is good! The Lord’s kindness continues forever!’ The people will say these things because I will again do good things to Judah. It will be like in the beginning.” The Lord said these things.

¹² The Lord All-Powerful says, “This place is empty now. There are no people or animals living here. But there will be people in all the towns of Judah. There will be shepherds, and there will be pastures where they will let their flocks rest.

¹³ Shepherds count their sheep as the sheep walk in front of them. People will be counting their sheep all around the country—in the hill-country, in the western foothills, in the Negev, {\cf2\super [279]} and in all the other towns of Judah.”

¹⁴ This message is from the Lord: “I made a special promise to the people of Israel and Judah. The time is coming when I will do the things I promised.

¹⁵ At that time, I will make a good ‘branch’ grow from David’s family. That good ‘branch’ will do the things that are good and right for the country.

¹⁶ At the time of this ‘branch,’ the people of Judah will be saved. The people will live safely in Jerusalem. The branch’s name is: ‘The Lord is Good.’”

¹⁷ The Lord says, “A person from David’s family will always sit on the throne and rule the family of Israel.

¹⁸ And there will always be priests from the family of Levi. Those priests will always stand before me and offer burnt offerings and sacrifice grain offerings and give sacrifices to me.”

¹⁹ This message from the Lord came to Jeremiah.

²⁰ The Lord says, “I have an agreement with day and night. I agreed that they will continue forever. You can’t change that agreement. Day and night will always come at the right time. If you could change that agreement,

²¹ then you could change my Agreement with David and Levi. Then descendants {\cf2\super [280]} from David would not be the kings and the family of Levi would not be priests.

²² But I will give many descendants to my servant David and to the family group of Levi. They will be as many as the stars in the sky—no person can count all those stars. And they will be as many as the pieces of sand on the seashore—no person can count those pieces of sand.”

²³ Jeremiah received this message from the Lord:

²⁴ “Jeremiah, have you heard what the people are saying? Those people are saying, ‘The Lord turned away from the two families of Israel and Judah. The Lord chose those people, but now he does not even accept them as a nation.’”

²⁵ The Lord says, “If my agreement with day and night does not continue, and if I didn’t make the laws for the sky and earth, then maybe I would leave those people.

²⁶ Then maybe I would turn away from Jacob’s {\cf2\super [281]} descendants. {\cf2\super [282]} And then maybe I would not let David’s descendants rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But David is my servant. And I will be kind to those people. And I will again cause good things to happen to those people.”