Jeremiah and the Prophet Hananiah

¹That same year, in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah was king, Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple. In the presence of the priests and of the people he told me

²that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said: “I have broken the power of the king of Babylonia.

³Within two years I will bring back to this place all the Temple treasures that King Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylonia.

⁴I will also bring back the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, along with all of the people of Judah who went into exile in Babylonia. Yes, I will break the power of the king of Babylonia. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

⁵Then in the presence of the priests and of all the people who were standing in the Temple, I said to Hananiah,

⁶“Wonderful! I hope the Lord will do this! I certainly hope he will make your prophecy come true and will bring back from Babylonia all the Temple treasures and all the people who were taken away as prisoners.

⁷But listen to what I say to you and to the people.

⁸The prophets who spoke long ago, before my time and yours, predicted that war, starvation, and disease would come to many nations and powerful kingdoms.

⁹But a prophet who predicts peace can only be recognized as a prophet whom the Lord has truly sent when that prophet's predictions come true.”

¹⁰Then Hananiah took the yoke off my neck, broke it in pieces,

¹¹and said in the presence of all the people, “The Lord has said that this is how he will break the yoke that King Nebuchadnezzar has put on the neck of all the nations; and he will do this within two years.” Then I left.

¹²Some time after this the Lord told me

¹³to go and tell Hananiah: “The Lord has said that you may be able to break a wooden yoke, but he will replace it with an iron yoke.

¹⁴The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has said that he will put an iron yoke on all these nations and that they will serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. The Lord has said that he will make even the wild animals serve Nebuchadnezzar.”

¹⁵Then I told Hananiah this, and added, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, and you are making these people believe a lie.

¹⁶And so the Lord himself says that he is going to get rid of you. Before this year is over you will die because you have told the people to rebel against the Lord.”

¹⁷And Hananiah died in the seventh month of that same year.

Jeremiah's Letter to the Jews in Babylonia

¹I wrote a letter to the priests, the prophets, the leaders of the people, and to all the others whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia.

²I wrote it after King Jehoiachin, his mother, the palace officials, the leaders of Judah and of Jerusalem, the engravers, and the skilled workers had been taken into exile.

³I gave the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah was sending to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. It said:

⁴“The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those people whom he allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia:

⁵‘Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them.

⁶Marry and have children. Then let your children get married, so that they also may have children. You must increase in numbers and not decrease.

⁷Work for the good of the cities where I have made you go as prisoners. Pray to me on their behalf, because if they are prosperous, you will be prosperous too.

⁸I, the Lord, the God of Israel, warn you not to let yourselves be deceived by the prophets who live among you or by any others who claim they can predict the future. Do not pay any attention to their dreams.

⁹They are telling you lies in my name. I did not send them. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.’

¹⁰“The Lord says, ‘When Babylonia's seventy years are over, I will show my concern for you and keep my promise to bring you back home.

¹¹I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.

¹²Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you.

¹³You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart.

¹⁴Yes, I say, you will find me, and I will restore you to your land. I will gather you from every country and from every place to which I have scattered you, and I will bring you back to the land from which I had sent you away into exile. I, the Lord, have spoken.’

¹⁵“You say that the Lord has given you prophets in Babylonia.

¹⁶Listen to what the Lord says about the king who rules the kingdom that David ruled and about the people of this city, that is, your relatives who were not taken away as prisoners with you.

¹⁷The Lord Almighty says, ‘I am bringing war, starvation, and disease on them, and I will make them like figs that are too rotten to be eaten.

¹⁸I will pursue them with war, starvation, and disease, and all the nations of the world will be horrified at what they see. Everywhere I scatter them, people will be shocked and terrified at what has happened to them. People will make fun of them and use their name as a curse.

¹⁹This will happen to them because they did not obey the message that I kept on sending to them through my servants the prophets. They refused to listen.

²⁰All of you whom I sent into exile in Babylonia, listen to what I, the Lord, say.’

²¹“The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has spoken about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are telling you lies in his name. He has said that he will hand them over to the power of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, who will put them to death before your eyes.

²²When the people who were taken away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia want to bring a curse on someone, they will say, ‘May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylonia roasted alive!’

²³This will be their fate because they are guilty of terrible sins—they have committed adultery and have told lies in the Lord's name. This was against the Lord's will; he knows what they have done, and he is a witness against them. The Lord has spoken.”

The Letter of Shemaiah

^24-25The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, gave me a message for Shemaiah of Nehelam, who had sent a letter in his own name to all the people of Jerusalem and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah and to all the other priests. In this letter Shemaiah wrote to Zephaniah:

²⁶“The Lord made you a priest in place of Jehoiada, and you are now the chief officer in the Temple. It is your duty to see that every crazy person who pretends to be a prophet is placed in chains with an iron collar around the neck.

²⁷Why haven't you done this to Jeremiah of Anathoth, who has been speaking as a prophet to the people?

²⁸He must be stopped because he told the people in Babylonia that they would be prisoners there a long time and should build houses, settle down, plant gardens, and eat what they grow.”

²⁹Zephaniah read the letter to me,

³⁰and then the Lord told me

^31-32to send to all the prisoners in Babylon this message about Shemaiah: “I, the Lord, will punish Shemaiah and all of his descendants. I did not send him, but he spoke to you as if he were a prophet, and he made you believe lies. He will have no descendants among you. He will not live to see the good things that I am going to do for my people, because he told them to rebel against me. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Daniel's Vision by the Tigris River

¹In the third year that Cyrus was emperor of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel, who is also called Belteshazzar. The message was true but extremely hard to understand. It was explained to him in a vision.

²At that time I was mourning for three weeks.

³I did not eat any rich food or any meat, drink any wine, or comb my hair until the three weeks were past.

⁴On the twenty-fourth day of the first month of the year I was standing on the bank of the mighty Tigris River.

⁵I looked up and saw someone who was wearing linen clothes and a belt of fine gold.

⁶His body shone like a jewel. His face was as bright as a flash of lightning, and his eyes blazed like fire. His arms and legs shone like polished bronze, and his voice sounded like the roar of a great crowd.

⁷I was the only one who saw the vision. Those who were with me did not see anything, but they were terrified and ran and hid.

⁸I was left there alone, watching this amazing vision. I had no strength left, and my face was so changed that no one could have recognized me.

⁹When I heard his voice, I fell to the ground unconscious and lay there face downward.

¹⁰Then a hand took hold of me and raised me to my hands and knees; I was still trembling.

¹¹The angel said to me, “Daniel, God loves you. Stand up and listen carefully to what I am going to say. I have been sent to you.” When he had said this, I stood up, still trembling.

¹²Then he said, “Daniel, don't be afraid. God has heard your prayers ever since the first day you decided to humble yourself in order to gain understanding. I have come in answer to your prayer.

¹³The angel prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief angels, came to help me, because I had been left there alone in Persia.

¹⁴I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the future. This is a vision about the future.”

¹⁵When he said this, I stared at the ground, speechless.

¹⁶Then the angel, who looked like a human being, reached out and touched my lips. I said to him, “Sir, this vision makes me so weak that I can't stop trembling.

¹⁷I am like a slave standing before his master. How can I talk to you? I have no strength or breath left in me.”

¹⁸Once more he took hold of me, and I felt stronger.

¹⁹He said, “God loves you, so don't let anything worry you or frighten you.” When he had said this, I felt even stronger and said, “Sir, tell me what you have to say. You have made me feel better.”

^20-21He said, “Do you know why I came to you? It is to reveal to you what is written in the Book of Truth. Now I have to go back and fight the guardian angel of Persia. After that the guardian angel of Greece will appear. There is no one to help me except Michael, Israel's guardian angel.

¹He is responsible for helping and defending me.

The Kingdoms of Egypt and Syria

²And what I am now going to tell you is true.” The angel said, “Three more kings will rule over Persia, followed by a fourth, who will be richer than all the others. At the height of his power and wealth he will challenge the kingdom of Greece.

³“Then a heroic king will appear. He will rule over a huge empire and do whatever he wants.

⁴But at the height of his power his empire will break up and be divided into four parts. Kings not descended from him will rule in his place, but they will not have the power that he had.

⁵“The king of Egypt will be strong. One of his generals, however, will be even stronger and rule a greater kingdom.

⁶After a number of years the king of Egypt will make an alliance with the king of Syria and give him his daughter in marriage. But the alliance will not last, and she, her husband, her child, and the servants who went with her will all be killed.

⁷Soon afterward one of her relatives will become king. He will attack the army of the king of Syria, enter their fortress, and defeat them.

⁸He will carry back to Egypt the images of their gods and the articles of gold and silver dedicated to those gods. After several years of peace

⁹the king of Syria will invade Egypt, but he will be forced to retreat.

¹⁰“The sons of the king of Syria will prepare for war and gather a large army. One of them will sweep on like a flood and attack an enemy fortress.

¹¹In his anger the king of Egypt will go to war against the king of Syria and capture his huge army.

¹²He will be proud of his victory and of the many soldiers he has killed, but he will not continue to be victorious.

¹³“The king of Syria will go back and gather a larger army than he had before. When the proper time comes, he will return with a large, well-equipped army.

¹⁴Then many people will rebel against the king of Egypt. And some violent people from your nation, Daniel, will rebel because of a vision they have seen, but they will be defeated.

¹⁵So the king of Syria will lay siege to a fortified city and capture it. The soldiers of Egypt will not continue to fight; even the best of them will not have enough strength.

¹⁶The Syrian invader will do with them as he pleases, without opposition. He will stand in the Promised Land and have it completely in his power.

¹⁷“The king of Syria will plan an expedition, using his whole army. Then, in order to destroy his enemy's kingdom, he will make an alliance with him and offer him his daughter in marriage; but his plan will not succeed.

¹⁸After that he will attack the nations by the sea and conquer many of them. But a foreign leader will defeat him and put an end to his arrogance; indeed he will turn the arrogance of Syria's king back on him.

¹⁹The king will return to the fortresses of his own land, but he will be defeated, and that will be the end of him.

²⁰“He will be followed by another king, who will send an officer to oppress the people with taxes in order to increase the wealth of his kingdom. In a short time that king will be killed, but not publicly and not in battle.”

The Evil King of Syria

²¹The angel went on to explain: “The next king of Syria will be an evil man who has no right to be king, but he will come unexpectedly and seize power by trickery.

²²Anyone who opposes him, even God's High Priest, will be swept away and wiped out.

²³By making treaties, he will deceive other nations, and he will grow stronger and stronger, even though he rules only a small nation.

²⁴He will invade a wealthy province without warning and will do things that none of his ancestors ever did. Then he will divide among his followers the goods and property he has captured in war. He will make plans to attack fortresses, but his time will soon run out.

²⁵“He will boldly raise a large army to attack the king of Egypt, who will prepare to fight back with a huge and powerful army. But the king of Egypt will be deceived and will not be successful.

²⁶His closest advisers will ruin him. Many of his soldiers will be killed, and his army will be wiped out.

²⁷Then the two kings will sit down to eat at the same table, but their motives will be evil, and they will lie to each other. They will not get what they want, because the time for it has not yet come.

²⁸The king of Syria will return home with all the loot he has captured, determined to destroy the religion of God's people. He will do as he pleases and then return to his own land.

²⁹“Later on he will invade Egypt again, but this time things will turn out differently.

³⁰The Romans will come in ships and oppose him, and he will be frightened. “Then he will turn back in a rage and try to destroy the religion of God's people. He will follow the advice of those who have abandoned that religion.

³¹Some of his soldiers will make the Temple ritually unclean. They will stop the daily sacrifices and set up The Awful Horror.

³²By deceit the king will win the support of those who have already abandoned their religion, but those who follow God will fight back.

³³Wise leaders of the people will share their wisdom with many others. But for a while some of them will be killed in battle or be burned to death, and some will be robbed and made prisoners.

³⁴While the killing is going on, God's people will receive a little help, even though many who join them will do so for selfish reasons.

³⁵Some of those wise leaders will be killed, but as a result of this the people will be purified. This will continue until the end comes, the time that God has set.

³⁶“The king of Syria will do as he pleases. He will boast that he is greater than any god, superior even to the Supreme God. He will be able to do this until the time when God punishes him. God will do exactly what he has planned.

³⁷The king will ignore the god his ancestors served, and also the god that women love. In fact, he will ignore every god, because he will think he is greater than any of them.

³⁸Instead, he will honor the god who protects fortresses. He will offer gold, silver, jewels, and other rich gifts to a god his ancestors never worshiped.

³⁹To defend his fortresses, he will use people who worship a foreign god. He will give great honor to those who accept him as ruler, put them into high offices, and give them land as a reward.

⁴⁰“When the king of Syria's final hour has almost come, the king of Egypt will attack him, and the king of Syria will fight back with all his power, using chariots, horses, and many ships. He will invade many countries, like the waters of a flood.

⁴¹He will even invade the Promised Land and kill tens of thousands, but the countries of Edom, Moab, and what is left of Ammon will escape.

⁴²When he invades all those countries, even Egypt will not be spared.

⁴³He will take away Egypt's hidden treasures of gold and silver and its other prized possessions. He will conquer Libya and Ethiopia.

⁴⁴Then news that comes from the east and the north will frighten him, and he will fight furiously, killing many people.

⁴⁵He will even set up his huge royal tents between the sea and the mountain on which the Temple stands. But he will die, with no one there to help him.”

¹³A king wants to hear the truth and will favor those who speak it.

¹⁴A wise person will try to keep the king happy; if the king becomes angry, someone may die.

¹⁵The king's favor is like the clouds that bring rain in the springtime—life is there.

¹⁶It is better—much better—to have wisdom and knowledge than gold and silver.