Old/New Testament
27 This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim[a] (son of Josiah), king of Judah:
2 “Make a yoke and fasten it on your neck with leather thongs as you would strap a yoke on an ox. 3 Then send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, through their ambassadors in Jerusalem, 4 saying, Tell your masters that the Lord, the God of Israel, sends you this message:
5 “By my great power I have made the earth and all mankind and every animal; and I give these things of mine to anyone I want to. 6 So now I have given all your countries to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who is my deputy. And I have handed over to him all your cattle for his use. 7 All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until his time is up, and then many nations and great kings shall conquer Babylon and make him their slave. 8 Submit to him and serve him—put your neck under Babylon’s yoke! I will punish any nation refusing to be his slave; I will send war, famine, and disease upon that nation until he has conquered it.
9 “Do not listen to your false prophets, fortune-tellers, dreamers, mediums, and magicians who say the king of Babylon will not enslave you. 10 For they are all liars, and if you follow their advice and refuse to submit to the king of Babylon, I will drive you out of your land and send you far away to perish. 11 But the people of any nation submitting to the king of Babylon will be permitted to stay in their own country and farm the land as usual.”
12 Jeremiah repeated all these prophecies to Zedekiah, king of Judah. “If you want to live, submit to the king of Babylon,” he said. 13 “Why do you insist on dying—you and your people? Why should you choose war and famine and disease, which the Lord has promised to every nation that will not submit to Babylon’s king? 14 Don’t listen to the false prophets who keep telling you the king of Babylon will not conquer you, for they are liars. 15 I have not sent them, says the Lord, and they are telling you lies in my name. If you insist on heeding them, I must drive you from this land to die—you and all these ‘prophets’ too.”
16 I spoke again and again to the priests and all the people and told them: “This is what the Lord says! Don’t listen to your prophets who are telling you that soon the gold dishes taken from the Temple will be returned from Babylon. It is all a lie. 17 Don’t listen to them. Surrender to the king of Babylon and live, for otherwise this whole city will be destroyed. 18 If they are really God’s prophets, then let them pray to the Lord Almighty that the gold dishes still here in the Temple, left from before, and that those in the palace of the king of Judah and in the palaces in Jerusalem will not be carried away with you to Babylon!
19-21 “For the Lord Almighty says: The pillars of bronze standing before the Temple, the great bronze basin in the Temple court, the metal stands, and all the other ceremonial articles left here by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, when he exiled all the important people of Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon, along with Jeconiah (son of Jehoiakim), king of Judah, 22 will all yet be carried away to Babylon and will stay there until I send for them. Then I will bring them all back to Jerusalem again.”
28 On a December day in that same year—the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah—Hananiah (son of Azzur), a false prophet from Gibeon, addressed me publicly in the Temple while all the priests and people listened. He said:
2 “The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, declares: I have removed the yoke of the king of Babylon from your necks. 3 Within two years I will bring back all the Temple treasures that Nebuchadnezzar carried off to Babylon, 4 and I will bring back King Jeconiah,[b] son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the other captives exiled to Babylon, says the Lord. I will surely remove the yoke put on your necks by the king of Babylon.”
5 Then Jeremiah said to Hananiah, in front of all the priests and people, 6 “Amen! May your prophecies come true! I hope the Lord will do everything you say and bring back from Babylon the treasures of this Temple, with all our loved ones. 7 But listen now to the solemn words I speak to you in the presence of all these people. 8 The ancient prophets who preceded you and me spoke against many nations, always warning of war, famine, and plague. 9 So a prophet who foretells peace has the burden of proof on him to prove that God has really sent him. Only when his message comes true can it be known that he really is from God.”
10 Then Hananiah, the false prophet, took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it. 11 And Hananiah said again to the crowd that had gathered, “The Lord has promised that within two years he will release all the nations now in slavery to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.” At that point Jeremiah walked out.
12 Soon afterwards the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: 13 Go and tell Hananiah that the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but these people have yokes of iron on their necks. 14 The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, forcing them into slavery to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. And nothing will change this decree, for I have even given him all your flocks and herds.
15 Then Jeremiah said to Hananiah, the false prophet, “Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and the people are believing your lies. 16 Therefore the Lord says you must die. This very year your life will end because you have rebelled against the Lord.”
17 And sure enough, two months later Hananiah died.
29 1-2 After Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the court officials, the tribal officers, and craftsmen had been deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah wrote them a letter from Jerusalem, addressing it to the Jewish elders, priests, prophets, and to all the people. 3 He sent the letter with Elasah (son of Shaphan) and Gemariah (son of Hilkiah) when they went to Babylon as King Zedekiah’s ambassadors to Nebuchadnezzar. And this is what the letter said:
4 The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, sends this message to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem:
5 Build homes and plan to stay; plant vineyards, for you will be there many years. 6 Marry and have children, and then find mates for them and have many grandchildren. Multiply! Don’t dwindle away! 7 And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray for her, for if Babylon has peace, so will you.
8 The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Don’t let the false prophets and mediums who are there among you fool you. Don’t listen to the dreams that they invent, 9 for they prophesy lies in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. 10 The truth is this: You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 You will find me when you seek me, if you look for me in earnest.
14 Yes, says the Lord, I will be found by you, and I will end your slavery and restore your fortunes; I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you back home again to your own land.
15 But now, because you accept the false prophets among you and say the Lord has sent them, 16-17 I will send war, famine, and plague upon the people left here in Jerusalem—on your relatives who were not exiled to Babylon, and on the king who sits on David’s throne—and make them like rotting figs, too bad to eat. 18 And I will scatter them around the world. And in every nation where I place them they will be cursed and hissed and mocked, 19 for they refuse to listen to me though I spoke to them again and again through my prophets.
20 Therefore listen to the word of God, all you Jewish captives over there in Babylon. 21 The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says this about your false prophets, Ahab (son of Kolaiah) and Zedekiah (son of Maaseiah), who are declaring lies to you in my name: Look, I am turning them over to Nebuchadnezzar to execute publicly. 22 Their fate shall become proverbial of all evil, so that whenever anyone wants to curse someone he will say, “The Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab whom the king of Babylon burned alive!” 23 For these men have done a terrible thing among my people. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have lied in my name. I know, for I have seen everything they do, says the Lord.
24 And say this to Shemaiah the dreamer:[c] 25 The Lord, the God of Israel, says: You have written a letter to Zephaniah (son of Maaseiah) the priest, and sent copies to all the other priests and to everyone in Jerusalem. 26 And in this letter you have said to Zephaniah, “The Lord has appointed you to replace Jehoiada as priest in Jerusalem. And it is your responsibility to arrest any madman who claims to be a prophet and to put him in the stocks and collar. 27 Why haven’t you done something about this false prophet Jeremiah of Anathoth? 28 For he has written to us here in Babylon saying that our captivity will be long; that we should build permanent homes and plan to stay many years; that we should plant fruit trees, for we will be here to eat the fruit from them for a long time to come.”
29 Zephaniah took the letter over to Jeremiah and read it to him! 30 Then the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah:
31 Send an open letter to all the exiles in Babylon and tell them this: The Lord says that because Shemaiah the Nehelamite has “prophesied” to you when I didn’t send him and has fooled you into believing his lies, 32 I will punish him and his family. None of his descendants shall see the good I have waiting for my people, for he has taught you to rebel against the Lord.
3 Remind your people to obey the government and its officers, and always to be obedient and ready for any honest work. 2 They must not speak evil of anyone, nor quarrel, but be gentle and truly courteous to all.
3 Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient; we were misled by others and became slaves to many evil pleasures and wicked desires. Our lives were full of resentment and envy. We hated others and they hated us.
4 But when the time came for the kindness and love of God our Savior to appear, 5 then he saved us—not because we were good enough to be saved but because of his kindness and pity—by washing away our sins and giving us the new joy of the indwelling Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out upon us with wonderful fullness—and all because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did 7 so that he could declare us good in God’s eyes—all because of his great kindness; and now we can share in the wealth of the eternal life he gives us, and we are eagerly looking forward to receiving it. 8 These things I have told you are all true. Insist on them so that Christians will be careful to do good deeds all the time, for this is not only right, but it brings results.
9 Don’t get involved in arguing over unanswerable questions and controversial theological ideas; keep out of arguments and quarrels about obedience to Jewish laws, for this kind of thing isn’t worthwhile; it only does harm. 10 If anyone is causing divisions among you, he should be given a first and second warning. After that have nothing more to do with him, 11 for such a person has a wrong sense of values. He is sinning, and he knows it.
12 I am planning to send either Artemas or Tychicus to you. As soon as one of them arrives, please try to meet me at Nicopolis as quickly as you can, for I have decided to stay there for the winter. 13 Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos with their trip; see that they are given everything they need. 14 For our people must learn to help all who need their assistance, that their lives will be fruitful.
15 Everybody here sends greetings. Please say hello to all of the Christian friends there. May God’s blessings be with you all.
Sincerely, Paul
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.