A Rebuke to Shemaiah

²⁴ “You are to say to Shemaiah of Nehelam: ²⁵ ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Because you sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, to Maaseiah’s son Zephaniah the priest and to all the priests— ²⁶ The Lord made you a priest instead of Jehoiada the priest to serve in the Lord’s Temple as an official against every crazy prophet, and to put him in stocks and restraints. ²⁷ And now, why didn’t you rebuke Jeremiah from Anathoth who prophesies to you? ²⁸ So he sent a message^[a] to us in Babylon: ‘The exile^[b] will be long, so build houses and live in them.^[c] Plant gardens and eat their produce.’”’”

²⁹ Then Zephaniah the priest read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet, ³⁰ and this message from the Lord came to Jeremiah: ³¹ “Send a message to all the exiles: ‘This is what the Lord says about Shemaiah from Nehelam, “Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I didn’t send him, and has made you trust a lie,” ³² therefore, this is what the Lord says: “I’m about to judge Shemaiah from Nehelam along with his descendants. He won’t have anyone related to him^[d] living among these people. Nor will he see the good that I’ll do for my people,” declares the Lord, “because he advocated rebellion against the Lord.”’”