Jeremiah 29:8-23

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

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

¹⁰ For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.^{(C) 11} For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.^{(D) 12} Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.^{(E) 13} When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart,^{(F) 14} I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.^(G)

¹⁵ Because you have said, “The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,” ¹⁶ thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning all the people who live in this city, your kinsfolk who did not go out with you into exile:^{(H) 17} Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am going to let loose on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.^{(I) 18} I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of cursing and horror and hissing and a derision among all the nations where I have driven them,^{(J) 19} because they did not heed my words, says the Lord, when I persistently sent to them my servants the prophets, but you would not listen, says the Lord.^{(K) 20} But now, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon, hear the word of the Lord:^{(L) 21} Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying a lie to you in my name: I am going to deliver them into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall kill them before your eyes. ²² And on account of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: “The Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,”^{(M) 23} because they have perpetrated outrage in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them; I am the one who knows and bears witness, says the Lord.^(N)