1. While Jeremiah was still locked up in the courtyard of the guards, the Lord spoke his word to him a second time:
2. “These are the words of the Lord, who made the earth, shaped it, and gave it order, whose name is the Lord:
3. ‘Judah, pray to me, and I will answer you. I will tell you important secrets you have never heard before.’
4. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses in Jerusalem and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used in defense of the attack by the Babylonian army:
5. ‘Some people will come to fight against the Babylonians. They will fill these houses with the bodies of people I killed in my hot anger. I have turned away from this city because of all the evil its people have done.
6. “ ‘But then I will bring health and healing to the people there. I will heal them and let them enjoy great peace and safety.