35. They have built altars to Baal in the Valley of Hinnom, to sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. I did not command them to do this, and it did not even enter my mind that they would do such a thing and make the people of Judah sin.”
36. The Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, “Jeremiah, the people are saying that war, starvation, and disease will make this city fall into the hands of the king of Babylonia. Now listen to what else I have to say.
37. I am going to gather the people from all the countries where I have scattered them in my anger and fury, and I am going to bring them back to this place and let them live here in safety.
38. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.
39. I will give them a single purpose in life: to honour me for all time, for their own good and the good of their descendants.
40. I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from me.
41. I will take pleasure in doing good things for them, and I will establish them permanently in this land.
42. “Just as I have brought this disaster on these people, so I am going to give them all the good things that I have promised.
43. The people are saying that this land will be like a desert where neither people nor animals live, and that it will be given over to the Babylonians. But fields will once again be bought in this land.