He upheld the cause of the poor and needy. So things went well for Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘That is a good example of what it means to know me.’

You will never come back to this land to which you will long to return!”

The Lord says, “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered.

I did not send those prophets. Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. I did not tell them anything. Yet they prophesied anyway.

But if they had stood in my inner circle, they would have proclaimed my message to my people. They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways and stop doing the evil things they are doing.

The Lord says, “I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’

So I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me.

“Therefore, the Lord who rules over all says, ‘You have not listened to what I said.

Listen to the cries of anguish of the leaders. Listen to the wails of the shepherds of the flocks. They are wailing because the Lord is about to destroy their lands.

“The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘I will break the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon.

The prophet Hananiah then took the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck and broke it.

Zephaniah the priest read that letter to the prophet Jeremiah.

For the Lord will rescue the descendants of Jacob. He will secure their release from those who had overpowered them.

I will take delight in doing good to them. I will faithfully and wholeheartedly plant them firmly in the land.’

“I, the Lord, do these things. I, the Lord, form the plan to bring them about. I am known as the Lord. I say to you,

The prophet Jeremiah told all this to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem.

Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am no longer allowed to go into the Lord’s temple.

Micaiah, who was the son of Gemariah and the grandson of Shaphan, heard Baruch read from the scroll everything the Lord had said.

Since it was the ninth month of the year, the king was sitting in his winter quarters. A fire was burning in the firepot in front of him.

(Now Jeremiah had not yet been put in prison. So he was still free to come and go among the people as he pleased.