<p class="bodytext">&#8220;You say, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> has raised up prophets of good news<n id="1" /> for us here in Babylon.&#8217;

He asked them how they were doing.<n id="1" /> Then he said, &#8220;Is your aging father well, the one you spoke about? Is he still alive?&#8221;

But I will bring in your little ones, whom you said would become victims of war,<n id="1" /> and they will enjoy<n id="2" /> the land that you have despised.

<p class="bodytext">Samuel said to all Israel, &#8220;I have done<n id="1" /> everything you requested.<n id="2" /> I have given you a king.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">Then the Spirit of the <sc>Lordsc> came<n id="1" /> upon me and said to me, &#8220;Say: This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says: &#8216;This is what you are thinking,<n id="2" /> O house of Israel; I know what goes through your minds.<n id="3" />

Have you not seen a false vision and announced a lying omen when you say, &#8220;the <sc>Lordsc> declares,&#8221; although I myself never spoke?p>

<p class="poetry">Seek good and not evil so you can live!p> <p class="poetry">Then the <sc>Lordsc>, the God who commands armies, just might be with you,p> <p class="poetry">as you claim he is.p>

You have said, &#8216;It is useless to serve God. How have we been helped<n id="1" /> by keeping his requirements and going about like mourners before the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all?<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">When Joseph looked up<n id="1" /> and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother&#8217;s son, he said, &#8220;Is this your youngest brother, whom you told me about?&#8221; Then he said, &#8220;May God be gracious to you, my son.&#8221;<n id="2" />

Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way,<n id="1" /> and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad,<n id="2" /> will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.

<p class="poetry">For you say,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;We have made a treaty with death,p> <p class="poetry">with Sheol<n id="1" /> we have made an agreement.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">it will not reach us.p> <p class="poetry">For we have made a lie our refuge,p> <p class="poetry">we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, &#8216;This is what you have said: &#8220;Our rebellious acts and our sins have caught up with us,<n id="1" /> and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?&#8221;&#8217;