³¹ For the Lord your God is a merciful^(A) God; he will not abandon^(B) or destroy^(C) you or forget^(D) the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

The Lord Is God

³² Ask^(E) now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth;^(F) ask from one end of the heavens to the other.^(G) Has anything so great^(H) as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? ³³ Has any other people heard the voice of God^[a] speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?^{(I) 34} Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation,^(J) by testings,^(K) by signs^(L) and wonders,^(M) by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,^(N) or by great and awesome deeds,^(O) like all the things the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

³⁵ You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other.^(P)

⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the houses in this city and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used against the siege^(A) ramps^(B) and the sword ⁵ in the fight with the Babylonians^[a]: ‘They will be filled with the dead bodies of the people I will slay in my anger and wrath.^(C) I will hide my face^(D) from this city because of all its wickedness.

²³ The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁴ “Have you not noticed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdoms^[a](A) he chose’? So they despise^(B) my people and no longer regard them as a nation.^{(C) 25} This is what the Lord says: ‘If I have not made my covenant with day and night^(D) and established the laws^(E) of heaven and earth,^{(F) 26} then I will reject^(G) the descendants of Jacob^(H) and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes^[b](I) and have compassion^(J) on them.’”

² God did not reject his people,^(A) whom he foreknew.^(B) Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”^[a]?^{(C) 4} And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”^{[b](D) 5} So too, at the present time there is a remnant^(E) chosen by grace.^(F)