Jeremiah 29:1-31

This is the open letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders in exile, to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. (Among the exiles were King Jeconiah, Nehushta the queen mother, the high-ranking officials, the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen and metalworkers.) Jeremiah entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter read as follows: YAHWEH, the God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies, says to all the exiles deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle in the land. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Get married and have children; encourage your sons and daughters to get married and raise families. Flourish in your captivity, for you must increase and not decrease. Work for the good of the city to which I have exiled you. And pray to YAHWEH, asking for a blessing on your city since your peace depends on its peace.” For YAHWEH, the God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies, says: “Do not be deceived by the false prophets in your midst or by those who presume to know the future. Pay no attention to their dreams, for,” YAHWEH declares, “they prophesy lies to you in my name, and I have not sent them. I say to you: After Babylon has ruled over you for seventy years, I will show compassion to you and will fulfill my promise of giving you good things, and I will bring you back to your land.” 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