20. I had you taken from Jerusalem to Babylonia. But you had better listen to me now.
21-23. You think Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah are prophets because they claim to speak for me. But they are lying! I haven't told them anything. They are also committing other horrible sins in your community, such as sleeping with the wives of their friends. So I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar, who will put them to death while the rest of you watch. And in the future, when you want to put a curse on someone, you will say, “I pray that the Lord will kill you in the same way the king of Babylonia burnt Zedekiah and Ahab to death!”
24-25. The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, told me what would happen to Shemaiah, who was one of our people in Babylonia. After my letter reached Babylonia, Shemaiah wrote letters to the people of Jerusalem, including the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and the other priests. The letter to Zephaniah said:
26. After the death of Jehoiada the priest, the Lord chose you to be the priest in charge of the temple security force. You know that anyone who acts mad and pretends to be a prophet should be arrested and put in chains and iron collars.
27. Jeremiah from the town of Anathoth is pretending to be a prophet there in Jerusalem, so why haven't you punished him?
28. He even wrote a letter to the people here in Babylonia, saying we would be here a long time. He told us to build homes and to plant gardens and grow our own food.
29. When Zephaniah received Shemaiah's letter, he read it to me.
30. Then the Lord told me what to write in a second letter
31. to the people of Judah who had been taken to Babylonia. In this letter, I wrote that the Lord had said:I, the Lord, have not chosen Shemaiah to be one of my prophets, and he has misled you by telling lies in my name.
32. He has even talked you into disobeying me. So I will punish Shemaiah. He and his descendants won't live to see the good things I will do for my people. I, the Lord, have spoken.