Jeremiah 21-36: A Translation 31b) Away with This City! (32:30-35)(^30) Indeed, the children of Israel and the children of Judah have been doing
only what is evil in my eyes from their youth. Indeed, the children of Israel
have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands-oracle of
Yahweh.^31 Indeed, with respect to my anger and my wrath, this city has be-
come to me-from the day that they built it up until this day-in order to
remove it from my presence,^32 on account of all the evil of the children of
Israel and the children of Judah, which they did to provoke me to anger-
they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, also the
men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.^33 They faced me with the
back of the neck, and not the face, although I taught them-constantly
taught-but they did not listen to take correction.^34 And they set up their
wretched things in the house upon which my name is called to defile it.
(^35) And they built the high places of Baal that are in the Valley of Ben-Hin-
nom to give over their sons and their daughters to Malech-which I did
not command them, nor did it enter my mind for them to do this abomi-
nation-in order to make Judah sin.
- Yahweh's Promised Salvation (32:36-44)
a) The Eternal Covenant (32:36-41)
(^36) But now after this, thus said Yahweh, God of Israel, to this city of which you
are saying, 'It has been given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and
by famine and by pestilence':
(^37) Look I am going to gather them from all the lands where I dispersed
them in my anger and in my wrath and in great fury, and I will bring them
back to this place and settle them in security.^38 And they will be a people
to me, and I, I will be God to them.^39 And I will give them one heart and
one way to fear me all the days, for their own good and for their children
after them.^40 And I will cut for them an eternal covenant, in which I will
not turn away from them to do good to them; and the fear of me I will put
in their hearts so they may not turn away from me.^41 And I will rejoice over
them to do them good, and I will truly plant them in this land, with all my
heart and with all my soul.
b) Fields Will Again Be Bought and Sold (32:42-44)
(^42) For thus said Yahweh:
Even as I brought to this people all this great evil, so I am going to bring
upon them all the good that I am speaking concerning them.^43 The field
shall be bought in this land, of which you are saying, 'It is a desolation,
without human or beast; it has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.'
(^44) Fields shall be bought with silver, also writing in the deed and sealing
and the summoning of witnesses to witness, in the land of Benjamin and
in the regions around Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, in the cities of