1And these [are] the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2(After Jeconiah the king, and the queen mother, and the eunuchs, the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, had departed from Jerusalem.) 3The letter came by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah the king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying, 4So says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I caused to be exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5Build houses and live [in them]; and plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6Take wives and father sons and daughters. And take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be multiplied there and not become few. 7And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be exiled, and pray to the LORD for it. For in its peace you shall have peace. 8For so says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your fortune-tellers in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you dream. 9For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD. 10For so says the LORD, When according to My Word seventy years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and confirm My good Word to you, to bring you back to this place. 11For I know the purposes which I am purposing for you, says the LORD; purposes of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12Then you shall call on Me, and you shall go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13And you shall seek Me and find [Me], when you search for Me with all your heart. 14And I will be found by you, says the LORD; and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD. And I will bring you again into the place from where I caused you to be exiled. 15Because you have said, The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon; 16so says the LORD of the king who sits on the throne of David, and of all the people who dwell in this city, [and] of your brothers who have not gone out with you into captivity; 17so says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the plague, and will make them like worthless figs which cannot be eaten from badness. 18And I will pursue them with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and a waste, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them, 19because they have not listened to My words, says the LORD, which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending; but you would not hear, says the LORD. 20And hear the Word of the LORD, all you exiles, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon; 21so says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, about Ahab the son of Kolaiah and of 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 shall kill them before your eyes. 22And a curse shall be taken up from them by all the exiles of Judah who [are] in Babylon, saying, May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, 23because they have committed evil in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken lying words in My name, which I have not commanded them; for I [am] He who knows and a witness, says the LORD. 24You shall also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying, 25So says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your name to all the people who [are] at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying, 26The LORD has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be officers [in] the house of the LORD, over every madman who prophesies, that you should put him into the stocks and into the collar. 27Now therefore why have you not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, who prophesies to you? 28For this cause he sent to us [in] Babylon, saying, This [exile is] long. Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit. 29And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. 30And the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 31Send to all the exiles, saying, So says the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I did not send him, and he caused you to trust in a lie, 32therefore so says the LORD, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his seed. He shall not have a man to dwell among this people; nor shall he behold the good which I shall do for My people, says the LORD, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD.