4For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah's kings, the ones torn down for defense against the assault ramps and the sword:
5The people coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the corpses of their own men that I strike down in my wrath and rage. I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil.
8I will purify them from all the iniquity they have committed against me, and I will forgive all the iniquities they have committed against me, rebelling against me.
9This city will bear on my behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the prosperity I will give them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them.
10"This is what the LORD says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without people or animals--that is, in Judah's cities and Jerusalem's streets that are a desolation without people, without inhabitants, and without animals--there will be heard again
11a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying, Give thanks to the LORD of Armies, for the LORD is good; his faithful love endures forever as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the LORD. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the LORD.
12"This is what the LORD of Armies says: In this desolate place--without people or animals--and in all its cities there will once more be a grazing land where shepherds may rest flocks.
13The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them in the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, the cities of the Negev, the land of Benjamin--the areas around Jerusalem and in Judah's cities, says the LORD.
14"Look, the days are coming"--this is the LORD's declaration--"when I will fulfill the good promise that I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
20"This is what the LORD says: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time,
21then also my covenant with my servant David may be broken. If that could happen, then he would not have a son reigning on his throne and the Levitical priests would not be my ministers.
22Even as the stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so too I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me."
24"Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, 'The LORD has rejected the two families he had chosen.' My people are treated with contempt and no longer regarded as a nation among them.
25This is what the LORD says: If I do not keep my covenant with the day and with the night, and if I fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth,
26then I might also reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David. That is, I would not take rulers from his descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in fact, I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them."
