 1 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile and to the priests and to the prophets and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 After that, King Jeconiah and the queen mother and the eunuchs, the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem and the craftsmen and the smiths departed from Jerusalem. 3 The letter came by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon saying, 4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I caused to be exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. 5 Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters so that you may be multiplied there and not become few. 7 Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be exiled and pray to the Lord for it. For in its peace you will have peace. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your fortune tellers in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you dream. 9 For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. 10 For thus says the Lord, When according to my Word 70 years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and confirm my good Word to you to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then you shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord. And I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord. And I will bring you again into the place from where I caused you to be exiled. 15 Because you have said, The Lord has raised us up prophets in Babylon; 16 thus says the Lord of the king who sits on the throne of David, and of all the people who live in this city, and of your brothers who have not gone out with you into captivity; 17 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will send the sword on them, and the famine and the plague. I will make them like worthless figs that cannot be eaten from badness. 18 I will pursue them with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and a waste, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them, 19 because they have not listened to my words, says the Lord, which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending. But you would not hear, says the Lord. 20 Hear the Word of the Lord, all you exiles, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21 Thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel about Ahab the son of Kolaiah and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah who prophesy a lie to you in my name. I will deliver them to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and he will kill them before your eyes. 22 A curse will be taken up from them by all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon saying, May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire. 23 Because they have committed evil in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives and have spoken lying words in my name that I have not commanded them. For I am He who knows and a witness says the Lord. 24 Speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite saying, 25 Thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, Because you have sent letters in your name to all the people who are at Jerusalem and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest and to all the priests saying, 26 The Lord has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be officers in the house of the Lord over every madman who prophesies so that you should put him into the stocks and into the collar. 27 Why have you not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth who prophesies to you? 28 For this cause he sent to us in Babylon saying, This exile is long. Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit. 29 Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing+ of Jeremiah the prophet. 30 The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying, 31 Send to all the exiles saying, Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I did not send him, and he caused you to trust in a lie. 32 Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will not have a man to live among this people. Nor shall he behold the good which I shall do for my people, says the Lord, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord.
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