Jeremiah 33:3 (ASV)

Passage

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great things, and difficult, which thou knowest not.

Nearby Context

Jeremiah 33:1 Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying,

Jeremiah 33:2 Thus saith Jehovah that doeth it, Jehovah that formeth it to establish it; Jehovah is his name:

Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great things, and difficult, which thou knowest not.

Jeremiah 33:4 For thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are broken down [to make a defence] against the mounds and against the sword;

Jeremiah 33:5 while [men] come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city:

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "call", "answer", "thee", "show", "great", "things", and "difficult". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "call" and "answer", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 2's "Thus saith Jehovah that doeth it Jehovah..." into verse 4's "For thus saith Jehovah the God of...", so "call" and "answer" belong inside that flow. In Jeremiah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "call" and "answer" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.