Jeremiah 29
29
1Jeremiah the prophet wrote this letter and sent it from Jerusalem to the elders who were left among the exiles, to the priests, the prophets, and everyone else who had been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. 2This was after King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metals-workers had been exiled from Jerusalem. 3Elasah, son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, son of Hilkiah, took the letter with them when Zedekiah king of Judah sent them to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. In the letter Jeremiah wrote:
4This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles who were taken from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5Build yourselves houses there to live in. Plant gardens and grow food to eat. 6Get married and have children. Arrange for your children to get married so they can have children too. Increase in number, don't decrease. 7Help make the city where I've exiled you more prosperous. Pray to the Lord for it, since as it prospers, so will you.
8This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Don't be fooled by your prophets and fortune-tellers, and don't listen to any dreams they interpret for you. 9They are prophesying lies to you in my name; I have not sent them, declares the Lord.
10This is what the Lord says: When the seventy years exile in Babylon is over, I will see to you and keep my promise to bring you back to Jerusalem. 11I know what I intend to do for you, declares the Lord. I plan good things for you and not bad. I'm going to give you a future and a hope. 12Then you will call for my help, you will come and pray to me, and I will answer you. 13You will look for me and you will find me when you're completely committed to looking for me. 14I will let you find me, declares the Lord. I will end your captivity, gathering you from all the nations and places where I scattered you, declares the Lord. I will bring you back home to the place from where I sent you into exile.
15But if you argue, “The Lord has provided prophets for us in Babylon,” 16this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David's throne and everyone who's left in Jerusalem, your fellow citizens who weren't taken with you into exile. 17This is what the Lord Almighty says: I'm going to send war and famine and disease against them. I'll make them like rotten figs, so bad that they can't be eaten. 18I will chase them down with war and famine and disease. I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified by them. They will become a curse word, totally ruined, people to be mocked and criticized among all the nations where I scatter them. 19I'm going to do this because they haven't obeyed my words, declares the Lord, which I sent to them time and again through my servants the prophets. You exiles haven't obeyed me either, declares the Lord.
20So listen to the word of the Lord, all you exiles I sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you in my name. I'm going to hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them right before your eyes. 22Because of what happens to them, all the exiles of Judah in Babylon will curse others like this: “May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, burned alive by the king of Babylon!” 23They did outrageous things in Israel—they committed adultery with their neighbors' wives and told lies in my name. I didn't tell them to say anything. I am the one who knows what they did, and I can witness to it, declares the Lord.
24Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite 25that this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: On your own authority you sent out letters to all the people of Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests, saying, 26“Zephaniah,#29:26. Name supplied for clarity. the Lord has chosen you as priest to replace Jehoiada, to be in charge of the Lord's Temple. In that capacity you are required to put in the stocks and neck irons any crazy person who claims to be a prophet. 27So why haven't you punished Jeremiah of Anathoth, who claims to be a prophet among you? 28You should have done this because#29:28. “You should have done this because”: supplied for clarity. he has sent a letter to us here in Babylon, stating, ‘The exile will last a long time. So build yourselves houses there to live in. Plant gardens and grow food to eat.’”
29However, Zephaniah the priest read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet.
30Then the Lord told Jeremiah: 31Send this message to all the exiles: This is what the Lord says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Since Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I didn't send him, and has convinced you to believe in a lie, 32this is what the Lord says: I'm going to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He won't have any family left among this people, and he won't experience the good things that I'm going to do for my people, declares the Lord, for he has promoted rebellion against the Lord.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com
Jeremiah 29
29
Jeremiah's letter to the people of Judah in Babylonia
1-2I had been left in Jerusalem when King Nebuchadnezzar#29.1,2 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2. took many of the people of Jerusalem and Judah to Babylonia as prisoners, including King Jehoiachin,#29.1,2 Jehoiachin: Hebrew “Jeconiah” (see the note at 24.1). his mother, his officials, and the metal workers and others in Jerusalem who were skilled in making things. So I wrote a letter to the prophets, the priests, the leaders, and the rest of our people in Babylonia.#2 K 24.12-16; 2 Ch 36.10. 3I gave the letter to Elasah and Gemariah,#29.3 Elasah and Gemariah: Hebrew “Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah”. two men that King Zedekiah#29.3 Zedekiah: See the note at 1.3. of Judah was sending to Babylon to talk with Nebuchadnezzar. In the letter, I wrote 4that the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, had said:
I had you taken from Jerusalem to Babylonia. Now I tell you 5to settle there and build houses. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them. 6Get married and have children, then help your sons find wives and help your daughters find husbands, so they can have children as well. I want your numbers to grow, not to get smaller.
7Pray for peace in Babylonia and work hard to make it prosperous. The more successful that nation is, the better off you will be.
8-9Some of your people there in Babylonia are fortune-tellers, and you have asked them to tell you what will happen in the future. But they will only lead you astray. And don't let the prophets fool you, either. They speak in my name, but they are liars. I have not spoken to them.
10After Babylonia has been the strongest nation for seventy years, I will be kind and bring you back to Jerusalem, just as I have promised.#2 Ch 36.21; Jr 25.11; Dn 9.2. 11I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering. 12You will turn back to me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers. 13You will worship me with all your heart, and I will be with you#Dt 4.29. 14and accept your worship. Then I will gather you from all the nations where I scattered you, and you will return to Jerusalem.
15You feel secure, because you think I have sent prophets to speak for me in Babylonia.
16-19But I have been sending prophets to the people of Judah for a long time, and the king from David's family and the people who are left in Jerusalem and Judah still don't obey me. So I, the LORD All-Powerful, will keep attacking them with war and hunger and disease, until they are as useless as rotten figs. I will force them to leave the land, and all nations will be disgusted and shocked at what happens to them. The nations will sneer and make fun of them and use the names “Judah” and “Jerusalem” as curse words.
And you have not obeyed me, even though 20I had you taken from Jerusalem to Babylonia. But you had better listen to me now. 21-23You think Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah are prophets because they claim to speak for me. But they are lying! I haven't told them anything. They are also committing other horrible sins in your community, such as sleeping with the wives of their friends. So I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar, who will put them to death while the rest of you watch. And in the future, when you want to put a curse on someone, you will say, “I pray that the LORD will kill you in the same way the king of Babylonia burnt Zedekiah and Ahab to death!”
A message for Shemaiah
24-25The LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, told me what would happen to Shemaiah,#29.24,25 Shemaiah: Hebrew “Shemaiah, who came from the town of Nehelam”. who was one of our people in Babylonia. After my letter reached Babylonia, Shemaiah wrote letters to the people of Jerusalem, including the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and the other priests. The letter to Zephaniah said:
26After the death of Jehoiada the priest, the LORD chose you to be the priest in charge of the temple security force. You know that anyone who acts mad and pretends to be a prophet should be arrested and put in chains#29.26 in chains: See the note at 20.2. and iron collars. 27Jeremiah from the town of Anathoth is pretending to be a prophet there in Jerusalem, so why haven't you punished him? 28He even wrote a letter to the people here in Babylonia, saying we would be here a long time. He told us to build homes and to plant gardens and grow our own food.
29When Zephaniah received Shemaiah's letter, he read it to me. 30Then the LORD told me what to write in a second letter 31to the people of Judah who had been taken to Babylonia. In this letter, I wrote that the LORD had said:
I, the LORD, have not chosen Shemaiah to be one of my prophets, and he has misled you by telling lies in my name. 32He has even talked you into disobeying me. So I will punish Shemaiah. He and his descendants won't live to see the good things I will do for my people. I, the LORD, have spoken.
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© British and Foreign Bible Society 2012