16. Then I spoke to the priests and the people and said, “This is what the lord says: ‘Do not listen to your prophets who claim that soon the gold articles taken from my Temple will be returned from Babylon. It is all a lie!
17. Do not listen to them. Surrender to the king of Babylon, and you will live. Why should this whole city be destroyed?
18. If they really are prophets and speak the lord’s messages, let them pray to the lord of Heaven’s Armies. Let them pray that the articles remaining in the lord’s Temple and in the king’s palace and in the palaces of Jerusalem will not be carried away to Babylon!’
19. “For the lord of Heaven’s Armies has spoken about the pillars in front of the Temple, the great bronze basin called the Sea, the water carts, and all the other ceremonial articles.