¹⁶ Then I spoke to the priests and all these people, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not listen to the words of your prophets. They are prophesying to you, claiming, “Look, very soon now the articles of the Lord’s temple will be brought back from Babylon.”^(A) They are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷ Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live! Why should this city become a ruin?^{(B) 18} If they are indeed prophets and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them intercede with the Lord of Hosts not to let the articles that remain in the Lord’s temple, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem go to Babylon.’ ¹⁹ For this is what the Lord of Hosts says about the pillars, the sea, the water carts,^(C) and the rest of the articles that still remain in this city, ²⁰ those Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he deported Jeconiah^[a] son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon along with all the nobles of Judah^(D) and Jerusalem. ²¹ Yes, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about the articles that remain in the temple of the Lord, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: ²² ‘They will be brought to Babylon and will remain there until I attend to them again.’^(E) This is the Lord’s declaration. ‘Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’”^(F)