11 'For I know the aplans that I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for bwelfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a chope.

12 'Then you will acall upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will blisten to you.

13 'You will aseek Me and find Me when you bsearch for Me with all your heart.

14 'I will be afound by you,' declares the Lord, 'and I will brestore your fortunes and will cgather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the Lord, 'and I will dbring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.'

15 "Because you have said, 'The Lord has raised up aprophets for us in Babylon'--

16 for thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did anot go with you into exile--

17 thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Behold, I am sending upon them the asword, famine and pestilence, and I will make them like bsplit-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness.

18 'I will pursue them with the sword, with famine and with pestilence; and I will amake them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a bcurse and a horror and a chissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them,

19 because they have anot listened to My words,' declares the Lord, 'which I sent to them again and again by bMy servants the prophets; but you did not listen,' declares the Lord.

20 "You, therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles, whom I have asent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

21 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are aprophesying to you falsely in My name, 'Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes.

22 'Because of them a acurse will be used by all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon, saying, "May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon broasted in the fire,

23 because they have aacted foolishly in Israel, and bhave committed adultery with their neighbors' wives and have cspoken words in My name falsely, which I did not command them; and I am He who dknows and am a witness," declares the Lord.'"

24 To aShemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying,

25 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Because you have sent aletters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to bZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

26 "The Lord has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be the aoverseer in the house of the Lord over every bmadman who cprophesies, to dput him in the stocks and in the iron collar,

27 now then, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of aAnathoth who prophesies to you?

28 "For he has asent to us in Babylon, saying, 'The exile will be blong; cbuild houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their produce.'"'"

29 aZephaniah the priest read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet.