1 And these are the words of the letter which Yirmeyahu the naḇi sent from Yerushalayim to the rest of the elders of the exile, and to the kohenim, and to the neḇi’im and to all the people whom Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar had exiled from Yerushalayim to Baḇel –
2 after Yeḵonyah the sovereign, and the sovereigness mother, and the eunuchs, and the heads of Yahuḏah and Yerushalayim, and the craftsmen, and the smiths had gone from Yerushalayim –
3 by the hand of El’asah son of Shaphan, and Gemaryah the son of Ḥilqiyah, whom Tsiḏqiyahu sovereign of Yahuḏah sent to Baḇel, to Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar the sovereign of Baḇel, saying,
4 “Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, to all the exiles whom I exiled from Yerushalayim to Baḇel,
5 ‘Build houses and dwell, plant gardens and eat their fruit.
6 ‘Take wives and bring forth sons and daughters. And take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, and let them bear sons and daughters, and be increased there, and not diminished.
7 ‘And seek the peace of the city where I have exiled you, and pray to 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 for it, for in its peace you have peace.’
8 “For thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, ‘Let not your neḇi’im and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, neither listen to the dreams which you are dreaming.
9 ‘For they are prophesying falsely to you in My Name. I have not sent them,’ declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
10 “For thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, ‘When seventy years are completed, at Baḇel I shall visit you and establish My good word toward you, to bring you back to this place.
11 ‘For I know the plans I am planning for you,’ declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, ‘plans of peace and not of evil, to give you an expectancy and a latter end.
12 ‘Then you shall call on Me, and shall come and pray to Me, and I shall listen to you.
13 ‘And you shall seek, and shall find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
14 ‘And I shall be found by you,’ declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, ‘and I shall turn back your captivity, and shall gather you from all the gentiles and from all the places where I have driven you, declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄. And I shall bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.’
15 “Because you have said, ‘𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has raised up neḇi’im for us in Baḇel’ –
16 thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 concerning the sovereign who sits on the throne of Dawiḏ, concerning all the people who dwell in this city, and concerning your brothers who have not gone out with you into exile,
17 thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, ‘See, I am sending on them the sword, the scarcity of food, and the pestilence. And I shall make them like spoilt figs, so spoilt as to be inedible.
18 ‘And I shall pursue them with the sword, with scarcity of food, and with pestilence. And I shall make them a horror among all the reigns of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach among all the gentiles where I have driven them.
19 ‘For they did not heed My words,’ declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, ‘which I sent to them by My servants the neḇi’im, rising up early and sending them, yet you did not listen,’ declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
20 “You, therefore, hear the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, all you exiles whom I have sent from Yerushalayim to Baḇel.
21 “Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, concerning Aḥaḇ son of Qolayah, and Tsiḏqiyahu son of Ma’asĕyah, who are prophesying falsely to you in My Name, ‘See, I am giving them into the hand of Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar sovereign of Baḇel, and he shall smite them before your eyes.
22 ‘And because of them all the exiles of Yahuḏah who are in Baḇel shall use a curse, saying, “𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 make you like Tsiḏqiyahu and Aḥaḇ, whom the sovereign of Baḇel roasted in the fire,”
23 because they have done wickedness in Yisra’ĕl, and committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken a word in My Name falsely which I have not commanded them. And I am He who knows, and a witness,’ declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.
24 “And speak to Shemayahu the Neḥelamite, saying,
25 “Thus speaks 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 of hosts, the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, saying, ‘Because you have sent letters in your name to all the people who are at Yerushalayim, to Tsephanyah son of Ma’asĕyah the kohĕn, and to all the kohenim, saying,
26 “𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 has made you kohĕn instead of Yahoyaḏa the kohĕn, so that there are overseers in the House of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 over everyone who is mad and makes himself a naḇi, that you should put him in the stocks and in the iron collar.
27 “So why have you not reproved Yirmeyahu of Anathoth who makes himself a naḇi to you?
28 “For he has sent to us in Baḇel, saying, ‘This is long – build houses and dwell, and plant gardens and eat their fruit.’ ” ’ ”
29 And Tsephanyah the kohĕn read this letter in the hearing of Yirmeyahu the naḇi.
30 Then the word of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 came to Yirmeyahu, saying,
31 “Send to all those in exile, saying, ‘Thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄 concerning Shemayah the Neḥelamite, “Because Shemayah has prophesied to you, and I have not sent him, and he has made you to trust on falsehood,”
32 therefore thus said 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, “See, I am bringing punishment upon Shemayah the Neḥelamite and his seed: he shall have no one to dwell among this people, nor is he to see the good that I am about to do for My people,” declares 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄, “because he has spoken apostasy against 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄.” ’ ”