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OEB JER Chapter 29

◄ JER 29 ► ║ ©

29 The following is a copy of the letter sent from Jerusalem by Jeremiah the prophet to the elders, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, who had been carried from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar to exile in Babylon – 2 after the surrender of Jeconiah the king, and the queen-mother, and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen and smiths– 3 the letter being sent by the hands of Eleasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, who had been despatched to Babylon to Nebuchanezzar, king of Babylon, by Zedekiah, king of Judah:

4 "Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have carried from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and settle; plant gardens and eat the fruit of them; take wives and rear families; 6 take wives also for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may have sons and daughters; increase your numbers and do not let them diminish. 7 And strive for the welfare of the country to which I have brought you as exiles. Pray for it to Jehovah; for your own welfare and hers are bound up together. 8 For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let yourselves be beguiled by the prophets and diviners in your midst, and do not listen to the dreams 9 they dream; for it is a lie that they preach to you in My name – they have no commission from Me, saith Jehovah.

10 For thus saith Jehovah: As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are accomplished, I will visit you and bring you back to this place, in fulfilment of the gracious promise I made you. 11 For I know the thoughts I cherish towards you – thoughts of weal and not of woe – to bestow upon you a future and a hope. 12 When you call, I will answer you, and I will listen to your prayer. 13 If ye seek Me ye shall find Me. If ye seek Me with all your heart, 14 I will reveal Myself to you, saith Jehovah; and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have driven you, saith Jehovah, and I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. 15 But Jehovah, you say, has raised up for you prophets in Babylon.

16 For thus saith Jehovah concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people whose home is in this city – those brethren of yours who have not had to accompany you into exile. 17 Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: See! I will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence among them, and I will make them like figs that are too horribly bad to eat. 18 I will hunt them with sword, famine, and pestilence and I will make them an object of consternation to every kingdom in the world, and object of execration and horror, of scorn and insult among all the nations to which I have driven them; 19 because, saith Jehovah, they refused to listen to the messages I sent them early and late through My servants the prophets – yes, they refused to listen, saith Jehovah. 20 See, then, that ye listen to Jehovah’s message, all of you exiles whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon.

21 Well, thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who preach to you a lie in My name. Mark this: I will deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes; 22 and their fate shall be adopted by all the exiles of Judah in Babylon as a model for imprecation. "Jehovah make thee," they will say, "like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire," 23 because they wrought impious folly in Israel, in committing adultery with their neighbours’ wives and delivering in My name lying messages which I never gave them. Well I know it, saith Jehovah, and I am witness."

24 Touching the message of Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, to be delivered by Jeremiah concerning Shemaiah of Nehelam. 25 This is the man who sent a letter in his own name to Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the priest. 26 "Jehovah," he wrote, "has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, to exercise an oversight in the Temple over all that play the mad prophet and the ecstatic, and to put all such in the stocks and in the iron collar. 27 Why then did you not rebuke Jeremiah of Anathoth, who has been playing the mad prophet among you? 28 For he has sent a message to us in Babylon, maintaining that the exile would be long, and urging us to build houses and settle, and to plant gardens and eat the fruit of them." 29 Now Zephaniah the priest read the letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet.

30 Then there came to Jeremiah this message from Jehovah: 31 Send to all the exiles and say, Thus saith Jehovah concerning Shemaiah of Nehelam: Shemaiah has been prophesying to you without any commission from Me and has made you trust in a lie. 32 For this reason, therefore– thus saith Jehovah – I will punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his descendants: not a man shall he have among you who will ever see the good fortune I will bring you, saith Jehovah: for his words are a disloyalty to Jehovah.

The Glorious Future

The Restoration of Israel and Judah

Promise of Deliverance in the Day of Distress