Here’s what YAHWEH says to you: “I know all about the marvelous destiny I have in store for you, a future planned out in detail. My intention is not to harm you but to surround you with peace and prosperity and to give you a beautiful future, glistening with hope. When you call on me and come to me in prayer, I will listen to your every word. If you reach out to me, you will find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will not disappoint you,” declares YAHWEH. “All that you have lost, I will restore, and I will regather you from all the nations where I have scattered you. I will bring you back home to the land from which I exiled you,” declares YAHWEH.
YAHWEH says all these things to you because you claim that he has raised up prophets for you in Babylon. This is what YAHWEH says about David’s descendant, King Zedekiah, and all the people living in this city, your relatives who were not taken away as prisoners with you: YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, says: “I am now going to send catastrophe to them—war, food shortages, and plague. I will make them like worthless figs, so rotten they cannot be eaten. I will make them into a horrible sight to all the earth, a curse, a thing of horror, scorn, and derision to all the nations where I have driven them. I will afflict them with war, food shortages, and plague because they have refused to listen to my words,” declares YAHWEH, “although I have sent all my servants the prophets to them over and over, but still they closed their ears,” declares YAHWEH. “So pay attention, you exiles, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon, to what I, YAHWEH, have said!”
This is what YAHWEH, the God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies, says about Ahab the son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah. He says, “These men are telling you lies in my name. Therefore, I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will have them put to death before your eyes. And in the future, when the people of Judah who are exiles in Babylon want to put a curse on someone, they will say, ‘I pray that YAHWEH kills you in the same way the king of Babylon burned Zedekiah and Ahab to death!’ For they have done outrageous scandals in Israel, committing adultery with other men’s wives and speaking lying words in my name that I never spoke to them. I know all that they have done and am a witness against them. I, YAHWEH, have spoken.”
“This is what you should say to Shemaiah of Nehelam: YAHWEH, God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies, says: You have taken it upon yourself to write letters to all the people in Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah and to all the priests. Your letter states, ‘After the death of Jehoiada the priest, YAHWEH chose you to be the priest in charge of the temple security. You know that anyone who acts crazy and pretends to be a prophet should be arrested and put in chains and iron collars. Why, then, haven’t you done this to Jeremiah of Anathoth, who is now posing as a prophet to the people? He even sent us a letter in Babylon, saying: You’ll be there a long time, so build houses, settle down, plant gardens, and eat what they produce.’ ”
Now, when the priest Zephaniah had read this letter to Jeremiah, YAHWEH said to Jeremiah, “Send another letter to all the exiles in Babylon:
I, YAHWEH, have not chosen Shemaiah of Nehelam to be one of my prophets, and he has misled you by telling lies in my name. He has even stirred up rebellion against me. Therefore, I will punish Shemaiah. He and his descendants will not live to see the good things I will do for my people. I, YAHWEH, have spoken.”
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