²⁷ “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will greatly increase the human population and the number of animals here in Israel and Judah. ²⁸ In the past I deliberately uprooted and tore down this nation. I overthrew it, destroyed it, and brought disaster upon it. But in the future I will just as deliberately plant it and build it up. I, the Lord, have spoken!

²⁹ “The people will no longer quote this proverb:

³⁰ All people will die for their own sins—those who eat the sour grapes will be the ones whose mouths will pucker.

³¹ “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³² This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.

³³ “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴ And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

³⁸ “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when all Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ³⁹ A measuring line will be stretched out over the hill of Gareb and across to Goah. ⁴⁰ And the entire area—including the graveyard and ash dump in the valley, and all the fields out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the Horse Gate—will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be captured or destroyed.”

Jeremiah’s Land Purchase

32 The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah,^[a] king of Judah. This was also the eighteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar.^{[b] 2} Jerusalem was then under siege from the Babylonian army, and Jeremiah was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace. ³ King Zedekiah had put him there, asking why he kept giving this prophecy: “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will take it. ⁴ King Zedekiah will be captured by the Babylonians^[c] and taken to meet the king of Babylon face to face. ⁵ He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and I will deal with him there,’ says the Lord. ‘If you fight against the Babylonians, you will never succeed.’”

⁶ At that time the Lord sent me a message. He said, ⁷ “Your cousin Hanamel son of Shallum will come and say to you, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else.’”

⁸ Then, just as the Lord had said he would, my cousin Hanamel came and visited me in the prison. He said, “Please buy my field at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else, so buy it for yourself.” Then I knew that the message I had heard was from the Lord.

⁹ So I bought the field at Anathoth, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces^[d] of silver for it. ¹⁰ I signed and sealed the deed of purchase before witnesses, weighed out the silver, and paid him. ¹¹ Then I took the sealed deed and an unsealed copy of the deed, which contained the terms and conditions of the purchase, ¹² and I handed them to Baruch son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. I did all this in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the deed, and all the men of Judah who were there in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

¹³ Then I said to Baruch as they all listened, ¹⁴ “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Take both this sealed deed and the unsealed copy, and put them into a pottery jar to preserve them for a long time.’ ¹⁵ For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.’”

Jeremiah’s Prayer

¹⁶ Then after I had given the papers to Baruch, I prayed to the Lord:

A Prediction of Jerusalem’s Fall

²⁶ Then this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²⁷ “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me? ²⁸ Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I will hand this city over to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will capture it. ²⁹ The Babylonians outside the walls will come in and set fire to the city. They will burn down all these houses where the people provoked my anger by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out liquid offerings to other gods. ³⁰ Israel and Judah have done nothing but wrong since their earliest days. They have infuriated me with all their evil deeds,” says the Lord. ³¹ “From the time this city was built until now, it has done nothing but anger me, so I am determined to get rid of it.

³² “The sins of Israel and Judah—the sins of the people of Jerusalem, the kings, the officials, the priests, and the prophets—have stirred up my anger. ³³ My people have turned their backs on me and have refused to return. Even though I diligently taught them, they would not receive instruction or obey. ³⁴ They have set up their abominable idols right in my own Temple, defiling it. ³⁵ They have built pagan shrines to Baal in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and there they sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing. What an incredible evil, causing Judah to sin so greatly!

A Promise of Restoration

³⁶ “Now I want to say something more about this city. You have been saying, ‘It will fall to the king of Babylon through war, famine, and disease.’ But this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ³⁷ I will certainly bring my people back again from all the countries where I will scatter them in my fury. I will bring them back to this very city and let them live in peace and safety. ³⁸ They will be my people, and I will be their God. ³⁹ And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants. ⁴⁰ And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me. ⁴¹ I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.

⁴² “This is what the Lord says: Just as I have brought all these calamities on them, so I will do all the good I have promised them. ⁴³ Fields will again be bought and sold in this land about which you now say, ‘It has been ravaged by the Babylonians, a desolate land where people and animals have all disappeared.’ ⁴⁴ Yes, fields will once again be bought and sold—deeds signed and sealed and witnessed—in the land of Benjamin and here in Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the hill country, in the foothills of Judah^[e] and in the Negev, too. For someday I will restore prosperity to them. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Leaders in the Church

3 This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be a church leader,^[a] he desires an honorable position.” ² So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife.^[b] He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach. ³ He must not be a heavy drinker^[c] or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money. ⁴ He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. ⁵ For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church?

⁶ A church leader must not be a new believer, because he might become proud, and the devil would cause him to fall.^{[d] 7} Also, people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil’s trap.

⁸ In the same way, deacons must be well respected and have integrity. They must not be heavy drinkers or dishonest with money. ⁹ They must be committed to the mystery of the faith now revealed and must live with a clear conscience. ¹⁰ Before they are appointed as deacons, let them be closely examined. If they pass the test, then let them serve as deacons.

¹¹ In the same way, their wives^[e] must be respected and must not slander others. They must exercise self-control and be faithful in everything they do.

¹² A deacon must be faithful to his wife, and he must manage his children and household well. ¹³ Those who do well as deacons will be rewarded with respect from others and will have increased confidence in their faith in Christ Jesus.

The Truths of Our Faith

¹⁴ I am writing these things to you now, even though I hope to be with you soon, ¹⁵ so that if I am delayed, you will know how people must conduct themselves in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth.

¹⁶ Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith^[f]:

Psalm 88

For the choir director: A psalm of the descendants of Korah. A song to be sung to the tune “The Suffering of Affliction.” A psalm^[a] of Heman the Ezrahite.