Jeremias 29
1 THUS SAITH THE LORD AGAINST THE PHILISTINES;
Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the responsible men among those who had been taken away, and to the priests and the prophets and to all the rest of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon;
2 Behold, waters come up from the north, and shall become a sweeping torrent, and it shall sweep away the land, and its fulness; the city, and them that dwell in it: and men shall cry and all that dwell in the land shall howl,
(After Jeconiah the king and the queen-mother and the unsexed servants and the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem and the expert workmen and the metal-workers had gone away from Jerusalem; )
3 at the sound of his rushing, at [the sound of] his hoofs, and at the rattling of his chariots, at the noise of his wheels: the fathers turned not to their children because of the weakness of their hands,
By the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, ) saying,
4 in the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines: and I will utterly destroy Tyre and Sidon and all the rest of their allies: for the Lord will destroy the remaining [inhabitants] of the islands.
This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said to all those whom I have taken away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ascalon is cast away, and the remnant of the Enakim.
Go on building houses and living in them, and planting gardens and using the fruit of them;
6 How long will you strike, O sword of the Lord? how long will it be ere you are quiet? return into your sheath, rest, and be removed.
Take wives and have sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may have sons and daughters; and be increased in number there and do not become less.
7 How shall it be quiet, whereas the Lord has given it a commission against Ascalon, and against the regions on the sea-coast, to awake against the remaining [countries]! CONCERNING IDUMEA, thus says the Lord; There is no longer wisdom in Thaeman, counsel has perished from the wise ones, their wisdom is gone,
And be working for the peace of the land to which I have had you taken away prisoners, and make prayer to the Lord for it: for in its peace you will have peace.
8 their place has been deceived. Dig deep for a dwelling, you that inhabit Daedam, for he has wrought grievously: I brought trouble upon him in the time at which I visited him.
For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Do not let yourselves be tricked by the prophets who are among you, and the readers of signs, and give no attention to their dreams which they may have;
9 For grape gatherers are come, who shall not leave you a remnant; as thieves by night, they shall lay their hand upon [your possessions].
For they are saying to you what is false in my name: I have not sent them, says the Lord.
10 For I have stripped Esau, I have uncovered their secret places; they shall have no power to hide themselves, they have perished [each] by the hand of his brother, my neighbour, and it is impossible
For this is what the Lord has said: When seventy years are ended for Babylon, I will have pity on you and give effect to my good purpose for you, causing you to come back to this place.
11 for your fatherless one to be left to live, but I shall live, and the widows trust in me.
For I am conscious of my thoughts about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope at the end.
12 For thus says the Lord; They who were not appointed to drink the cup have drunk [it]; and you shall by no means be cleared:
And you will go on crying to me and making prayer to me, and I will give ear to you.
13 for by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, that you shall be in the midst of her an impassable [land], and a reproach, and a curse; and all her cities shall be desert for ever.
And you will be searching for me and I will be there, when you have gone after me with all your heart.
14 I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent messengers to the nations, [saying, ]Assemble yourselves, and come against her; rise you up to war.
I will be near you again, says the Lord, and your fate will be changed, and I will get you together from all the nations and from all the places where I had sent you away, says the Lord; and I will take you back again to the place from which I sent you away prisoners.
15 I have made you small amongst the nations, utterly contemptible amongst men.
For you have said, The Lord has given us prophets in Babylon.
16 Your insolence has risen up against you, the fierceness of your heart has burst the holes of the rocks, it has seized upon the strength of a lofty hill; for as an eagle he set his nest on high: thence will I bring you down.
For this is what the Lord has said about the king who is seated on the seat of David's kingdom, and about all the people living in this town, your countrymen who have not gone out with you as prisoners;
17 And Idumea shall be a desert: every one that passes by shall hiss at it.
This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, I will send on them the sword and need of food and disease, and will make them like bad figs, which are of no use for food, they are so bad.
18 As Sodom was overthrown and Gomorrha and they that sojourned in her, says the Lord Almighty, no man shall dwell there, nor shall any son of man inhabit there.
I will go after them, attacking them with the sword and with need of food and with disease, and will make them a cause of fear to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and a wonder and a surprise and a name of shame among all the nations where I have sent them:
19 Behold, he shall come up as a lion out of the midst of Jordan to the place of Aetham: for I will speedily drive them from it, and do you set the young men against her: for who is like me? and who will withstand me? and who [is] this shepherd, who shall confront me?
Because they have not given ear to my words, says the Lord, when I sent to them my servants the prophets, getting up early and sending them; but you did not give ear, says the Lord.
20 Therefore hear you the counsel of the Lord, which he has framed against Idumea; and his device, which he has devised against the inhabitants of Thaeman: surely the least of the sheep shall be swept off; surely their dwelling shall be made desolate for them.
And now, give ear to the word of the Lord, all you whom I have sent away prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylon.
21 For at the sound of their fall the earth was scared, and the cry of the sea was not heard.
This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said about Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who are saying to you what is false in my name: See, I will give them up into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your eyes.
22 Behold, he shall look [upon her] as an eagle, and spread forth [his] wings over her strongholds; and the heart of the mighty men of Idumea shall be in that day as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
And their fate will be used as a curse by all the prisoners of Judah who are in Babylon, who will say, May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, who were burned in the fire by the king of Babylon;
Because they have done shame in Israel, and have taken their neighbours' wives, and in my name have said false words, which I did not give them orders to say; and I myself am the witness, says the Lord.
About Shemaiah the Nehelamite.
Shemaiah the Nehelamite sent a letter in his name to Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
The Lord has made you priest in place of Jehoiada the priest, to be an overseer in the house of the Lord for every man who is off his head and is acting as a prophet, to put such men in prison and in chains.
So why have you made no protest against Jeremiah of Anathoth, who is acting as a prophet to you?
For he has sent to us in Babylon saying, The time will be long: go on building houses and living in them, and planting gardens and using the fruit of them.
And Zephaniah the priest made clear to Jeremiah the prophet what was said in the letter, reading it to him.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
Send to all those who have been taken away, saying, This is what the Lord has said about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has been acting as a prophet to you, and I did not send him, and has made you put your faith in what is false;
For this cause the Lord has said, Truly I will send punishment on Shemaiah and on his seed; not a man of his family will have a place among this people, and he will not see the good which I am going to do to my people, says the Lord: because he has said words against the Lord.
