You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. ¹  But you have not paid any attention to them.

But correct the way you have been living and do what is right. ¹  Obey the Lord your God. If you do, the Lord will forgo destroying you as he threatened he would. ² 

Things will go better for the nation that submits to the yoke of servitude to ¹  the king of Babylon and is subject to him. I will leave that nation ²  in its native land. Its people can continue to farm it and live in it. I, the Lord, affirm it!”’” ³ 

From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably ¹  prophesied war, disaster, ²  and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms.

He sent it with Elasah son of Shaphan ¹  and Gemariah son of Hilkiah. ²  King Zedekiah of Judah had sent these men to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. ³  The letter said:

Work to see that the city where I sent you as exiles enjoys peace and prosperity. Pray to the Lord for it. For as it prospers you will prosper.’

“The Lord God of Israel says, ¹  ‘Write everything that I am about to tell you in a scroll. ² 

In the past I saw to it that they were uprooted and torn down, that they were destroyed and demolished. But now I will see to it that they are built up and firmly planted. ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ² 

In the tenth year that Zedekiah was ruling over Judah the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. ¹  That was the same as the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

Now at that time, ¹  the armies of the king of Babylon were besieging Jerusalem. ²  The prophet Jeremiah was confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse ³  attached to the royal palace of Judah.

So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out seven ounces of silver and gave it to him to pay for it. ¹ 

You plan great things and you do mighty deeds. ¹  You see everything people do. ²  You reward each of them for the way they live and for the things they do. ³ 

You did miracles and amazing deeds in the land of Egypt which have had lasting effect. By this means you gained both in Israel and among humankind a renown that lasts to this day. ¹ 

You kept the promise that you swore on oath to their ancestors. ¹  You gave them a land flowing with milk and honey. ² 

‘I will certainly regather my people from all the countries where I will have exiled ¹  them in my anger, fury, and great wrath. I will bring them back to this place and allow them to live here in safety.

I will make a lasting covenant ¹  with them that I will never stop doing good to them. ²  I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that ³  they will never again turn ⁴  away from me.

You and your people ¹  are saying that this land will become desolate, uninhabited by either people or animals. You are saying that it will be handed over to the Babylonians. ²  But fields ³  will again be bought in this land. ⁴ 

“I, the Lord, affirm: ¹  ‘The time will certainly come when I will fulfill my gracious promise concerning the nations of Israel and Judah. ² 

Under his rule Judah will enjoy safety ¹  and Jerusalem ²  will live in security. At that time Jerusalem will be called “The Lord has provided us with justice.” ³ 

But later ¹  they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. ²