Jeremiah 29:8-19

English Standard Version

⁸For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(A)Do not let your prophets and ^(B)your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,^[a] ⁹for ^(C)it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; ^(D)I did not send them, declares the Lord.

¹⁰“For thus says the Lord: ^(E)When seventy years are completed for Babylon, ^(F)I will visit you, ^(G)and I will fulfill to you my promise ^(H)and bring you back to this place. ¹¹^(I)For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare^[b] and not for evil, ^(J)to give you a future and a hope. ¹²^(K)Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, ^(L)and I will hear you. ¹³^(M)You will seek me and find me, when you seek me ^(N)with all your heart. ¹⁴I will be found by you, declares the Lord, ^(O)and I will restore your fortunes and ^(P)gather you from all the nations and all the places ^(Q)where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

¹⁵“Because you have said, ‘The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,’ ¹⁶thus says the Lord concerning ^(R)the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your kinsmen who did not go out with you into exile: ¹⁷‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, I am sending on them ^(S)sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like ^(T)vile figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten. ¹⁸I will pursue them with ^(U)sword, famine, and pestilence, ^(V)and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, ^(W)to be a curse, a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations ^(X)where I have driven them, ¹⁹because they did not pay attention to my words, declares the Lord, ^(Y)that I persistently sent to you by my servants the prophets, but you would not listen, declares the Lord.’