Jeremiahchapter 29
32 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
Jeremiah wrote this letter from Jerusalem to the Judeans taken to Babylon in the first deportation. It is one of the few letters in the Old Testament, and royal envoys carried it to the exiles' settlements. Its first readers expected to be home within a year or two, and their own prophets told them so. The letter speaks to people who had lost a war and wanted to know how to live. Listen for its ordinary instructions about houses, gardens and families, and for the length of time it names. Read it as counsel for God's people living far from home.
Context
- Who
- Exiles in Babylonia living out of suitcases, waiting for a quick return
- What
- A letter from Jeremiah to the exiles in Babylon telling them to settle, pray for the city and wait for the LORD's appointed time.
- Where
- Written in Jerusalem and carried to the Judean settlements in Babylonia.
- When
- Some years after the deportation of 597 BC, about 594 to 593 BC.
- Why
- To answer the prophets who promised a quick return and to give the exiles a future to hope for under God's plan.
Historical context
The letter travels by diplomatic pouch. It is carried by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah was sending to Nebuchadnezzar, official envoys with an escort, which is how private mail moved safely over a thousand miles of imperial road.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The instructions are startlingly practical: build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, marry, have children, arrange marriages for those children, and seek the welfare of the city where you have been sent, praying for it. Cuneiform tablets from Babylonia record Judean exiles doing exactly this, settled in villages, farming allotted land, paying taxes, doing business, keeping Hebrew names alongside Babylonian ones for generations.
The seventy years is repeated here with a promise attached, plans for welfare and not for evil, a future and a hope, and it is worth seeing who it was written to. This was mail to people who had lost a war, addressed to a generation most of whom would die in Babylonia.
The last part of the chapter is a fight conducted by post. Shemaiah writes from Babylon to the temple officer in Jerusalem, demanding that Jeremiah be put in the stocks and neck-irons as a madman. His letter is read to Jeremiah, and Jeremiah answers with a letter of his own.
Significance
The exiles were being told the hardest thing a displaced people can hear: settle down, this is going to be long, and pray for the empire that deported you.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The promise of a future and a hope was never a charm against hardship. It was said to people already in the wreckage, and it committed God to an end they would not personally live to see. That is what made it worth trusting.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the second verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Masei 10:1. Under the seventh verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayigash 11:1.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern, and his headwords, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi's notes on the letter to the exiles are short. The word for misleading in the eighth verse he reads as "An expression of enticing", and he sets it beside the serpent's word in Genesis 3:13 (Rashi on Jeremiah 29:8:1). The calling and going of the twelfth verse he completes with the words "In My ways", and adds "This is an ellipsis" (Rashi on Jeremiah 29:12:1). The king of the sixteenth verse is "Zedekiah, who has not been exiled" (Rashi on Jeremiah 29:16:1).
The figs of the seventeenth verse he reads through a word in Hosea 6:10 for a disgraceful thing (Rashi on Jeremiah 29:17:1). The two false prophets burned by the king of Babylon in the twenty-second verse were roasted, as the word is used in Leviticus 2:14 (Rashi on Jeremiah 29:22:1). Their adultery in the next verse he explains from Sanhedrin 93a (Rashi on Jeremiah 29:23:1). Shemaiah's title, the Nehelamite, is "A place name" (Rashi on Jeremiah 29:24:1), and the letter that followed is one "He wrote this to Zephaniah" (Rashi on Jeremiah 29:26:1).
The tenth and eleventh verses carry the promise of the seventy years and the plans for welfare. The corpus holds notes by Radak on both with no English text, so the card cites them and quotes nothing on those verses.
The corpus carries fourteen further notes on this chapter without an English text. Each is marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, so each is cited here and none is quoted. The notes of Metzudat David are cited at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 29:1:1, 29:5:1, 29:6:1, 29:9:1, 29:13:1, 29:14:1 and 29:21:1. The notes of Radak are cited at Radak on Jeremiah 29:3:1, 29:7:1, 29:10:1, 29:11:1, 29:15:1, 29:19:1 and 29:25:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 3:7:4, Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 6:8:14, Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 1:2:34 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Esther, Introduction 2. On the second verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 23:14, Bereshit Rabbah 42:3, Esther Rabbah, Petichta 10 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Masei 10:1. On the third verse it holds Sanhedrin 103a:9. On the fifth verse it holds Bava Batra 29a:1 and Kohelet Rabbah 9:9:1. On the sixth verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Kiddushin 1:19, Ketubot 52b:11, Kiddushin 30b:9 and Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:13.
On the seventh verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 68:2, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayigash 11:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayigash 10:1. On the tenth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 71:3, Ein Yaakov, Megillah 1:23 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 11:5:2. On the eleventh verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 59:4, Bereshit Rabbah 85:1 and Ein Yaakov, Taanit 4:13. On the twelfth verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 61:1. On the thirteenth verse it holds Midrash Tehillim 28:2.
On the twenty-first verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 11:19, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 18:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayikra 10:2. On the twenty-second verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 9:18 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 26. On the twenty-third verse it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 72, Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 5:1:5 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 31:19:1. On the twenty-seventh verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 84:11, Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 37:10:1 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 37:10:2. On the thirtieth verse it holds Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 12 7 and Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 12 9.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 29:8:1 to 29:26:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 29:1:1, 29:5:1, 29:6:1, 29:9:1, 29:13:1, 29:14:1 and 29:21:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 29:3:1, 29:7:1, 29:10:1, 29:11:1, 29:15:1, 29:19:1 and 29:25:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/29.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Build Houses, Plant Gardens, Seek the Peace of the City
Jeremiah 29:1-3
This is the text of the: The chapter is a letter, sent from Jerusalem. It travels by “Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah,” envoys of Zedekiah to Nebuchadnezzar. Shaphan's family stands with Jeremiah at 26:24 and 36:10-12, so the letter moves through a friendly channel, and exile has a postal route.
the craftsmen, and the metalsmiths: This aside lists who had already been exiled from Jerusalem: King Jeconiah, his mother, the officials and the craftsmen. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that every man in power was taken so none could lead a revolt. The loss was fresh when the letter was sent.
entrusted to Elasah son of Shaphan: The letter goes with the king's own men to Babylon. Barnes takes Elasah for a brother of Ahikam, who kept Jeremiah safe at 26:24, so Babylon would trust him. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown add that the trip shows Zedekiah ruled only as Babylon allowed.
Jeremiah 29:4-7
This is what the LORD of: The counsel is to settle, “Build houses and settle down,” which makes sense only if release is far off, and so answers Hananiah's two-year promise. The exiles are to “Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles,” and pray for it.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the command as an answer to the false prophets, who told the exiles their captivity would soon end. A garden takes years to repay its planter. Matthew Henry adds that wherever a child of God goes, he still walks on his Father's ground.
Take wives and have sons and daughters: Three generations are in view here: the exiles, their children and their grandchildren. That span fits the seventy years of verse 10. Matthew Henry notes that Shemaiah scorned this advice, and verse 32 answers him by leaving him no descendants among the people.
Seek the prosperity of the city: The exiles must pray for Babylon, the city of their captors. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see in this a foretaste of the gospel command to love enemies in Matthew 5:44. Barnes adds that living as plotters against the city would have ruined their whole moral nature.
Jeremiah 29:8-9
For this is what the LORD: The warning against false prophets goes with the exiles to Babylon, the danger named at home in chapter 27. The LORD says, “do not listen to the dreams you elicit from them,” naming dreams drawn out on demand. His verdict on those prophets is plain: “I have not sent them.”
falsely prophesying to you in My name: Using the Lord's name proved nothing. Jerome notes from Ezekiel 13 that false prophets, diviners and dreamers had gone to Babylon in the company of Jeconiah. Adam Clarke reads the dreams of verse 8 as the work of a class of dreamers who offered to explain the dreams of others.
Jeremiah 29:10-11
For this is what the LORD: The promise has a date: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you,” the seventy years of 25:11-12. Verse 11 is the letter's best-known line, “For I know the plans I have for you,” and it is given to one generation in exile.
to give you a future and a hope: The promise is made to exiles facing seventy years. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say the people swung from false confidence to despair, and this word meets the despair. Wesley notes that the hope rests on the Lord's mercy to the seed of Abraham, apart from any merit of theirs.
Jeremiah 29:11
“When things are at the worst they will begin to mend; and he will give them to see the glorious perfection of their deliverance; for, as for God, his work is perfect. He that in the beginning finished the heavens and the earth, and all the hosts of both, will finish all the blessings of both to his people. When he begins in ways of mercy he will make an end.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 29:11
“The moral malady of man is twofold--at one time vain confidence; then, when that is disappointed, despair. So the Jews first laughed at God's threats, confident that they should speedily return; then, when cast down from that confidence, they sank in inconsolable despondency. expected end--literally, "end and expectation," that is, an end, and that such an end as you wish for.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 29:11
“Thoughts of peace - Here God gives them to understand, 1. That his love was moved towards them. 2. That he would perform his good word, his promises often repeated, to them. 3. That for the fulfillment of these they must pray, seek, and search. 4. That he would hearken, and they should find him; provided, 5. They sought him with their whole heart, Jer 29:10-13.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 29:12-14
Then you will call upon Me: Restoration follows a turning: “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart,” the language of Deuteronomy 4:29. The gathering reaches past Babylon, “from all the nations and places to which I have banished you,” a wider scattering than the captivity in view.
search for Me with all your heart: Seeking with all the heart repeats Deuteronomy 4:29, a promise made to Israel scattered among the nations. Matthew Henry says to search is to take pains and keep on, in truth and in earnest prayer. Daniel 9 records one exile who did so.
gather you from all the nations: The gathering reaches past Babylon to every nation and place of banishment. The Lord who sent them away brings them back. Adam Clarke reports a proposal to move verses 16 to 19 before verse 10, which would set this promise just ahead of verse 20.
Jeremiah 29:14
“I will gather you from all the nations - A quotation from Deu 30:3, and see also Deu 4:7.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 29:14
Turn away your captivity - Or, “restore your prosperity.”
Ahab and Zedekiah Roasted in the Fire
Jeremiah 29:15-16
Because you may say, “The LORD: The exiles had been saying, “The LORD has raised up for us prophets in Babylon,” and used the claim to set aside Jeremiah's harder counsel. The LORD answers by turning to those who stayed, “the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city.”
the king who sits on David’s throne: The Lord now turns to Zedekiah and the people left behind. Barnes notes that these verses are missing from the Greek Septuagint, whose text of this chapter he finds brief and confused. Adam Clarke reads them as a warning to the exiles against envying those still at home.
Jeremiah 29:17-19
this is what the LORD of: Those left in Jerusalem face “sword and famine and plague,” made “like rotten figs, so bad they cannot be eaten,” the image in chapter 24. The letter leans on that vision, where the exiles are the good figs and those left under Zedekiah the bad.
a horror to all the kingdoms: Those left in Jerusalem will face the same exile they thought they had escaped, scattered among all the nations. The words curse, desolation, scorn and reproach repeat the threat of 24:9, spoken over the bad figs. Adam Clarke reads it as a warning against envy.
again and again through My servants the prophets: The charge against Jerusalem is an old one. The last line turns to the exiles and finds the same deafness in them. Adam Clarke reads the passage as a warning to the exiles, who still hold a promise of release that Jerusalem lacks.
Jeremiah 29:20-21
So hear the word of the: Two prophets among the exiles are named for judgment, “Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah,” who prophesy “lies in My name.” The LORD will deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar, “and he will kill them before your very eyes.” False prophecy is answered as publicly as Hananiah's was.
Ahab son of Kolaiah: John Gill notes that these two prophets appear nowhere else, and he takes them for the prophets the exiles boasted of in verse 15. Adam Clarke explains why the king of Babylon would kill them. Their talk of a quick return made the exiles restless and could stir a revolt.
Jeremiah 29:22-23
Their deaths become a curse: “May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!” Verse 23 names the ground, adultery with “the wives of their neighbors,” and “lies in My name,” so false prophecy and moral corruption go together.
committed an outrage in Israel: John Gill notes that the Hebrew word for outrage can also mean folly, and he ties it to the two sins named next. The two prophets joined adultery to lies told in the Lord's name. The Lord Himself is the witness.
Shemaiah's Letter and the LORD's Answer
Jeremiah 29:24-26
You are to tell Shemaiah the: Shemaiah the Nehelamite answers Jeremiah's letter with letters of his own. He reminds Zephaniah that the LORD appointed him with charge over “any madman who acts like a prophet,” and asks for Jeremiah in the stocks. The office set to guard against false prophets is turned against the true one.
you have sent out letters: Shemaiah wrote in his own name, and Gill notes he asked neither the other exiles nor Ezekiel. His letters went to Zephaniah the priest, the man Zedekiah had sent to ask Jeremiah at 21:1, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note. Matthew Henry notes he offers no argument of his own.
Matthew Henry reports that Shemaiah flatters Zephaniah as a new Jehoiada, the priest who led the reform under Joash. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Law made the priest a judge, without the right to put a man in stocks. Jeremiah had been put in the stocks at 20:2.
Jeremiah 29:27-28
So now, why have you not: Shemaiah quotes Jeremiah's counsel back: “Since the exile will be lengthy, build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat their produce.” Jeremiah had sent that counsel to the exiles in verse 5. Shemaiah treats patience as the offense and asks why Jeremiah, who “poses as a prophet,” goes unrebuked.
Jeremiah 29:27
“This very sin they are notoriously guilty of in their captivity, which shows that afflictions will not of themselves cure men of their sins, unless the grace of God work with them, but will rather exasperate the corruptions they are intended to mortify; so true is that of Solomon ( Prov. xxvii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Since the exile will be lengthy: Shemaiah quotes the letter of verse 5 back as proof of Jeremiah's madness. Matthew Henry points out Jeremiah had foretold the first captivity and been proved right, while the prophets of a short exile had been found false. The counsel of patience is the whole charge.
Jeremiah 29:29-32
(Zephaniah the priest, however, had read: Zephaniah the priest reads Shemaiah's letter to Jeremiah. Shemaiah is charged like Hananiah before him, “he has preached rebellion against the LORD,” and he has made the exiles “trust in a lie.” His sentence cuts him out of the future his letter claimed to hasten.
the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: The Lord answers Shemaiah by a fresh word to Jeremiah. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the sentence begun at verse 25 is left unfinished there and taken up here in a new form. Zephaniah had read the letter aloud to Jeremiah, and the reply follows.
has made you trust in a lie: Shemaiah fails the test named in verse 9, speaking without being sent. The Lord's answer goes out to all the exiles, the same public he had tried to sway. Matthew Henry notes that one who will not wait for the Lord's time is unworthy to share the good that follows.
Adam Clarke lists three parts of the punishment: the LORD will punish Shemaiah and “his descendants.” He will have “no one left among this people,” and he will never “see the good that I will bring to My people.” The charge is the one laid on Hananiah at 28:16.
Keep studying
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Subjects1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.