Bible Tribes

¹MOREOVER, the word of Yahvah came to Jeremiah the 2nd time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying, ²Thus says Yahvah who made you and formed you and established you: Yahvah is his name: ³Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know. ⁴For thus says Yahvah, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which the robbers have uprooted by the sword: ⁵They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill the streets with the dead bodies of men whom I have slain in my anger and in my wrath; for I have turned my face from this city because of the evil which they did before me. ⁶Look, I will bring to it a long period of healing, and I will heal them and will reveal to them the paths of peace and truth. ⁷And I will bring back the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel, and I will build them as at first. ⁸And I will cleanse them from their iniquity by which they have committed evil against me; and I will pardon all their trespasses by which they have sinned against me, and by which they have transgressed against me. ⁹And Israel will be to me for a name and for a delight, and for rejoicing and for glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good that I do to them; and they will fear and be angry because of all the goodness and all the peace that I bring to them.

¹⁰Thus says Yahvah, Again there will be heard in this country which you say is a waste without man and without animal, even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, which are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal, ¹¹The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, Praise Yahvah of hosts; for Yahvah is good and pleasant, and his mercy endures forever; even of those who bring a sacrifice of praise into the house of Yahvah. For I will bring back the captivity of the land, as at the first, says Yahvah of hosts. ¹²Thus says Yahvah of hosts: From now on, in this place which is waste, without men and without animal, and in all its cities there will be habitations of shepherds and folds of the flocks. ¹³In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the plain and in the cities of the south and in the land of Benjamin and in the places about Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, flocks will again pass under the hands of those who count them, says Yahvah. ¹⁴Look, the days are coming, says Yahvah, when I will perform the good things which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah, says Yahvah. ¹⁵In those days and at that time I will cause an heir of righteousness to rise up to David; and he will rule over the kingdom and will have understanding and will execute justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live safely; and this is the name by which they will call him: Yahvah our righteousness.

¹⁷For thus says Yahvah, David will never lack an heir to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; ¹⁸The priests and the Levites will not lack a man before me to offer burnt offerings and to burn meat offerings and to sacrifice and to burn incense continually. ¹⁹And the word of Yahvah came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁰Thus says Yahvah, if they can break my ordinances of the day, and my ordinances of the night, so that there should not be day and night in their appointed time; ²¹Then may also my contract which I made with David my servant be broken, so that he should not have an heir to reign on his throne; and my contract with the priests and the Levites, my ministers. ²²As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured; so I will multiply the descendants of David my servant and of the Levites who minister to me. ²³Moreover, the word of Yahvah came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁴Have you not considered what this people are saying, The 2 families which Yahvah has chosen, he has rejected? Thus they have provoked my people to anger, that they should not be a nation before me any longer. ²⁵Thus says Yahvah, If my contract not be in effect with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; ²⁶Then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and of David my servant so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the house of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I will bring them back from their exile and will have mercy on them.