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¹One day in late summer of that same year — the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah — Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from Gibeon, addressed me publicly in the Temple while all the priests and people listened. He said,

²“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will remove the yoke of the king of Babylon from your necks.

³Within two years I will bring back all the Temple treasures that King Nebuchadnezzar carried off to Babylon.

⁴And I will bring back Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the other captives that were taken to Babylon. I will surely break the yoke that the king of Babylon has put on your necks. I, the LORD, have spoken!’”

⁵Jeremiah responded to Hananiah as they stood in front of all the priests and people at the Temple.

⁶He said, “Amen! May your prophecies come true! I hope the LORD does everything you say. I hope he does bring back from Babylon the treasures of this Temple and all the captives.

⁷But listen now to the solemn words I speak to you in the presence of all these people.

⁸The ancient prophets who preceded you and me spoke against many nations, always warning of war, disaster, and disease.

⁹So a prophet who predicts peace must show he is right. Only when his predictions come true can we know that he is really from the LORD.”

¹⁰Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it in pieces.

¹¹And Hananiah said again to the crowd that had gathered, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Just as this yoke has been broken, within two years I will break the yoke of oppression from all the nations now subject to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.’” With that, Jeremiah left the Temple area.

¹²Soon after this confrontation with Hananiah, the LORD gave this message to Jeremiah:

¹³“Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the LORD says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but you have replaced it with a yoke of iron.

¹⁴The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, forcing them into slavery under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I have put everything, even the wild animals, under his control.’”

¹⁵Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, but the people believe your lies.

¹⁶Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘You must die. Your life will end this very year because you have rebelled against the LORD.’”

¹⁷Two months later the prophet Hananiah died.

¹Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.

²This was after King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the court officials, the other officials of Judah, and all the craftsmen and artisans had been deported from Jerusalem.

³He sent the letter with Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah when they went to Babylon as King Zedekiah’s ambassadors to Nebuchadnezzar. This is what Jeremiah’s letter said:

⁴This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem:

⁵“Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce.

⁶Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away!

⁷And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”

⁸This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let your prophets and fortune-tellers who are with you in the land of Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams,

⁹because they are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them,” says the LORD.

¹⁰This is what the LORD says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.

¹¹For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

¹²In those days when you pray, I will listen.

¹³If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.

¹⁴I will be found by you,” says the LORD. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

¹⁵You claim that the LORD has raised up prophets for you in Babylon.

¹⁶But this is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all those still living here in Jerusalem — your relatives who were not exiled to Babylon.

¹⁷This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “I will send war, famine, and disease upon them and make them like bad figs, too rotten to eat.

¹⁸Yes, I will pursue them with war, famine, and disease, and I will scatter them around the world. In every nation where I send them, I will make them an object of damnation, horror, contempt, and mockery.

¹⁹For they refuse to listen to me, though I have spoken to them repeatedly through the prophets I sent. And you who are in exile have not listened either,” says the LORD.

²⁰Therefore, listen to this message from the LORD, all you captives there in Babylon.

²¹This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says about your prophets — Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah — who are telling you lies in my name: “I will turn them over to Nebuchadnezzar for execution before your eyes.

²²Their terrible fate will become proverbial, so that the Judean exiles will curse someone by saying, ‘May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned alive!’

²³For these men have done terrible things among my people. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have lied in my name, saying things I did not command. I am a witness to this. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

²⁴The LORD sent this message to Shemaiah the Nehelamite in Babylon:

²⁵“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: You wrote a letter on your own authority to Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, and you sent copies to the other priests and people in Jerusalem. You wrote to Zephaniah,

²⁶“The LORD has appointed you to replace Jehoiada as the priest in charge of the house of the LORD. You are responsible to put into stocks and neck irons any crazy man who claims to be a prophet.

²⁷So why have you done nothing to stop Jeremiah from Anathoth, who pretends to be a prophet among you?

²⁸Jeremiah sent a letter here to Babylon, predicting that our captivity will be a long one. He said, ‘Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce.’”

²⁹But when Zephaniah the priest received Shemaiah’s letter, he took it to Jeremiah and read it to him.

³⁰Then the LORD gave this message to Jeremiah:

³¹“Send an open letter to all the exiles in Babylon. Tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Since he has prophesied to you when I did not send him and has tricked you into believing his lies,

³²I will punish him and his family. None of his descendants will see the good things I will do for my people, for he has incited you to rebel against me. I, the LORD, have spoken!’”

¹The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said,

²“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Write down for the record everything I have said to you, Jeremiah.

³For the time is coming when I will restore the fortunes of my people of Israel and Judah. I will bring them home to this land that I gave to their ancestors, and they will possess it again. I, the LORD, have spoken!”

⁴This is the message the LORD gave concerning Israel and Judah.

⁵This is what the LORD says: “I hear cries of fear; there is terror and no peace.

⁶Now let me ask you a question: Do men give birth to babies? Then why do they stand there, ashen-faced, hands pressed against their sides like a woman in labor?

⁷In all history there has never been such a time of terror. It will be a time of trouble for my people Israel. Yet in the end they will be saved!

⁸For in that day,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will break the yoke from their necks and snap their chains. Foreigners will no longer be their masters.

⁹For my people will serve the LORD their God and their king descended from David — the king I will raise up for them.

¹⁰“So do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant; do not be dismayed, Israel,” says the LORD. “For I will bring you home again from distant lands, and your children will return from their exile. Israel will return to a life of peace and quiet, and no one will terrorize them.

¹¹For I am with you and will save you,” says the LORD. “I will completely destroy the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you, but with justice; I cannot let you go unpunished.”

¹²This is what the LORD says: “Your injury is incurable — a terrible wound.

¹³There is no one to help you or to bind up your injury. No medicine can heal you.

¹⁴All your lovers — your allies — have left you and do not care about you anymore. I have wounded you cruelly, as though I were your enemy. For your sins are many, and your guilt is great.

¹⁵Why do you protest your punishment — this wound that has no cure? I have had to punish you because your sins are many and your guilt is great.

¹⁶“But all who devour you will be devoured, and all your enemies will be sent into exile. All who plunder you will be plundered, and all who attack you will be attacked.

¹⁷I will give you back your health and heal your wounds,” says the LORD. “For you are called an outcast — ‘Jerusalem for whom no one cares.’”

¹⁸This is what the LORD says: “When I bring Israel home again from captivity and restore their fortunes, Jerusalem will be rebuilt on its ruins, and the palace reconstructed as before.

¹⁹There will be joy and songs of thanksgiving, and I will multiply my people, not diminish them; I will honor them, not despise them.

²⁰Their children will prosper as they did long ago. I will establish them as a nation before me, and I will punish anyone who hurts them.

²¹They will have their own ruler again, and he will come from their own people. I will invite him to approach me,” says the LORD, “for who would dare to come unless invited?

²²You will be my people, and I will be your God.”

²³Look! The LORD’s anger bursts out like a storm, a driving wind that swirls down on the heads of the wicked.

²⁴The fierce anger of the LORD will not diminish until it has finished all he has planned. In the days to come you will understand all this.