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 and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 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 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 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 For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them,” says the LORD. 10 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 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 You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. 14 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 Because you have said, “The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon,” 16 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 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 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 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 Hear therefore the LORD’s word, all you captives whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21 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 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 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 Concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying, 25 “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 “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 Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you, 28 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 Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet. 30 Then the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah, saying, 31 “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 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.” ’ ”
30
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 “The LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book. 3 For, behold, the days come,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will reverse the captivity of my people Israel and Judah,’ says the LORD. ‘I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.’ ”
4 These are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. 5 For the LORD says:
“We have heard a voice of trembling;
a voice of fear, and not of peace.
6 Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child.
Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail,
and all faces are turned pale?
7 Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it!
It is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;
but he will be saved out of it.
8 It will come to pass in that day, says the LORD of Hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck,
and will burst your bonds.
Strangers will no more make them their bondservants;
9 but they will serve the LORD their God,
and David their king,
whom I will raise up to them.
10 Therefore don’t be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says the LORD.
Don’t be dismayed, Israel.
For, behold, I will save you from afar,
and save your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob will return,
and will be quiet and at ease.
No one will make him afraid.
11 For I am with you, says the LORD, to save you;
for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you,
but I will not make a full end of you;
but I will correct you in measure,
and will in no way leave you unpunished.”
12 For the LORD says,
“Your hurt is incurable.
Your wound is grievous.
13 There is no one to plead your cause,
that you may be bound up.
You have no healing medicines.
14 All your lovers have forgotten you.
They don’t seek you.
For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy,
with the chastisement of a cruel one,
for the greatness of your iniquity,
because your sins were increased.
15 Why do you cry over your injury?
Your pain is incurable.
For the greatness of your iniquity,
because your sins have increased,
I have done these things to you.
16 Therefore all those who devour you will be devoured.
All your adversaries, everyone of them, will go into captivity.
Those who plunder you will be plunder.
I will make all who prey on you become prey.
17 For I will restore health to you,
and I will heal you of your wounds,” says the LORD,
“because they have called you an outcast,
saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’ ”
18 The LORD says:
“Behold, I will reverse the captivity of Jacob’s tents,
and have compassion on his dwelling places.
The city will be built on its own hill,
and the palace will be inhabited in its own place.
19 Thanksgiving will proceed out of them
with the voice of those who make merry.
I will multiply them,
and they will not be few;
I will also glorify them,
and they will not be small.
20 Their children also will be as before,
and their congregation will be established before me.
I will punish all who oppress them.
21 Their prince will be one of them,
and their ruler will proceed from among them.
I will cause him to draw near,
and he will approach me;
for who is he who has had boldness to approach me?” says the LORD.
22 “You shall be my people,
and I will be your God.
23 Behold, the LORD’s storm, his wrath, has gone out,
a sweeping storm;
it will burst on the head of the wicked.
24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not return until he has accomplished,
and until he has performed the intentions of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it.”
31
1 “At that time,” says the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2 The LORD says, “The people who survive the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.”
3 The LORD appeared of old to me, saying,
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
4 I will build you again,
and you will be built, O virgin of Israel.
You will again be adorned with your tambourines,
and