1 In the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur spoke to me. Hananiah was from the town of Gibeon. Hananiah was in the Lord’S Temple when he spoke to me. The priests and all the people were there also. This is what Hananiah said:
2 “The Lord All-Powerful, the God of the people of Israel, says: ‘I will break the yoke that the king of Babylon has put on the people of Judah.
3 Before two years are over, I will bring back all the things that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took from the Lord’S Temple. Nebuchadnezzar has carried those things to Babylon. But I will bring them back here to Jerusalem.
4 I will also bring the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, back to this place. And I will bring back all the people of Judah that Nebuchadnezzar forced to leave their homes and go to Babylon,’ says the Lord. ‘So I will break the yoke that the king of Babylon put on the people of Judah.’”