Jeremiah 29

1 And these [are] [the] words of the letter which he sent Jeremiah the prophet from Jerusalem to [the] remainder of [the] elders of the exile[s] and to the priests and to the prophets and to all the people which he had taken into exile Nebuchadnezzar from Jerusalem Babylon towards.

After King Jehoiachin, his mother, his palace officials, other officials in Judah, and all the various kinds of craftsmen [DOU] had been exiled to Babylon, I 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.

2 After went out Jeconiah the king and the queen-mother and the court-officials [the] officials of Judah and Jerusalem and the craftsman and the smith from Jerusalem.

3 By [the] hand of Eleasah [the] son of Shaphan and Gemariah [the] son of Hilkiah whom he sent Zedekiah [the] king of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar [the] king of Babylon Babylon towards saying.

[I gave] the letter to Elasah the son of Shaphan, and to Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, when they were about to go to Babylon to be ambassadors from King Zedekiah to King Nebuchadnezzar. This is what I wrote in the letter:

4 Thus he says Yahweh of hosts [the] God of Israel to all the exile[s] whom I sent into exile from Jerusalem Babylon towards.

This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israelis [worship], says to all you people who were captured [here] in Jerusalem and taken [there] to Babylon:

5 Build houses and dwell and plant gardens and eat produce their.

“Build houses [there], and plan to stay there [because you will be there for many years]. Plant gardens, and eat the food that is produced in the gardens.

6 Take wives and father sons and daughters and take for sons your wives and daughters your give to husbands so they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and may not you diminish.

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 you people will increase, not decrease.

7 And seek [the] welfare of the city where I have sent into exile you there towards and pray for it to Yahweh for in welfare its it will belong to you welfare.

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].”

8 For thus he says Yahweh of hosts [the] God of Israel may not they deceive you prophets your who [are] in midst your and diviners your and may not you listen to dreams your which you [are] dreaming.

This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israeli people [worship], 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,

9 For with falsehood they [are] prophesying to you in name my not I sent them [the] utterance of Yahweh.

because they are telling you lies, saying that [MTY] [I have given them the messages that they are telling you]. But, I have not appointed them.”

10 That thus he says Yahweh if to [the] mouth will be completed for Babylon seventy year[s] I will give attention to you and I will carry out on you word my good by bringing back you to the place this.

This is [also] what Yahweh says: “After you [and your children] have been in Babylon for seventy years, I will help you, and do for you the things that I promised, and I will enable you to return here [to Jerusalem].

11 For I I know the plans which I [am] planning on you [the] utterance of Yahweh plans of well-being and not for harm to give to you a future and a hope.

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 confidently expect to receive in the future.

12 And you will call on me and you will come and you will pray to me and I will listen to you.

At that time, when you pray, I will heed you.

13 And you will seek me and you will find [me] if you will seek me with all heart your.

If you earnestly desire for me [to bless you], you will experience me [blessing you].

14 And I will let myself be found by you [the] utterance of Yahweh and I will turn back (captivity your *Q(k)*) and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I banished you there [the] utterance of Yahweh and I will bring back you to the place where I sent into exile you from there.

I will make my help available to you [IDM]. 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.”

15 For you have said he has raised up for us Yahweh prophets Babylon.

[Some of] you say that Yahweh has appointed prophets for you [there] in Babylon.

16 For thus - he says Yahweh concerning the king who sits to [the] throne of David and concerning all the people which dwells in the city this countrymen your who not they went out with you in the exile.

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.

17 Thus he says Yahweh of hosts here I [am] about to send on them the sword famine and pestilence and I will make them like figs rotten which not they will be eaten from badness.

The Commander of the armies of angels says this: “I will cause them to experience wars and famines and diseases. I will cause them to become like [SIM] bad figs that are very rotten, with the result that no one can eat them.

18 And I will pursue after them with the sword with famine and with pestilence and I will make them (into a terror *Q(K)*) to all - [the] kingdoms of the earth into a curse and into a waste and into a hissing and into a reproach among all the nations where I have banished them there.

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/exile them), I will cause them to be people whom [others] curse and be horrified about and make fun of [DOU].

19 Because that not they listened to words my [the] utterance of Yahweh [those] whom I sent to them servants my the prophets rising early and sending and not you listened [the] utterance of Yahweh.

[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.

20 And you hear [the] word of Yahweh O all the exile[s] whom I sent from Jerusalem Babylon towards.

[Therefore], you people who have been (exiled/forced to go) from Jerusalem to Babylon, listen to this message from Yahweh.

21 Thus he says Yahweh of hosts [the] God of Israel concerning Ahab [the] son of Kolaiah and to Zedekiah [the] son of Maaseiah who are prophesying to you in name my falsehood here I - [am] about to give them in [the] hand of Nebuchadnezzar [the] king of Babylon and he will strike down them to eyes your.

This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israelis [worship], says about Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who are telling lies to you, saying that they are giving messages [MTY] from him: “They will be seized and taken to [MTY] King Nebuchadnezzar, who will cause them to be executed while you are watching.

22 And it will be taken from them a curse by all [the] exile[s] of Judah who [are] in Babylon saying may he make you Yahweh like Zedekiah and like Ahab whom he roasted them [the] king of Babylon in the fire.

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/wish 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.’

23 Because that they did folly in Israel and they committed adultery [the] wives of neighbors their and they spoke a word in name my falsehood which not I commanded them and I ([am he] who knows *Q(K)*) and a witness [the] utterance of Yahweh.

They have done terrible things to [my] Israeli people. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and they have spoken lies, saying that they were messages [MTY] from me. They have said things that I did not tell them to say, and I, Yahweh, have heard them [say those things].”

24 And to Shemaiah the Nehelamite you will say saying.

[Yahweh told me to] send this message to Shemaiah, a man from Nehelam [town who was living in Babylon]:

25 Thus he says Yahweh of hosts [the] God of Israel saying because that you you sent in own name your letters to all the people which [is] in Jerusalem and to Zephaniah [the] son of Maaseiah the priest and to all the priests saying.

This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom [we] Israelis [worship], says: “You wrote a letter that no one told you to write. You sent it to Zephaniah the priest, the 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:

26 Yahweh he has made you priest in place of Jehoiada the priest to be overseers [the] house of Yahweh to every person [who] is mad and [who] prophesies and you will put him into the stock[s] and into the iron collar.

[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/a wooden frame [so that he cannot move)].

27 And therefore why? not have you rebuked Jeremiah the Anathothite who is prophesying to you.

So why have you not done anything to stop Jeremiah, the man from Anathoth [town], who [pretends that he] is a prophet among you?

28 For since he has sent to us Babylon saying [will be] a long [time] it build houses and dwell and plant gardens and eat produce their.

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.”

29 And he read aloud Zephaniah the priest the letter this in [the] ears of Jeremiah the prophet.

[But when] Zephaniah the priest [received] the letter from you, he [brought it to me and] read it to me.

30 And it came [the] word of Yahweh to Jeremiah saying.

Then Yahweh gave me this message:

31 Send to all the exile[s] saying thus he says Yahweh concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite because that he has prophesied to you Shemaiah and I not I sent him and he has made rely you on falsehood.

“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.

32 Therefore thus he says Yahweh here I [am] about to visit [judgment] on Shemaiah the Nehelamite and on offspring his not he will belong to him anyone - dwelling - in among the people this and not he will look on the good which I [will be] doing for people my [the] utterance of Yahweh for rebellion he has spoken on Yahweh.

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!’”