The People and Priests Told to Submit to Babylon

¹⁶ Then I spoke to the priests and all of the people: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: “The vessels from the Temple are about to be returned from Babylon very soon now.” Indeed, they’re prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷ Don’t listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon and you’ll live. Why should this city become a ruin? ¹⁸ If they’re prophets, and if they have a message from the Lord, let them plead with the Lord of the Heavenly Armies so that the utensils that remain in the Lord’s Temple, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem might not be taken to Babylon. ¹⁹ For this is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies says about the pillars, the bronze sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that remain in this city ²⁰ that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn’t take when he took Jehoiakim’s son Jeconiah, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem from Jerusalem into exile to Babylon— ²¹ For this is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel says about the vessels that remain in the Lord’s Temple, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, ²² “They’ll go into Babylon and there they’ll remain until the time I take note of them,” declares the Lord. “Then I’ll bring them up and return them to this place.”’”