Jeremiah 29:10-23

English Standard Version

¹⁰ “For thus says the Lord: ^(A)When seventy years are completed for Babylon, ^(B)I will visit you, ^(C)and I will fulfill to you my promise ^(D)and bring you back to this place. ^11 (E)For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare^[a] and not for evil, ^(F)to give you a future and a hope. ^12 (G)Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, ^(H)and I will hear you. ^13 (I)You will seek me and find me, when you seek me ^(J)with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you, declares the Lord, ^(K)and I will restore your fortunes and ^(L)gather you from all the nations and all the places ^(M)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,’ ¹⁶ thus says the Lord concerning ^(N)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 ^(O)sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like ^(P)vile figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten. ¹⁸ I will pursue them with ^(Q)sword, famine, and pestilence, ^(R)and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, ^(S)to be a curse, a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations ^(T)where I have driven them, ¹⁹ because they did not pay attention to my words, declares the Lord, ^(U)that I persistently sent to you by my servants the prophets, but you would not listen, declares the Lord.’ ²⁰ Hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles ^(V)whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon: ²¹ ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, ^(W)who are prophesying a lie to you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall strike them down before your eyes. ^22 (X)Because of them ^(Y)this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: “The Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, ^(Z)whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,” ²³ because they have done an outrageous thing in Israel, ^(AA)they have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and ^(AB)they have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them. ^(AC)I am the one who knows, ^(AD)and I am witness, declares the Lord.’”