Jeremiah 29
1 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.
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon,
(after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem),
3 [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:
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). It said:
4 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:
The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 “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.
“Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit.
6 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.
Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and don’t be diminished.
7 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].”
Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”
8 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,
For the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you. Don’t listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.
9 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.”
For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them,” says the LORD.
10 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].
For the LORD says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 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.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the LORD, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
12 At that time, when you pray, I will heed you.
You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 If you earnestly desire for me [to bless you], you will experience me [blessing you].
You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.
14 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.”
I will be found by you,” says the LORD, “and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you,” says the LORD. “I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.”
15 [Some of] you say that Yahweh has appointed prophets for you [there] in Babylon.
Because you have said, “The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon,”
16 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.
the LORD says concerning the king who sits on David’s throne, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who haven’t gone with you into captivity,
17 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.
the LORD of Hosts says: “Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that can’t be eaten, they are so bad.
18 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].
I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them,
19 [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.
because they have not listened to my words,” says the LORD, “with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear,” says the LORD.
20 [Therefore], you people who have been (exiled/forced to go) from Jerusalem to Babylon, listen to this message from Yahweh.
Hear therefore the LORD’s word, all you captives whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
21 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.
The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in my name: “Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he will kill them before your eyes.
22 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.’
A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;’
23 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].”
because they have done foolish things in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn’t command them. I am he who knows, and am witness,” says the LORD.
24 [Yahweh told me to] send this message to Shemaiah, a man from Nehelam [town who was living in Babylon]:
Concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying,
25 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:
“The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying,
26 [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)].
“The LORD has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in the LORD’s house, for every man who is crazy and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles.
27 So why have you not done anything to stop Jeremiah, the man from Anathoth [town], who [pretends that he] is a prophet among you?
Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you,
28 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.”
because he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, The captivity is long. Build houses, and dwell in them. Plant gardens, and eat their fruit?”’”
29 [But when] Zephaniah the priest [received] the letter from you, he [brought it to me and] read it to me.
Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet.
30 Then Yahweh gave me this message:
Then the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah, saying,
31 “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.
“Send to all of the captives, saying, ‘The LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: “Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I didn’t send him, and he has caused you to trust in a lie,”
32 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!’”
therefore the LORD says, “Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his offspring. He will not have a man to dwell among this people. He won’t see the good that I will do to my people,” says the LORD, “because he has spoken rebellion against the LORD.”’”
