| 1. And these are the words of the scroll that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders of the exile and to the priests and to the prophets and to all the people that Nebuchadnezzar had exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. |
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א. |
| 2. After Jeconiah the king and the queen-mother and the officers, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen and the gate sentries had left Jerusalem. |
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ב. |
| 3. In the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah the king of Judah had sent to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon to Babylon, saying: |
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ג. |
| 4. So said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exile which I have exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: |
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ד. |
| 5. Build houses and dwell [therein], and plant gardens and eat their produce. |
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ה. |
| 6. Take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to men, and they shall bear sons and daughters, and multiply there and be not diminished. |
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ו. |
| 7. And seek the peace of the city where I have exiled you and pray for it to the Lord, for in its peace you shall have peace. |
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ז. |
| 8. For so said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets who are in your midst or your diviners mislead you, neither shall you heed your dreams, which you cause to dream. |
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ח. |
| 9. For they prophesy to you falsely in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord. |
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ט. |
| 10. For so said the Lord: For at the completion of seventy years of Babylon I will remember you, and I will fulfill My good word toward you, to restore you to this place. |
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י. |
| 11. For I know the thoughts that I think about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. |
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יא. |
| 12. And you shall call Me and go and pray to Me, and I will hearken to you. |
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יב. |
| 13. And you will seek Me and find [Me] for you will seek Me with all your heart. |
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יג. |
| 14. And I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will return your captivity and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will return you to the place whence I exiled you. |
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יד. |
| 15. For you have said: The Lord has set up prophets for us in Babylon. |
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טו. |
| 16. For so said the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning the entire people that dwells in this city: Your brethren who have not left with you into exile. |
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טז. |
| 17. So said the Lord of Hosts: Behold I incite upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and I will make them as the loathsome figs, which cannot be eaten because they are so bad. |
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יז. |
| 18. And I will pursue them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, for an oath, for astonishment, for hissing, and for a reproach among all the nations where I have exiled them. |
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יח. |
| 19. Because they have not hearkened to My words, says the Lord, which I sent to them with My servants, the prophets, sending [them] betimes, but you did not hearken, says the Lord. |
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יט. |
| 20. Now you, hearken to the word of the Lord, all the exile that I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. |
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כ. |
| 21. So said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy to you falsely in My name: Behold I deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and he shall slay them before your eyes. |
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כא. |
| 22. And a curse shall be taken from them by the entire exile of Judah which is in Babylon, saying: May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burnt with fire. |
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כב. |
| 23. Because they committed a disgrace in Israel, and they committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors, and they spoke false things in My name, which I had not commanded them, and I am He Who knows and a witness, says the Lord. |
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כג. |
| 24. And to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, you shall say, saying: |
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כד. |
| 25. So said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying: Because you sent in your name letters to the entire people that is in Jerusalem and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest and to all the priests, saying: |
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כה. |
| 26. The Lord made you a priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be officers in the house of the Lord, over every man who is mad and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him into the prison or into the stocks. |
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כו. |
| 27. And now, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah the Anathothite, who is prophesying to you? |
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כז. |
| 28. Forasmuch as he sent to us to Babylon, saying: It is long; build houses and dwell, and plant gardens and eat their produce. |
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כח. |
| 29. And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. |
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כט. |
| 30. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: |
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ל. |
| 31. Send to all the exile, saying: So said the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Since Shemaiah prophesied to you although I did not send him, and he assured you with a lie. |
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לא. |
| 32. Therefore, so said the Lord: Behold I will visit on Shemaiah the Nehelamite and upon his seed [that] he shall have no man sitting in the midst of this people, and he shall not see the good that I am doing to My people, says the Lord, for he spoke perversion against the Lord. |
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לב. |
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