Jeremiah 33:1, commentary and pictures

In the closing years of Judah's apostasy the Chaldean armies came for the third and last time to besiege Jerusalem, and hope fled from every heart.

Jeremiah had been thrown into prison for predicting utter ruin and insisting on surrender, and he was kept under close surveillance by those who scorned his messages, so the word finds him still shut up in the court of the prison. The word of the Lord came to him a second time while he was still confined, in confirmation of the assurances of deliverance and restoration. It gave fresh revelations concerning Heaven's willingness to forgive and to save, so that the faithful remnant still in the city was not left to hopeless despair.

The Lord speaks in what follows as Maker and Establisher, inviting prayer with the call to call unto Him and the promise to answer and to show great and mighty things that were unknown. He declares healing and cure with abundance of peace and truth, the return of the captivity of Judah and Israel and their rebuilding as at the first, and cleansing and pardon from all iniquity and sin. He further declares a name of joy and praise and honor before all nations for His goodness and prosperity, the return of the voice of joy and gladness and of bridegroom and bride with thanksgiving for enduring mercy and with sacrifices of praise in desolate Judah and Jerusalem, dwellings for shepherds with flocks passing under the counter in the mountains and vale and south and Benjamin and Jerusalem and Judah, and the performance of the good thing promised to the house of Israel and Judah.

These revelations of forgiveness and salvation have been an unfailing source of comfort to the church of God from that day to this.