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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Jeremiah 29
29
Jeremiah's Letter to the Jews in Babylonia
1 #
2 Kgs 24.12–16; 2 Chr 36.10 I wrote a letter to the priests, the prophets, the leaders of the people, and to all the others whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia. 2I wrote it after King Jehoiachin, his mother, the palace officials, the leaders of Judah and of Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the skilled workmen had been taken into exile. 3I gave the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah was sending to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. It said:
4“The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those people whom he allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia: 5‘Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them. 6Marry and have children. Then let your children get married, so that they also may have children. You must increase in numbers and not decrease. 7Work for the good of the cities where I have made you go as prisoners. Pray to me on their behalf, because if they are prosperous, you will be prosperous too. 8I, the LORD, the God of Israel, warn you not to let yourselves be deceived by the prophets who live among you or by any others who claim they can predict the future. Do not pay any attention to their#29.8 Probable text their; Hebrew your. dreams. 9They are telling you lies in my name. I did not send them. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken.’
10 #
2 Chr 36.21; Jer 25.11; Dan 9.2 “The LORD says, ‘When Babylonia's seventy years are over, I will show my concern for you and keep my promise to bring you back home. 11I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.#29.11 the future you hope for; or a future full of hope. 12Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you. 13#Deut 4.29You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart. 14Yes, I say, you will find me, and I will restore you to your land. I will gather you from every country and from every place to which I have scattered you, and I will bring you back to the land from which I had sent you away into exile. I, the LORD, have spoken.’
15“You say that the LORD has given you prophets in Babylonia. 16Listen to what the LORD says about the king who rules the kingdom that David ruled and about the people of this city, that is, your relatives who were not taken away as prisoners with you. 17The LORD Almighty says, ‘I am bringing war, starvation, and disease on them, and I will make them like figs that are too rotten to be eaten. 18I will pursue them with war, starvation, and disease, and all the nations of the world will be horrified at what they see. Everywhere I scatter them, people will be shocked and terrified at what has happened to them. People will mock them and use their name as a curse. 19This will happen to them because they did not obey the message that I kept on sending to them through my servants the prophets. They refused to listen. 20All of you whom I sent into exile in Babylonia, listen to what I, the LORD, say.’
21“The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, has spoken about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are telling you lies in his name. He has said that he will hand them over to the power of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, who will put them to death before your eyes. 22When the people who were taken away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia want to bring a curse on someone, they will say, ‘May the LORD treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylonia roasted alive!’ 23This will be their fate because they are guilty of terrible sins — they have committed adultery and have told lies in the LORD's name. This was against the LORD's will; he knows what they have done, and he is a witness against them.#29.23 done, and he… them; or done; he saw them do it. The LORD has spoken.”
The Letter of Shemaiah
24-25The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, gave me a message for Shemaiah of Nehelam, who had sent a letter in his own name to all the people of Jerusalem and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah and to all the other priests. In this letter, Shemaiah wrote to Zephaniah:
26“The LORD made you a priest in place of Jehoiada, and you are now the chief officer#29.26 Some ancient translations officer; Hebrew officers. in the Temple. It is your duty to see that every madman who pretends to be a prophet is placed in chains with an iron collar round his neck. 27Why haven't you done this to Jeremiah of Anathoth, who has been speaking as a prophet to the people? 28He must be stopped because he told the people in Babylonia that they would be prisoners there a long time and should build houses, settle down, plant gardens, and eat what they grow.”
29Zephaniah read the letter to me, 30and then the LORD told me 31-32to send to all the prisoners in Babylon this message about Shemaiah: “I, the LORD, will punish Shemaiah and all his descendants. I did not send him, but he spoke to you as if he were a prophet, and he made you believe lies. He will have no descendants among you. He will not live to see the good things that I am going to do for my people, because he told them to rebel against me. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.