1-2. I had been left in Jerusalem when King Nebuchadnezzar took many of the people of Jerusalem and Judah to Babylonia as prisoners, including King Jehoiachin, his mother, his officials, and the metal workers and others in Jerusalem who were skilled in making things. So I wrote a letter to the prophets, the priests, the leaders, and the rest of our people in Babylonia.
3. I gave the letter to Elasah and Gemariah, two men that King Zedekiah of Judah was sending to Babylon to talk with Nebuchadnezzar. In the letter, I wrote
4. that the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, had said:I had you taken from Jerusalem to Babylonia. Now I tell you
5. to settle there and build houses. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them.
6. Get married and have children, then help your sons find wives and help your daughters find husbands, so they can have children as well. I want your numbers to grow, not to get smaller.
7. Pray for peace in Babylonia and work hard to make it prosperous. The more successful that nation is, the better off you will be.
8-9. Some of your people there in Babylonia are fortune-tellers, and you have asked them to tell you what will happen in the future. But they will only lead you astray. And don't let the prophets fool you, either. They speak in my name, but they are liars. I have not spoken to them.
10. After Babylonia has been the strongest nation for seventy years, I will be kind and bring you back to Jerusalem, just as I have promised.
11. I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering.
12. You will turn back to me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers.
13. You will worship me with all your heart, and I will be with you
14. and accept your worship. Then I will gather you from all the nations where I scattered you, and you will return to Jerusalem.
15. You feel secure, because you think I have sent prophets to speak for me in Babylonia.
16-19. But I have been sending prophets to the people of Judah for a long time, and the king from David's family and the people who are left in Jerusalem and Judah still don't obey me. So I, the Lord All-Powerful, will keep attacking them with war and hunger and disease, until they are as useless as rotten figs. I will force them to leave the land, and all nations will be disgusted and shocked at what happens to them. The nations will sneer and make fun of them and use the names “Judah” and “Jerusalem” as curse words.And you have not obeyed me, even though