1 ARST After King Jehoiachin, his mother, his palace officials, other officials in Judah and Jerusalem, and all the various kinds of craftsmen had been exiled to Babylon, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the elders, the priests, the prophets and all the other people who had been taken from Jerusalem to Babylon by soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar. BSB BSB: This is the text of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the others Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
3 ARST He gave the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan, and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, when they were about to go to Babylon to be ambassadors from King Zedekiah to King Nebuchadnezzar. This is the letter that Jeremiah wrote, the message that Yahweh gave him. BSB BSB: The letter was entrusted to Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It stated:
4 ARST This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says to all you people who were captured here in Jerusalem and taken there to Babylon: BSB BSB: This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles who were carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
6 ARST Get married and have children. Then when they grow up, choose wives for your sons, and husbands for your daughters, in order that they also may have children. In that way, the number of your people will increase, not decrease. BSB BSB: Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease.
7 ARST Also, do things that will cause things to go well for the other people there in the city where I sent you. Pray that things will go well for the people in that city, because if things go well for them, things will go well for you, also.” BSB BSB: Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
8 ARST This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says:“There are false prophets and fortune tellers among you. Do not allow them to deceive you. Do not pay attention to them when they tell you their dreams, BSB BSB: For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Do not be deceived by the prophets and diviners among you, and do not listen to the dreams you elicit from them.
9 ARST because they are telling you lies, saying that I have given them the messages that they are telling you. But, I have not appointed them.” BSB BSB: For they are falsely prophesying to you in My name; I have not sent them, declares the LORD.”
11 ARST I, Yahweh, know what I have planned for you. I am planning to cause things to go well for you, not to cause you to experience disasters. I am planning to give you many things that you can confidently expect to receive in the future that your people will survive to see. BSB BSB: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
12 ARST At that time, when you go to worship me and call out my name in prayer, I will listen to what you pray. BSB BSB: Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
14 ARST I will help you. I will cause you to no longer be slaves in Babylon. I will gather you from all the nations to which I have exiled you, and I will bring you back here to your own land, to the place from which you were taken.” BSB BSB: I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have banished you, declares the LORD. I will restore you to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
15 ARST Some of you say that Yahweh has appointed prophets for you there in Babylon. BSB BSB: Because you may say, “The LORD has raised up for us prophets in Babylon,”
16 ARST But this is what Yahweh says about the king who rules here in Jerusalem, and about all the other people who are still living here— your relatives who were not taken to Babylon with you. BSB BSB: this is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile—
17 ARST Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says this:“I will cause them to experience wars and famines and diseases. I will cause them to become like bad figs that are very rotten, with the result that no one can eat them. BSB BSB: this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will send against them sword and famine and plague, and I will make them like rotten figs, so bad they cannot be eaten.
18 ARST I will not stop causing them to experience wars and famines and diseases. And I will scatter them all around the world. In every country where I force them to be taken, I will cause them to be people whom others curse and be horrified about and mock. BSB BSB: I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth—a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among all the nations to which I banish them.
19 ARST That will happen because they have refused to pay attention to my messages, messages that I gave to the prophets whom I sent to them. And you who have been exiled to Babylon have not paid attention to them, either.” That is what Yahweh says. BSB BSB: I will do this because they have not listened to My words, declares the LORD, which I sent to them again and again through My servants the prophets. And neither have you exiles listened, declares the LORD.”
20 ARST Therefore, you people who have been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon, listen to this message from Yahweh. BSB BSB: So hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
21 ARST This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships,, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are telling lies to you, saying that they are giving messages from him:“They will be seized and taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, who will cause them to be executed while you are watching. BSB BSB: This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you lies in My name: “I will deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes.
22 ARST Because of what will happen to them, all you people who have been taken from Judah to Babylon will say this when they curse someone:‘I hope that Yahweh will do to you the same thing that he did to Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon caused to be killed by being burned in a fire.’ BSB BSB: Because of them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’
23 ARST They have done terrible things to my Israelite people. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and they have spoken lies, saying that they were messages from me. They have said things that I did not tell them to say, and I, Yahweh, have heard them say those things.” BSB BSB: For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.”
24 ARST Yahweh told me to send this message to Shemaiah, a man from Nehelam who was living in Babylon: BSB BSB: You are to tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite that
25 ARST “This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says:“You wrote a letter that no one told you to write. You sent it to Zephaniah the priest, son of Maaseiah, and you sent copies to the other priests and all the other people here in Jerusalem. This is what you wrote to him: BSB BSB: this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “In your own name you have sent out letters to all the people of Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests. You said to Zephaniah:
26 ARST ‘Zephaniah, Yahweh has appointed you to be the priest instead of Jehoiada, to supervise those who work in the temple. Anyone who acts like a crazy man and who claims that he is a prophet, you should put his arms and legs and head into stocks. BSB BSB: ‘The LORD has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada, to be the chief officer in the house of the LORD, responsible for any madman who acts like a prophet—you must put him in stocks and neck irons.
27 ARST So why have you not done anything to stop Jeremiah, the man from Anathoth, who pretends that he is a prophet among you? BSB BSB: So now, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you?
28 ARST He sent a letter to us who are here in Babylon, saying that we will be here for a long time. He said that therefore we should build houses and plan to stay here, and plant gardens, and eat the food that is produced in the gardens.’” BSB BSB: For he has sent to us in Babylon, claiming: Since the exile will be lengthy, build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat their produce.’”
29 ARST But when Zephaniah the priest received the letter from you, he brought it to me and read it to me. BSB BSB: (Zephaniah the priest, however, had read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet.)
30 ARST Then Yahweh gave me this message: BSB BSB: Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
31 ARST “Send this message to all the people from Judah who are there in Babylon: Say that this is what Yahweh says about Shemaiah, the man from Nehelam:‘I did not appoint him, but he has deceived you and caused you to believe the lies that he prophesied. BSB BSB: “Send a message telling all the exiles what the LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you—though I did not send him—and has made you trust in a lie,
32 ARST So, I will punish him and his family. He has incited you to rebel against me. Because of that, all of his descendants will soon die. I will do many good things for you, my people, but he and his descendants will not see those things, because they will be dead. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it!’” BSB BSB: this is what the LORD says: ‘I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good that I will bring to My people, declares the LORD, for he has preached rebellion against the LORD.’”
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