A message for Shemaiah

24 Yahweh told me to send this message to Shemaiah, a man from Nehelam town who was living in Babylon: 25 This is what the Commander of the armies of angels, the God whom we Israelis worship, says: “You wrote a letter that no one told you to write. You sent it to Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, and you sent copies to the other priests and all the other people here in Jerusalem. This is what you wrote to him:

26 Zephaniah, Yahweh has appointed you to be the priest instead of Jehoiada, to supervise those who work in the temple. Anyone who acts like a crazy man and who claims that he is a prophet, you should put his arms and legs and head into ◄stocks/a wooden frame so that he cannot move►. 27 So why have you not done anything to stop Jeremiah, the man from Anathoth town, who pretends that he is a prophet among you? 28 He sent a letter to us who are here in Babylon, saying that we will be here for a long time. He said that therefore we should build houses and plan to stay here, and plant gardens, and eat the food that is produced in the gardens.”

29 But when Zephaniah the priest received the letter from you, he brought it to me and read it to me. 30 Then Yahweh gave me this message: 31 “Send this message to all the people from Judah who are there in Babylon. Say that this is what Yahweh says about Shemaiah, the man from Nehelam: ‘I did not appoint him, but he has deceived you and caused you to believe the lies that he prophesied. 32 So, I will punish him and his family. He has incited you to rebel against me. Because of that, all of his descendants will soon die. I will do many good things for you, my people, but he and his descendants will not see those things, because they will be dead. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it!’ ”