The final return (Zeph 3:20-3:20)

“‘At that time,

I will bring you home.

At the time,

When I gather you,

I will make you

Renowned.

I will make you

Praised

Among all the people

Of the earth,

When I restore

Your fortunes

Before your eyes.’

Says Yahweh.”

Yahweh, via Zephaniah, uttered his final oracle.  He was going to bring them back home at that time.  He was going to gather them from everywhere.  Thus, they would be renowned and praised among all the people on earth.  They would have their fortunes restored right before their own eyes.  Yahweh has spoken.  Good times were coming.

The good future of Israel (Jer 33:23-33:26)

“The word of Yahweh

came to Jeremiah.

‘Have you not observed

How these people say?

‘The two families

That Yahweh chose

Have been rejected

By him.’

They hold my people

In such contempt

That they no longer

Regard them as a nation.’

Thus says Yahweh.

‘Only if I had not established

My covenant

With day and night,

With the ordinances

Of heaven and earth,

Would I reject

The offspring

Of Jacob,

Or my servant David.

Then I would not choose

Any of his descendants

As rulers

Over the offspring

Of Abraham,

Isaac,

Or Jacob.

I will restore their fortunes.

I will have mercy upon them.’”

Yahweh once again uttered an oracle to Jeremiah. People were saying that Yahweh had rejected the two families that he had chosen, Judah and Israel. Thus these people held his people in contempt. They did not consider them to be a nation or a country. Yahweh responded that as long as there was a day and a night, as well as heaven and earth, he would not reject the offspring of David. He has chosen them to be the rulers of the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was going to restore their fortunes and have mercy on them.

The blessing for the people of Judah (Jer 31:23-31:23)

“Thus says Yahweh of hosts!

The God of Israel!

‘Once more

They shall use

These words

In the land of Judah,

In its towns,

When I restore

Their fortunes.

‘Yahweh bless you!

O habitation of righteousness!

O holy hill!’”

Yahweh then blessed Judah and its towns sometime around 587 BCE at the time of the second Babylonian captivity. They should remember these words that were in Judah and all its towns. Yahweh was going to restore their fortunes. Yahweh would bless them in their place of righteousness, on the holy hill in Jerusalem. They just had to wait.

The return to Jerusalem (Jer 29:14-29:14)

“‘I will restore your fortunes.

I will gather you

From all the nations,

From all the places,

Where I have driven you.’

Says Yahweh.

‘I will bring you back

To the place

From which

I sent you into exile.’”

Yahweh is very clear in this letter of Jeremiah that he will restore their fortunes. He will gather them up from all the countries and places that he has driven them into. He was going to bring them back to the exiled places where they started from.