9. They are prophesying lies to you, saying that their message is from me. But I did not send them,” says the Lord.
10. This is what the Lord says: “Babylon will be powerful for seventy years. After that time I will come to you, and I will keep my promise to bring you back to Jerusalem.
11. I say this because I know what I am planning for you,” says the Lord. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.
12. Then you will call my name. You will come to me and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13. You will search for me. And when you search for me with all your heart, you will find me!
14. I will let you find me,” says the Lord. “And I will bring you back from your captivity. I forced you to leave this place, but I will gather you from all the nations, from the places I have sent you as captives,” says the Lord. “And I will bring you back to this place.”
15. You might say, “The Lord has given us prophets here in Babylon.”
16. But the Lord says this about the king who is sitting on David’s throne now and all the other people still in Jerusalem, your relatives who did not go as captives to Babylon with you.
17. The Lord All-Powerful says: “I will soon send war, hunger, and terrible diseases against those still in Jerusalem. I will make them like bad figs that are too rotten to eat.
18. I will chase them with war, hunger, and terrible diseases. I will make them hated by all the kingdoms of the earth. People will curse them and be shocked and will use them as a shameful example wherever I make them go.
19. This is because they have not listened to my message,” says the Lord. “I sent my message to them again and again through my servants, the prophets, but they did not listen,” says the Lord.
20. You captives, whom I forced to leave Jerusalem and go to Babylon, listen to the message from the Lord.
21. The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says this about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah: “These two men have been prophesying lies to you, saying that their message is from me. But soon I will hand over those two prophets to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them in front of you.
22. Because of them, all the captives from Judah in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire.’
23. They have done evil things among the people of Israel. They are guilty of adultery with their neighbors’ wives. They have also spoken lies and said those lies were a message from me. I did not tell them to do that. I know what they have done; I am a witness to it,” says the Lord.
24. Also give a message to Shemaiah from the Nehelamite family.
25. The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “Shemaiah, you sent letters in your name to all the people in Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests.