The Branch of Righteousness

23 “Woe ^(A)to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” says the Lord. ² Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: “You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. ^(B)Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,” says the Lord. ³ “But ^(C)I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. ⁴ I will set up ^(D)shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,” says the Lord.

^[d]THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

⁷ “Therefore, behold, ^(J)the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ ⁸ but, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country ^(K)and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own ^(L)land.”

^14 (A)‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that ^(B)I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah:

^[a]THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’

¹⁷ “For thus says the Lord: ‘David shall never ^(D)lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; ¹⁸ nor shall the ^(E)priests, the Levites, lack a man to ^(F)offer burnt offerings before Me, to ^[b]kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.’ ”

The Permanence of God’s Covenant

¹⁹ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁰ “Thus says the Lord: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, ²¹ then ^(G)My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers. ²² As ^(H)the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I ^(I)multiply the descendants of David My servant and the ^(J)Levites who minister to Me.’ ”

²³ Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ²⁴ “Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the Lord has chosen, He has also cast them off’? Thus they have ^(K)despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them.

²⁵ “Thus says the Lord: ‘If ^(L)My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not ^(M)appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, ^26 (N)then I will ^(O)cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them.’ ”

²⁷ “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that ^(A)I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸ And it shall come to pass, that as I have ^(B)watched over them ^(C)to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them ^(D)to build and to plant, says the Lord. ^29 (E)In those days they shall say no more:

^30 (F)But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

A New Covenant

³¹ “Behold, the ^(G)days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ³² not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that ^(H)I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, ^[a]though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. ^33 (I)But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: ^(J)I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their ^[b]hearts; ^(K)and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for ^(L)they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For ^(M)I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

³⁷ Thus says the Lord:

³⁸ “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the city shall be built for the Lord ^(T)from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. ^39 (U)The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath. ⁴⁰ And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, ^(V)to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, ^(W)shall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”