Jeremiah 29
29
Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles
1This is the text of the letter # 2Sm 11:14-15; 1Kg 21:8-11 that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exiles, the priests, the prophets, and all the people Nebuchadnezzar # 2Kg 24:11; 25:22; 2Ch 36:6-13 had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2This was after King Jeconiah, # = Jehoiachin # Jr 24:1; 27:20; 28:4 the queen mother, the court officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalsmiths had left Jerusalem. 3The letter was sent by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah # 1Ch 6:13 whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter stated:
4This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5“Build houses and live in them. # Jr 29:28 Plant gardens and eat their produce. 6Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. # Gn 17:5-6; 35:10-11 7Seek the welfare of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, # Ezr 6:10; 1Tm 2:1-2 for when it has prosperity, you will prosper.”
8For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you # Jr 27:9 and your diviners deceive you, # Jr 27:15 and don’t listen to the dreams you elicit from them, 9for they are prophesying falsely to you in My name. I have not sent them.” # Jr 5:31; 14:14; 20:6; 23:25-26,32; 27:10,14-16; 29:21,31 This is the Lord’s declaration.
10For this is what the Lord says: “When 70 years for Babylon are complete, # Jr 25:12; Dn 9:2 I will attend to you and will confirm My promise concerning you to restore you to this place. 11For I know the plans I have for you” # Ps 33:10; Jr 26:3; 36:3 — this is the Lord’s declaration — “plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. # Dt 30:1-10; Jr 3:12 13You will seek Me # Dt 4:29; 1Ch 28:9; 2Ch 15:2 and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “and I will restore your fortunes # Or will end your captivity # Jb 42:10; Jr 32:44; 49:39; Ezk 16:53; 39:25; Hs 6:11; Zph 2:7 and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you” — this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place I deported you from.” # Dt 30:3; Jr 30:3
15You have said, “The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon! ” 16But this is what the Lord says concerning the king sitting on David’s throne # Jr 17:25; 22:2,30; 36:30 and concerning all the people living in this city — that is, concerning your brothers who did not go with you into exile. 17This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “I am about to send against them sword, famine, and plague # Jr 14:12; 21:9; 24:10 and will make them like rotten figs that are inedible because they are so bad. 18I will pursue them with sword, famine, and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth — a curse and a desolation, an object of scorn and a disgrace among all the nations # Dt 28:37; 2Ch 29:8; 30:7; Jr 5:30; 19:8; 25:9,18; 29:18; 42:18; 44:12,22; 49:17; 50:13; Mc 6:16; Zph 2:15 where I have banished them. # Dt 30:1; Jr 8:3; 16:15 19I will do this because they have not listened to My words” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “that I sent to them with My servants the prophets time and time again. # Lit prophets, rising up early and sending # Jr 7:13,25; 11:7; 25:3; 26:5; 32:33; 35:14,15; 44:4 And you too have not listened.” This is the Lord’s declaration.
20Hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. # Jr 24:5 21This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to Ahab son of Kolaiah and to Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, the ones prophesying a lie to you in My name: # Jr 14:14; 29:9 “I am about to hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes. 22Based on what happens to them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will create a curse # Is 65:15 that says, ‘May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire! ’ # Dn 3:6 23because they have committed an outrage # Gn 34:7; Dt 22:21; Jos 7:15 in Israel by committing adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken a lie in My name, which I did not command them. I am He who knows, and I am a witness.” This is the Lord’s declaration.
24To Shemaiah the Nehelamite you are to say, 25“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: You # Lit Because you in your own name have sent out letters to all the people of Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah # Jr 21:1; 37:3; 52:24-27 son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests, saying: 26‘The Lord has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada the priest to be the chief officer # 2Ch 31:13; Jr 20:1 in the temple of the Lord, responsible for every madman # 2Kg 9:11; Hs 9:7 who acts like a prophet. You must confine him in the stocks # 2Ch 16:10; Jr 20:2 and an iron collar. 27So now, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who has been acting like a prophet among you? # Jr 1:1 28For he has sent word to us in Babylon, claiming, “The exile will be long. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce.” ’ ” # Jr 29:5
29Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet.
A Message about Shemaiah
30Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 31“Send a message to all the exiles, saying: This is what the Lord says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because Shemaiah prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and made you trust a lie, # Jr 27:10,14-16; 28:15; 29:9,21,23 32this is what the Lord says: I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. There will not be even one of his descendants living among these people, # Jr 17:6 nor will any ever see the good that I will bring to My people” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “for he has preached rebellion against the Lord.” # Jr 28:16
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Jeremiah 29: HCSB
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Jeremias (Jeremiah) 29
29
1Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremias the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the ancients that were carried into captivity and to the priests and to the prophets and to all the people whom Nabuchodonosor had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
2After that Jechonias the king and the queen and the eunuchs and the princes of Juda and of Jerusalem and the craftsman and the engravers were departed out of Jerusalem:
3By the hand of Elasa the son of Saphan and Gamarias the son of Helcias, whom Sedecias king of Juda sent to Babylon to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, saying:
4Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5Build ye houses and dwell in them: and plant orchards and eat the fruit of them.
6Take ye wives and beget sons and daughters: and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, and let them bear sons and daughters: and be ye multiplied there, and be not few in number.
7And seek the peace of the city to which I have caused you to be carried away captives and pray to the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall be your peace.
8For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets that are in the midst of you and your diviners deceive you, and give no heed to your dreams which you dream:
9For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: and I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
10For thus saith the Lord: When the seventy years shall begin to be accomplished in Babylon, I will visit you: and I will perform my good word in your favour, to bring you again to this place.
11For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of affliction, to give you an end and patience.
12And you shall call upon me, and you shall go: and you shall pray to me, and I will hear you.
13You shall seek me: and shall find me, when you shall seek me with all your heart.
14And I will be found by you, saith the Lord: and I will bring back your captivity, and I will gather you out of all nations and from all the places to which I have driven you out, saith the Lord: and I will bring you back from the place to which I caused you to be carried away captive:
15Because you have said: The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon.
16For thus saith the Lord to the king that sitteth upon the throne of David and to all the people that dwell in this city, to your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity.
17Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will send upon them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: and I will make them like bad figs that cannot be eaten, because they are very bad.
18And I will persecute them with the sword and with famine and with the pestilence: and I will give them up unto affliction to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach to all the nations to which I have driven them out:
19Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord, which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising by night and sending: and you have not heard, saith the Lord.
20Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent out from Jerusalem to Babylon.
21Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to Achab the son of Colias and to Sedecias the son of Maasias, who prophesy unto you in my name falsely: Behold, I will deliver them up into the hands of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon. And he shall kill them before your eyes.
22And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Juda that are in Babylon, saying: The Lord make thee like Sedecias and like Achab whom the king of Babylon fried in the fire:
23Because they have acted folly in Israel and have committed adultery with the wives of their friends and have spoken lying words in my name, which I commanded them not. I am the judge and the witness, saith the Lord.
24And to Semeias the Nehelamite thou shalt say:
25Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because thou hast sent letters in thy name to all the people that are in Jerusalem and to Sophonias the son of Maasias the priest and to all the priests, saying:
26The Lord hath made thee priest instead of Joiada the priest, that thou shouldst be ruler in the house of the Lord over every man that raveth and prophesieth, to put him in the stocks and into prison.
27And now why hast thou not rebuked Jeremias the Anathothite who prophesieth to you?
28For he hath also sent to us in Babylon, saying: It is a long time: build ye houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat the fruits of them.
29So Sophonias the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremias the prophet.
30And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
31Send to all them of the captivity, saying: Thus saith the Lord to Semeias the Nehelamite: Behold, Semeias hath prophesied to you and I sent him not, and hath caused you to trust in a lie:
32Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will visit upon Semeias the Nehelamite and upon his seed. He shall not have a man to sit in the midst of this people and he shall not see the good that I will do to my people, saith the Lord: because he hath spoken treason against the Lord.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.