Jeremiah29chapter 29

a.The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon: The exiles had been telling themselves, the Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon, using that claim to set aside Jeremiah's letter and its harder counsel of patience. The Lord answers first by turning to the ones who did not go into exile, the king on David's throne and the people left in the city, before saying anything further about the prophets in Babylon themselves. The claim to a rival, more comfortable prophetic voice is answered indirectly, by naming what has been kept back from those who trust it.

a.like vile figs, that cannot be eaten: Those who remained in Jerusalem are promised sword, famine and pestilence, and made like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil, the same image the basket vision of chapter 24 had already used to sort the exiles from those left under Zedekiah. The letter's whole argument leans on that vision, the ones taken away named good figs and told to build a future, the ones left behind named bad figs and told what is coming. Verse 19 gives the reason once more, because they have not hearkened to my words, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, the standing charge against the nation repeated rather than newly invented here.

a.all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon: Two named prophets among the exiles, Ahab the son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, are singled out for judgment, delivered into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar and slain before the exiles' own eyes rather than left to a private end. Their punishment falls by the hand of the very king they should have counseled submission to, the same king Jeremiah's letter had just told the people to seek peace toward. False prophecy inside the exile community is answered as publicly as Hananiah's had been in Jerusalem.

a.whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire: Their deaths enter the exiles' own language as a curse, the Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, a formula strong enough to survive as a byword among people who had watched it happen. Verse 23 names the ground of it plainly, villany in Israel, adultery with their neighbours' wives, and lying words spoken in the Lord's name, moral corruption bound to false prophecy rather than separated from it. The Lord's own claim to have witnessed it, even I know, and am a witness, closes the charge without appeal to any human court.

a.speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Shemaiah the Nehelamite answers Jeremiah's letter with one of his own, addressed not to Jeremiah but to the priesthood in Jerusalem, invoking the authority of Jehoiada's successor to demand that Jeremiah be put in the stocks as a madman who makes himself a prophet. The charge Shemaiah brings, that Jeremiah has no proper standing, is the same accusation any true prophet risks from an offended establishment, made here by a man the text has already marked as unsent. The letter shows opposition organizing itself through the very office meant to guard against false prophecy, turned instead against the true one.

a.why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth: Shemaiah's complaint quotes Jeremiah's own counsel back at him with contempt, this captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them, the same words sent to the exiles in verse 5 now cited as evidence against their author. The echo proves the letter of this chapter had already reached Babylon and provoked a direct countermove from inside the exile community, not merely disagreement from Jerusalem. Shemaiah treats patience itself as the offense, the very counsel meant to steady the exiles read back as proof Jeremiah should be silenced.

a.Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah: Zephaniah the priest, addressed in Shemaiah's letter, reads it aloud to Jeremiah rather than acting on it, and the word of the Lord answers through Jeremiah directly. Shemaiah is charged with the same offense as Hananiah before him, taught rebellion against the Lord, and sentenced to have no man to dwell among this people and no share in the good the Lord will do, exclusion from the community's own future rather than a lesser penalty. Opposition to a true prophet is answered here by being cut out of the very restoration the opposition claimed to be hastening.