15. As for your saying, “The Lord has raised up for us prophets here in Babylon”—
16. Thus says the Lord concerning the king sitting on David’s throne and all the people living in this city, your kinsmen who did not go with you into exile;
17. thus says the Lord of hosts: I am sending against them sword, famine, and pestilence. I will make them like rotten figs, so spoiled that they cannot be eaten.
18. I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence, and make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, a desolation, a hissing, and a reproach to all the nations among which I have banished them,
19. because they did not listen to my words—oracle of the Lord—even though I kept sending them my servants the prophets, but they would not listen to them—oracle of the Lord.
20. As for you, listen to the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
21. This is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab, son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah, son of Maaseiah, who prophesy lies to you in my name: I am handing them over to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who will kill them before your eyes.
22. And because of them this curse will be used by all the exiles of Judah in Babylon: “May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in fire,”
23. because they have committed an outrage in Israel, committing adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and alleging in my name things I did not command. I know, I am witness—oracle of the Lord.
24. To Shemaiah, the Nehelamite, say:
25. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you sent documents in your own name to all the people in Jerusalem, to Zephaniah, the priest, son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests saying:
26. “It is the Lord who has appointed you priest in place of the priest Jehoiada, to provide officers for the house of the Lord, that you may confine in stocks or pillory any madman who poses as a prophet.
27. Why, then, have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who poses as a prophet among you?
28. For he sent this message to us in Babylon: It will be a long time; build houses to live in; plant gardens and eat their fruit. . . .”
29. When the priest Zephaniah read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet,
30. the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
31. Send to all the exiles: Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah, the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah prophesies to you, although I did not send him, and has led you to rely on a lie,
32. therefore thus says the Lord, I will punish Shemaiah, the Nehelamite, and his descendants. None of them shall dwell among this people to see the good I will do for this people—oracle of the Lord—because he preached rebellion against the Lord.