1. And these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the exiles, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon,
2. after the going out of Jeconiah the king, and the queen mother, and the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, and the artisans, and the smiths from Jerusalem,
3. by the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, the king of Judah, sent to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to Babylon, saying,
4. “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have deported from Jerusalem to Babylon,
5. ‘Build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit.
6. Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take for your sons wives, and give your daughters to men that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and you must not be few.
7. And seek the prosperity of the city where I have deported you, and pray on behalf of it to Yahweh, for in its prosperity you will have prosperity.’
8. For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst, and your diviners, deceive you, and you must not listen to your dreams that you are causing them to dream.
9. For they are prophesying falsely to you in my name; I have not sent them,’ declares Yahweh.
10. For thus says Yahweh, ‘As soon as the time has passed, seventy years for Babylon, I will attend to you, and I will fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
11. For I know the plans that I am planning concerning you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘plans for prosperity and not for harm, to give to you a future and a hope.
12. Then when you call me, and you come and pray to me, then I will listen to you.
13. When you search for me, then you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart.
14. And I will let myself be found by you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and I will restore your fortunes, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places to which I have driven you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from which I deported you.’
15. Because you have said, ‘Yahweh has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’—
16. for thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning all the people who live in this city, your fellow kinsmen who did not go with you into the exile—
17. thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘Look, I am going to send among them the sword, the famine, and the plague, and I will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten because of their bad quality.