Jeremiah 29

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1. 1This is the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles, and to the priests, prophets, and all the people that Nebuchadnezzar had taken captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.
2. 2(This was after King Jeconiah, the queen, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters and smiths had departed from Jerusalem;)
3. 3The letter was carried by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah had sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It read:
4. 4"This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5. 5Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.
6. 6Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and husbands for your daughters so they can have children too. Increase in number there and not decrease.
7. 7Seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD for it, for in its peace you will find peace.
8. 8The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, also says: "Don't let the prophets and fortune-tellers among you deceive you, and don't pay attention to the dreams you encourage them to have.
9. 9They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I never sent them," declares the LORD.
10. 10The LORD says, 'After seventy years are completed in Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word by bringing you back to this place.'
11. 11For I know the thoughts I have toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12. 12Then you will call out to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will listen.
13. 13You will search for me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
14. 14I will let you find me," declares the LORD. "I will end your captivity and gather you from every nation and every place where I scattered you," says the LORD. "I will bring you back to the land from which I sent you into exile."
15. 15But you have said, "The LORD has raised up prophets for us here in Babylon."
16. 16So hear what the LORD says about the king who sits on David's throne, about all the people still living in this city — your relatives who did not go into exile with you.
17. 17This is what the LORD of hosts says: "Look, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the plague, and will make them like vile figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad."
18. 18I will persecute them with the sword, famine, and disease, and I will scatter them to all the kingdoms of the earth, making them a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them.
19. 19Because they have not listened to my words," declares the LORD, "which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not listen," says the LORD.
20. 20So listen to the word of the LORD, all you exiles I sent from Jerusalem to Babylon.
21. 21This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you in my name: "I am handing them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will execute them right before your eyes.
22. 22And from them a curse will be taken up by all the captives 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. 23Because they have committed vile acts in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, declares the LORD.
24. 24You shall also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,
25. 25"The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: You sent letters in your own name to all the people in Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the other priests. In those letters you wrote:
26. 26The LORD has made you priest in place of Jehoiada the priest, so that you should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every madman who makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in prison and in the stocks.
27. 27So why haven't you done anything about Jeremiah of Anathoth, who is acting as a prophet among you?
28. 28After all, he sent a message to us here in Babylon saying: This exile will be long. Build houses and settle in. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.'"
29. 29When the priest Zephaniah received this letter, he read it aloud to Jeremiah the prophet.
30. 30Then the LORD spoke to Jeremiah:
31. 31"Send this message to all the exiles: This is what the LORD says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Shemaiah prophesied to you even though I never sent him, and he led you to believe a lie.
32. 32So the LORD says: I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. None of his family will survive among this people, and he will never see the good things I plan to do for my people," declares the LORD, "because he urged rebellion against the LORD."