JEREMIAH 29 COMMENTARYEDITED BY GLENN PEASE

A Letter to the Exiles1 This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

BARNES, "The residue of the ciders - i. e., such of the elders as were still alive.

CLARKE, "Now these are the words of the letter - This transaction took place in the first or second year of Zedekiah. It appears that the prophet had been informed that the Jews who had already been carried into captivity had, through the instigations of false prophets, been led to believe that they were to be brought out of their captivity speedily. Jeremiah, fearing that this delusion might induce them to take some hasty steps, ill comporting with their present state, wrote a letter to them, which he entrusted to an embassy which Zedekiah had sent on some political concerns to Nebuchadnezzar. The letter was directed to the elders, priests, prophets, and people who had been carried away captives to Babylon.

GILL, "Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem,.... The argument and tenor, the sum and substance, of an epistle, which the prophet Jeremiah, being at Jerusalem, wrote, under the inspiration of God, to his countrymen abroad, afterwards described; so the prophets under the Old Testament instructed the people, sometimes by their sermons and discourses delivered by word of mouth to them, and sometimes by letters and epistles; as did the apostles of the New Testament; and they were both ways useful and profitable to men: unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captive; some perhaps

1

dying by the way, and others quickly after they came to Babylon; some were left, who had been rulers or civil magistrates in Judea, and perhaps of the great sanhedrim: and to the priests, and to the prophets: false prophets, as the Syriac version; for we read only of one true prophet that was carried captive, and that was Ezekiel; but of false prophets several: and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon; which was eleven or twelve years before their last captivity thither. This was a catholic epistle, common to all the captives of every rank and class, age or sex.

HENRY 1-3, "We are here told,I. That Jeremiah wrote to the captives in Babylon, in the name of the Lord. Jeconiah had surrendered himself a prisoner, with the queen his mother, the chamberlains of his household, called here the eunuchs, and many of the princes of Judah and Jerusalem,who were at that time the most active men; the carpenters and smiths likewise, being demanded, were yielded up, that those who remained might not have any proper hands to fortify their city or furnish themselves with weapons of war. By this tame submission it was hoped that Nebuchadnezzar would be pacified. Satis est prostrasse leoni - It suffices the lion to have laid his antagonist prostrate; but the imperious conqueror grows upon their concessions, like Benhadad upon Ahab's, 1Ki_20:5, 1Ki_20:6. And, not content with this, when these had departed from Jerusalem he comes again, and fetches away many more of the elders, the priests, the prophets, and the people (Jer_29:1), such as he thought fit, or such as his soldiers could lay hands on, and carries them to Babylon. The case of these captives was very melancholy, the rather because they, being thus distinguished from the rest of their brethren who continued in their own land, looked as if they were greater sinners than all men who dwelt at Jerusalem. Jeremiah therefore writes a letter to them, to comfort them, assuring them that they had no reason either to despair of succour themselves or to envy their brethren that were left behind. Note, 1. The word of God written is as truly given by inspiration of God as his word spoken was; and this was the proper way of spreading the knowledge of God's will among his children scattered abroad. 2. We may serve God and do good by writing to our friends at a distance pious letters of seasonable comforts and wholesome counsels. Those whom we cannot speak to we may write to; that which is written remains. This letter of Jeremiah's was sent to the captives in Babylon by the hands of the ambassadors whom king Zedekiah sent to Nebuchadnezzar, probably to pay him his tribute and renew his submission to him, or to treat of peace with him, in which treaty the captives might perhaps hope that they should be included, Jer_29:3. By such messengers Jeremiah chose to send this message, to put an honour upon it, because it was a message from God, or perhaps because there was no settled way of sending letters to Babylon, but as such an occasion as this offered, and then it made the condition of the captives there the more melancholy, that they could rarely hear from their friends and relations they had left behind, which is some reviving and satisfaction to those that are separated from one another.JAMISON, "Jer_29:1-32. Letter of Jeremiah to the captives in Babylon, to

counteract the assurances given by the false prophets of a speedy restoration.

2

residue of the elders — those still surviving from the time when they were carried to Babylon with Jeconiah; the other elders of the captives had died by either a natural or a violent death.

K&D 1-3, "A Letter from Jeremiah to the Captives in Babylon, together withThreatenings against their False Prophets. - As in Jerusalem, so too in Babylon the predictions of the false prophets fostered a lively hope that the domination of Nebuchadnezzar would not last long, and that the return of the exiles to their fatherland would soon come about. The spirit of discontent thus excited must have exercised an injurious influence on the fortunes of the captives, and could not fail to frustrate the aim which the chastisement inflicted by God was designed to work out, namely, the moral advancement of the people. Therefore Jeremiah makes use of an opportunity furnished by an embassy sent by King Zedekiah to Babel, to address a letter to the exiles, exhorting them to yield with submission to the lot God had assigned to them. He counsels them to prepare, by establishing their households there, for a long sojourn in Babel, and to seekthe welfare of that country as the necessary condition of their own. They must not let themselves be deceived by the false prophets' idle promises of a speedy return, since God will not bring them back and fulfil His glorious promises till after seventy years have passed (Jer_29:4-14). Then he tells them that sore judgments are yet in store for King Zedekiah and such as have been left in the land (Jer_29:15-20); and declares that some of their false prophets shall perish miserably (Jer_29:21-32).

Heading and Introduction. - The following circular is connected, in point of outward form, with the preceding discourses against the false prophets in Jerusalem by means of the words: "And these are the words of the letter," etc. The words of the letter, i.e., the main contents of the letter, since it was not transcribed, but given in substance. "Which the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders of the captives, and to the priests and prophets, and to the whole people, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon." "The residue of the elders," Hitz. and Graf understand of those elders who were not at the same time priests or prophets. On this Näg. pronounces: "It is impossible that they can be right, for then 'the residue of the elders of the captivity' must have stood after the priests and prophets." And though we hear of elders of the priests, there is no trace in the O.T. of elders of the prophets. Besides, the elders, whenever they are mentioned along with the priests, are universally the elders of the people. Thus must we understand the expression here also. "The residue of the elders" can only be the remaining, i.e., still surviving, elders of the exiles, as יתר is used also in Jer_39:9 for those still in life. But there is no foundation for the assumption by means of which Gr. seeks to support his interpretation, namely, that the place of elders that died was immediately filled by new appointments, so that the council of the elders must always have been regarded as a whole, and could not come to be a residue or remnant. Jeremiah could not possibly have assumed the existence of such an organized governing authority, since in this very letter he exhorts them to set about the establishment of regular system in their affairs. The date given in Jer_29:2 : "after that Jechoniah the king, and the sovereign lady, and the courtiers, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the workmen and smiths, were gone away from Jerusalem," points to the beginning of Zedekiah's reign, to the first or second year of it. With this the advice given to the captives in the letter harmonizes well, namely, the counsel to build houses, plant gardens, etc.; since this makes it clear that they had not been long there. The despatch of

3

this letter is usually referred to the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign, because in Jer_28:1this year is specified. But the connection in point of matter between the present chapter and Jer 28 does not necessarily imply their contemporaneousness, although that is perfectly possible; and the fact that, according to Jer_51:59, Zedekiah himself undertook a journey to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign, does not exclude the possibility of an embassy thither in the same year. The going away from Jerusalem is the emigration to Babylon; cf. Jer_24:1, 2Ki_24:15. הגבירה, the queen-mother, see on Jer_13:18. סריסיםare the officials of the court; not necessarily eunuchs. Both words are joined to the king, because these stood in closest relations to him. Then follows without copula the second class of emigrants, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, i.e., the heads of the tribes, septs, and families of the nation. The artisans form the third class. This disposes of the objections raised by Mov. and Hitz. against the genuineness of the words "princes of Judah and Jerusalem," their objections being based on the false assumption that these words were an exposition of "courtiers." Cf. against this, 2Ki_24:15, where along with the סריסים the heads of tribes and families are comprehended under the head of אוליJer_29:3. "By the hand" of Elasah .הארץ is dependent on "sent," Jer_29:1. The men by whom Jeremiah sent the letter to Babylon are not further known. Shaphan is perhaps the same who is mentioned in Jer_26:24. We have no information as to the aim of the embassy.

CALVIN, "Here the Prophet begins a new discourse, even that he not only cried out constantly at Jerusalem, that the Jews who still remained there should repent, but that he also mitigated the grief of the exiles, and exhorted them to entertain the hope of returning, provided they patiently endured the chastisement allotted to them. The design of the Prophet was at the same time twofold; for he not only intended to mitigate by comfort the sorrow of the exiles, but designed also to break down the obstinacy of his own nation, so that they who still remained at Jerusalem and in Judea might know that nothing would be better for them than to join themselves to their other brethren. The Jews, as it has already appeared, and as we shall hereafter in many places see, had set their minds on an unreasonable deliverance; God had fixed on seventy years, but they wished immediately to break through and extricate themselves from the yoke laid on them. Hence Jeremiah, in writing to the captives and exiles, intended to accommodate what he said to the Jews who still remained at Jerusalem, and who thought their case very fortunate, because they were not driven away with their king and the rest of the multitude. But at the same time his object was to benefit also the miserable exiles, who might have been overwhelmed with despair, had not their grief been in some measure mitigated. The Prophet, as we shall see, bids them to look forward to the end of their captivity, and in the meantime exhorts them to patience, and desires them to be quiet and peaceable, and not to raise tumults, until the hand of God was put forth for their deliverance.he says that he wrote a book (201) to the remaining elders; (202) for many of that age had died; as nature requires, the old who approach near the goal of life, die first, he then says that he wrote to them who still remained alive. We hence conclude that his prophecy was designed for them all; and yet he afterwards says, “Take

4

wives and propagate;” but this, as we shall see, is to be confined to those who were at that time in a fit age for marriage. He did not however wish to exclude the aged from the comfort of which God designed them to be partakers, and that by knowing that there would be a happy end to their captivity, provided they retained resignation of mind and patiently bore the punishment of God justly due to them for having so often and in such various ways provoked him. Then he adds, the priests, and the prophets, and then the whole people. (203)But we must notice that he not only exhorts the people to patience, but also the priests and the prophets. And though, as we shall hereafter see, there were among them impostors, who falsely boasted that they were prophets, (204) it is yet probable that they are also included here who were endued with God’s Spirit, either because the spirit was languid in them, or because God did not always grant to them the knowledge of everything. It might then be that the prophets, to whom God had not made known this, or whose minds were oppressed with evils, were to be taught.As to the priests, we hence conclude that they had from the beginning neglected their office, for they would have been God’s prophets, had they faithfully performed their sacerdotal office; and it was, as it were, an extraordinary thing when God chose other prophets, and not without reproach to the priests; for they must have become degenerated and idle or deceptive, when they gloried in the name alone, when they were destitute of the truth. This then was the reason why they were to be taught in common with the people. It now follows, — COFFMAN, "Verse 1JEREMIAH 29JEREMIAH'S LETTER TO THE EXILESThe date of this chapter is some time after the first wave of captives had been carried to Babylon following the first Babylonian capture of the city in 597 B.C. Jehoiachin was deposed after a very brief three months on the throne; and the puppet king Zedekiah, an uncle of his, had been installed as the vassal king of his overlord the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar.The false prophets were busy spreading the falsehood that the captivity would shortly end; Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) would be restored, and all the vessels of the temple would be restored to Jerusalem. This was the message of Hananiah (of the preceding chapter) who had promised all of these wonderful things would take place in a mere couple of years.The crowd of false prophets similar to Hananiah were circulating the same falsehoods in Babylon; and the letter in this chapter was written by Jeremiah in order to counteract and frustrate the evil campaign of the false prophets.

5

It was simply not the will of God that Israel's captivity should be over within so short a time as the false prophets were saying. Yet it is easy to understand why the false prophets believed that the captivity would soon end. There still remained in the person of Zedekiah a representative of the house of David on the throne in Jerusalem; the temple still stood, despite the robbing of many of its treasures; and upon these grounds, the false prophets imagined that the complete independence of Judah might soon be restored.God had ordained and commanded the captivity of Judah as a punishment upon the rebellious, apostate nation; it was God's intention to humble and discipline his people, and bring them at last to an acceptable relationship to Himself; and, if their captivity had been nothing but an extended intrigue against their captors, the purpose of God would surely have been frustrated. The captivity would not be short, but long, (Jeremiah 29:4); it would last into the third generation; and the vast majority of the captives would never see Jerusalem again! Jeremiah's letter was for the purpose of destroying the campaign of the false prophets.This chapter is somewhat complex; and some scholars find as many as "four separate letters"[1] in it; some would follow the LXX and remove most of the chapter; others would make the prophecy of the further destruction of Judah a separate letter that somehow became incorporated into this chapter, basing their postulation upon the premise that Zedekiah would not have allowed a prophecy like that to go to Babylon, etc., etc.There are not four letters here. The first words of the chapter state that, "These are the words of THE LETTER" that Jeremiah wrote to the captives from Jerusalem. It was a delegation from Zedekiah that bore the letter to Babylon, and there is no need to suppose that Zedekiah ever saw Jeremiah's letter. Besides that, even if he had seen it, the primary thrust of it was clearly in line with Zedekiah's own kingly interests. If some kind of a rebellion in Babylon had resulted in the restoration of Jehoiachin to his throne, it would have meant the fall of Zedekiah.Jeremiah 29:1-4"Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon (after that Jeconiah the king, and the queen-mother, and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, were deported from Jerusalem), by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem unto Babylon.""The queen-mother, and the eunuchs, and the princes ..." (Jeremiah 29:2). The

6

queen-mother's name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan (2 Kings 24:8); and in the Jewish system she was a very important person who seems to have worn a crown and occupied a throne adjacent to that of the king.Scholars have a lot of trouble with the word "eunuchs" in this passage; and Cheyne even called it a gloss;[2] but the Bible fully explains it. The princes of Judah and Jerusalem had already been captured and carried away to Babylon, among whom were Daniel and his friends; and they had been emasculated, given new names, and given into the charge of Nebuchadnezzar's "prince of the eunuchs" (Daniel 1:7). Therefore, the word "eunuchs" in this place is absolutely appropriate. As Thompson said, "The essential historicity of this material cannot be doubted."[3]"The craftsmen and the smiths ..." (Jeremiah 29:2). It was the policy of Nebuchadnezzar to bring skilled artisans and persons with technical knowledge into Babylon in order to help him, "build and beautify the city."[4] God later identified Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom as "the head of gold," as it pertained to lesser kingdoms which would follow his; and this was surely one of the reasons for that preference. Nebuchadnezzar did not import young women to satisfy his lust, but skilled workers to help him build and beautify."Elasah the son of Shaphan ..." (Jeremiah 29:3). "This man was probably a brother of Ahikam (See Jeremiah 26:24)."[5] He was therefore a friend and protector of Jeremiah; and, if it had been necessary to shield the contents of Jeremiah's letter from the eyes of Zedekiah, Elasah was surely the person who could and would have done so.The exact date and purpose of this embassy to Babylon is not known; but, "as Zedekiah himself went to Babylon in his fourth year,"[6] this embassy might have been preparatory to that visit."The captives, whom I have caused to be carried away ..." (Jeremiah 29:4). God here reveals himself as the cause of the captivity. "God Himself has brought about the exile; and, since the Lord's will was behind it, the better part of wisdom for Judah was submission."[7]

COKE, "IntroductionCHAP. XXIX.Jeremiah sendeth a letter to the captives in Babylon, to be quiet there, and not to believe the dreams of their prophets, and that they shall return with grace after seventy years. He foretelleth the destruction of the rest for their disobedience: he sheweth the fearful end of Ahab and Zedekiah, two lying prophets. Shemaiah writeth a letter against Jeremiah. Jeremiah readeth his doom.

7

Before Christ 597.Verse 1Jeremiah 29:1. Now these are the words— Neither the year nor the cause of this deputation are precisely known; but it is thought to have been at the beginning of Zedekiah's reign. By the residue of elders some understand the remnant of the members of the sanhedrin, carried away captive in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, many of whom died of the hardships which they suffered in their transportation. Houbigant however, not content with this interpretation, renders it, unto the principal elders. By the prophets, the Chaldee understands the scribes or doctors of the law; while others think that Ezekiel, Daniel, and other prophets of the captivity, may be meant.Jeremiah 29:5-7. Build ye houses, and dwell in them— The prophet gives them this advice to check their hopes of a speedy return from Babylon, with which they had been flattered by the false prophets; and the advice is remarkable; teaching us in what manner we ought to live among foreign powers, and how we ought to consider those whom Providence has placed over us. See Baruch 1:11-12. 1 Timothy 2:1-2.EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMENTARY, "CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE EXILESJeremiah 29:1-32"Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire."- Jeremiah 29:22NOTHING further is said about the proposed revolt, so that Jeremiah’s vigorous protest seems to have been successful. In any case, unless irrevocable steps had been taken, the enterprise could hardly have survived the death of its advocate, Hananiah. Accordingly Zedekiah sent an embassy to Babylon, charged doubtless with plausible explanations and profuse professions of loyalty and devotion. The envoys were Elasah ben Shaphan and Gemariah ben Hilkiah. Shaphan and Hilkiah were almost certainly the scribe and high priest who discovered Deuteronomy in the eighteenth year of Josiah, and Elasah was the brother of Ahikam ben Shaphan, who protected Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and of Gemariah ben Shaphan, in whose chamber Baruch read the roll, and who protested against its destruction. Probably Elasah and Gemariah were adherents of Jeremiah, and the fact of the embassy, as well as the choice of ambassadors, suggests that, for the moment, Zedekiah was acting under the influence of the prophet. Jeremiah took the opportunity of sending a letter to the exiles at Babylon. Hananiah had his allies in Chaldea: Ahab ben Kolaiah, Zedekiah ben Maaseiah, and Shemaiah the Nehelamite, with other prophets, diviners, and dreamers, had imitated their brethren in Judah; they had prophesied without being sent and had caused the people to believe a lie. We are not expressly told what they prophesied, but the narrative takes for granted that they, like Hananiah, promised the exiles a speedy

8

return to their native land. Such teaching naturally met with much acceptance, the people congratulating themselves because, as they supposed, "Jehovah hath raised us up prophets in Babylon." The presence of prophets among them. was received as a welcome proof that Jehovah had not deserted His people in their house of bondage.Thus when Jeremiah had confounded his opponents in Jerusalem he had still to deal with their friends in Babylon. Here again the issue was one of immediate practical importance. In Chaldea as at Jerusalem the prediction that the exiles would immediately return was intended to kindle the proposed revolt. The Jews at Babylon were virtually warned to hold themselves in readiness to take advantage of any success of the Syrian rebels, and, if opportunity offered, to render them assistance. In those days information travelled slowly, and there was some danger lest the captives should be betrayed into acts of disloyalty, even after the Jewish government had given up any present intention of revolting against Nebuchadnezzar. Such disloyalty might have involved their entire destruction. Both Zedekiah and Jeremiah would be anxious to inform them at once that they must refrain from any plots against their Chaldean masters. Moreover the prospect of an immediate return had very much the same effect upon these Jews as the expectation of Christ’s Second Coming had upon the primitive Church at Thessalonica. It made them restless and disorderly. They could not settle to any regular work, but became busybodies-wasting their time over the glowing promises of their popular preachers, and whispering to one another wild rumours of successful revolts in Syria; or were even more dangerously occupied in planning conspiracies against their conquerors.Jeremiah’s letter sought to bring about a better state of mind. It is addressed to the elders, priests, prophets, and people of the Captivity. The enumeration reminds us how thoroughly the exiled community reproduced the society of the ancient Jewish state-there was already a miniature Judah in Chaldea, the first of those Israels of the Dispersion which have since covered the face of the earth.This is Jehovah’s message by His prophet:-"Build houses and dwell in them;Plant gardens and eat the fruit thereof;Marry and beget sons and daughters;Marry your sons and daughters,That they may bear sons and daughters,That ye may multiply there and not grow few.Seek the peace of the city whither I have sent you into captivity:

9

Pray for it unto JehovahFor in its peace, ye shalt have peace."There was to be no immediate return; their captivity would last long enough to make it worth their while to build houses and plant gardens. For the present they were to regard Babylon as their home. The prospect of restoration to Judah was too distant to make any practical difference to their conduct of ordinary business. The concluding command to "seek the peace of Babylon" is a distinct warning against engaging in plots, which could only ruin the conspirators. There is an interesting difference between these exhortations and those addressed by Paul to his converts in the first century. He never counsels them to marry, but rather recommends celibacy as more expedient for the present necessity. Apparently life was more anxious and harassed for the early Christians than for the Jews in Babylon. The return to Canaan was to these exiles what the millennium and the Second Advent were to the primitive Church. Jeremiah having bidden his fellow countrymen not to be agitated by supposing that this much longed for event might come at any moment, fortifies their faith and patience by a promise that it should not be delayed indefinitely."When ye have fulfilled seventy years in Babylon I will visit you,And will perform for you My gracious promise to bring you back to this place."Seventy is obviously a round number. Moreover the constant use of seven and its multiples in sacred symbolism forbids us to understand the prophecy as an exact chronological statement.We should adequately express the prophet’s meaning by translating "in about two generations." We need not waste time and trouble in discovering or inventing two dates exactly separated by seventy years, one of which will serve for the beginning and the other for the end of the Captivity. The interval between the destruction of Jerusalem and the Return was fifty years (B.C. 586-536), but as our passage refers more immediately to the prospects of those already in exile, we should obtain an interval of sixty-five years from the deportation of Jehoiachin and his companions in B.C. 601. But there can be no question of approximation, however close. Either the "seventy years" merely stands for a comparatively long period, or it is exact. We do not save the inspiration of a date by showing that it is only five years wrong, and not twenty. For an inspired date must be absolutely accurate; a mistake of a second in such a case would be as fatal as a mistake of a century.Israel’s hope is guaranteed by God’s self-knowledge of His gracious counsel:-"I know the purposes which I purpose concerning you, is the utterance of Jehovah,Purposes of peace and not of evil, to give you hope for the days to come."

10

In the former clause "I" is emphatic in both places, and the phrase is parallel to the familiar formula "by Myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah."The future of Israel was guaranteed by the divine consistency. Jehovah, to use a colloquial phrase, knew His own mind. His everlasting purpose for the Chosen People could not be set aside. "Did God cast off His People? God forbid."Yet this persistent purpose is not fulfilled without reference to character and conduct:-"Ye shall call upon Me, and come and pray unto Me,And I will hearken unto you.Ye shall seek Me, and find Me,Because ye seek Me with all your heart.I will be found of you-it is the utterance of Jehovah.I will bring back your captivity, and will gather you from all nations andPlaces whither I have scattered you-it is the utterance of Jehovah.I will bring you back to this place whence I sent you away to captivity."As in the previous chapter, Jeremiah concludes with a personal judgment upon those prophets who had been so acceptable to the exiles. If Jeremiah 29:23 is to be understood literally, Ahab and Zedekiah had not only spoken without authority in the name of Jehovah, but had also been guilty of gross immorality. Their punishment was to be more terrible than that of Hananiah. They had incited the exiles to revolt by predicting the imminent ruin of Nebuchadnezzar. Possibly the Jewish king proposed to make his own peace by betraying his agents, after the manner of our own Elizabeth and other sovereigns.They were to be given over to the terrible vengeance which a Chaldean king would naturally take on such offenders, and would be publicly roasted alive, so that the malice of him who desired to curse his enemy might find vent in such words as:-"Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted alive."We are not told whether this prophecy was fulfilled, but it is by no means unlikely. The Assyrian king Assurbanipal says, in one of his inscriptions concerning a viceroy of Babylon who had revolted, that Assur and the other gods "in the fierce burning

11

fire they threw him and destroyed his life" - possibly through the agency of Assurbanipal’s servants. One of the seven brethren who were tortured to death in the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes is said to have been "fried in the pan." Christian hagiology commemorates St. Lawrence and many other martyrs, who suffered similar torments. Such punishments remained part of criminal procedure until a comparatively recent date; they are still sometimes inflicted by lynch law in the United States, and have been defended even by Christian ministers.Jeremiah’s letter caused great excitement and indignation among the exiles. We have no rejoinder from Ahab and Zedekiah; probably they were not in a position to make any. But Shemaiah the Nehelamite tried to make trouble for Jeremiah at Jerusalem. He, in his turn, wrote letters to "all the people at Jerusalem and to the priest Zephaniah ben Maaseiah and to all the priests" to this effect:-"Jehovah hath made thee priest in the room of Jehoiada the priest, to exercise supervision over the Temple, and to deal with any mad fanatic who puts himself forward to prophesy, by placing him in the stocks and the collar. Why then hast thou not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who puts himself forward to prophesy unto you? Consequently he has sent unto us at Babylon: It (your captivity) will be long; build houses and dwell in them, plant gardens and eat the fruit thereof."Confidence in a speedy return had already been exalted into a cardinal article of the exiles’ faith, and Shemaiah claims that any one who denied this comfortable doctrine must be, ipso facto, a dangerous and deluded fanatic, needing to be placed under strict restraint. This letter travelled to Jerusalem with the returning embassy, and was duly delivered to Zephaniah. Zephaniah is spoken of in the historical section common to Kings and Jeremiah as "the second priest," [Jeremiah 52:24;, 2 Kings 25:18] Seraiah being the High Priest; like Pashhur ben Immer, he seems to have been the governor of the Temple. He was evidently well disposed to Jeremiah, to whom Zedekiah twice sent him on Important missions. On the present occasion, instead of acting upon the suggestions made by Shemaiah, he read the letter to Jeremiah, in order that the latter might have an opportunity of dealing with it.Jeremiah was divinely instructed to reply to Shemaiah, charging him, in his turn, with being a man who put himself forward to prophesy without any commission from Jehovah, and who thus deluded his hearers into belief in falsehoods. Personal sentence is passed upon him, as upon Hananiah, Ahab, and Zedekiah: no son of his shall be reckoned amongst God’s people or see the prosperity which they shall hereafter enjoy. The words are obscure: it is said that Jehovah will "visit Shemaiah and his seed," so that it cannot mean that he will be childless; but it is further said that "he shall not have a man to abide amongst this people." It is apparently a sentence of excommunication against Shemaiah and his family.Here the episode abruptly ends. We are not told whether the letter was sent, or how it was received, or whether it was answered. We gather that, here also, the last word rested with Jeremiah, and that at this point his influence became dominant both at

12

Jerusalem and at Babylon, and that King Zedekiah himself submitted to his guidance.Chapters 28 and 29 deepen the impression made by other sections of Jeremiah’s intolerance and personal bitterness towards his opponents. He seems to speak of the roasting alive of the prophets at Babylon with something like grim satisfaction, and we are tempted to think of Torquemada and Bishop Bonner. But we must remember that the stake, as we have already said, has scarcely yet ceased to be an ordinary criminal punishment, and that, after centuries of Christianity, More and Cranmer, Luther and Calvin, had hardly any more tenderness for their ecclesiastical opponents than Jeremiah.Indeed the Church is only beginning to be ashamed of the complacency with which she has contemplated the fiery torments of hell as the eternal destiny of unrepentant sinners. One of the most tolerant and catholic of our religious teachers has written: "If the unlucky malefactor, who in mere brutality of ignorance or narrowness of nature or of culture has wronged his neighbour, excite our anger, how much deeper should be our indignation when intellect and eloquence are abused to selfish purposes, when studious leisure and learning and thought turn traitors to the cause of human well-being and the wells of a nation’s moral life are poisoned." The deduction is obvious: society feels constrained to hang or burn "the unlucky malefactor"; consequently such punishments are, if anything, too merciful for the false prophet. Moreover the teaching which Jeremiah denounced was no mere dogmatism about abstruse philosophical and theological abstractions. Like the Jesuit propaganda under Elizabeth, it was more immediately concerned with politics than with religion. We are bound to be indignant with a man, gifted in exploiting the emotions of his docile audience, who wins the confidence and arouses the enthusiasm of his hearers, only to entice them into hopeless and foolhardy ventures.And yet we are brought back to the old difficulty, how are we to know the false prophet? He has neither horns nor hoofs, his tie may be as white and his coat as long as those of the true messenger of God. Again, Jeremiah’s method affords us some practical guidance. He does not himself order and superintend the punishment of false prophets: he merely announces a Divine judgment, which Jehovah Himself is to execute. He does not condemn men by the code of any Church, but each sentence is a direct and special revelation from Jehovah. How many sentences would have been passed upon heretics, if their accusers and judges had waited for a similar sanction?PETT, "Verse 1-2Introductory words.Jeremiah 29:1-2

13

‘Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon, (after that Jeconiah the king, and the queen-mother, and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem),’The introduction informs us that this chapter contains words which Jeremiah wrote to the exiles in Babylon. ‘The residue (or remnant) of the elders’ may indicate that many had been executed, possibly because their especially rebellious attitude was known to Nebuchadnezzar with the result that he had determined to get rid of the hardliners. Nebuchadnezzar had no doubt had his spies in Jerusalem and the elders would certainly have borne the brunt of the blame for Jehoiakim’s rebellion. Nebuchadnezzar was not noted for his clemency (see 2 Kings 25:18-20). Alternately ‘residue’ may be intended to be read in throughout (although not made clear in the text) simply indicating those who had survived the siege and its aftermath. The priests and prophets would include among them Ezekiel.The exile in mind is that under Jehoiachin when Jerusalem had had to submit to Nebuchadnezzar (c.597 BC). Along with Jehoiachin had gone the queen mother (a figure of great authority in Judah), the high officials (the word, used of the married Potiphar in Genesis, doe not necessarily strictly mean eunuch), the ‘princes’ of the tribes (the order of precedence would seem to indicate that it was not blood princes who were in mind), along with all the skilled craftsmen and smiths, and so on. They represented the cream of the nation (the good figs, not because they were better than the essentially others, but because of what God was going to make of them -Jeremiah 24:5).Verses 1-32Jeremiah’s Letter To The Exiles (Jeremiah 29:1-32).Correspondence by letter was a constant feature of those days, and indicates that the world was not static (compare the prophetic letters from Shemaiah to the religious authorities in Jerusalem - Jeremiah 29:25; David to Joab - 2 Samuel 11:14; Elijah to Jehoram - 2 Chronicles 21:12-15; Sennacherib to Hezekiah - 2 Kings 19:9-14; etc). There were always people who were on the move, such as traders and ambassadors, who could carry such messages along the trading routes, or between country and country, and kings themselves would have special messengers.. We are not, of course, to think of an established postal service, although we need not doubt that great kings would undoubtedly arrange for relays of messengers who could be relied on to take their words to their underlings. But in this case Jeremiah took the opportunity of King Zedekiah sending messengers in order to communicate with Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, to enable him to communicat with God’s exiled people.It is clear from the letter that Jeremiah had received information that false prophets

14

were at work in Babylonia among the exiles who had been exiled along with Jehoiachin (c. 597 BC, as opposed to those exiled earlier with Daniel in c. 605 BC), proclaiming a similar message to that of Hananiah, and thus unsettling them, and further, that one of these prophets had actually written to Jerusalem calling for Jeremiah to be ‘rebuked’ (dealt with severely). Thus Jeremiah urged the exiles not to listen to them, but to recognise that they were to settle in for a good long stay, for at least another fifty years or so. Furthermore he warned them that the false prophets in question who were stirring up trouble would themselves be summarily dealt with, either by Nebuchadnezzar or by circumstances.The letter can be divided up into five sections:· The call for the exiles to settle down in Babylon and recognise that deliverance will not come until his previously prophesied seventy years was over (Jeremiah 29:1-9).A promise that then, when that seventy years is over, YHWH will restore His people from all parts of the world if they seek Him with all their hearts (Jeremiah 29:10-14).A warning not to listen to the false prophets as, rather than experiencing quick restoration, Zedekiah and Jerusalem are doomed because they have not listened to YHWH’s words (Jeremiah 29:15-19).A declaration of the forthcoming doom of the false prophets who have arisen among them, at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 29:20-23).A special word concerning the doom of Shemaiah, a prophet who had written to Jerusalem seeking for Jeremiah to be dealt with severely (Jeremiah 29:24-32).BI, "Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent.Messages to exilesI. The very fact that a message was sent to them under an express Divine appointment was consolatory. Wherever God’s children are scattered, the written Word is to them a source of permanent encouragement. In the severest ways of justice God does not forget His own children, but has in reserve ample consolations for them, when they lie under the common judgmentII. The particular providence of God, appearing on their behalf under all their calamities, was a source of consolation.

1. He is the Lord of hosts, of all the armies above and below, and yet is the God of Israel; and though He permits their captivity, He does not break His relation to them—their covenant-God still, though under a cloud.2. He assumes the active agency in their dispersion. “I have caused them to be carried away.” Certainly it must be a great sin which induces a loving father to cast his child out of doors. But sin is a great scatterer, and is always followed by a driving away and a casting out. Yet the fact of God’s being the agent in their dispersion is

15

referred to as a ground of consolation; since it reconciles us to our troubles to see the hand of God in them, and to trace an all-gracious and merciful design in them.III. The promise of the stability and security of their social and domestic interests was given.IV. The prospect of a certain and favourable issue to their trials (verse 11). (S. Thodey.)

2 (This was after King Jehoiachin[a] and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.)

BARNES, "The queen - The queen-mother.GILL, "After that Jeconiah the king,.... Of Judah; the same with Jehoiachin, who was carried captive into Babylon when he had reigned but three months: and the queen; not Jeconiah's wife, for he had none; but his mother, whose name was Nehushta, and who was carried captive with him, 2Ki_24:8; and the eunuchs; or "chamberlains" to the queen; the Targum calls them princes; these were of the king's household, his courtiers; and such persons have been everywhere, and in all ages, court favourites: and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem; the noblemen and grandees of the nation: and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem; whom Nebuchadnezzar took with him, partly for his own use in his own country; and partly that the Jews might be deprived of such artificers, that could assist in fortifying their city, and providing them with military weapons; See Gill on Jer_24:1.HENRY, "

JAMISON, "queen — Nehushta, the queen mother, daughter of Elnathan (2Ki_24:8, 2Ki_24:15). (Elnathan, her father, is perhaps the same as the one mentioned in

16

Jer_26:22). She reigned jointly with her son.princes — All the men of authority were taken away lest they should organize a rebellion. Jeremiah wrote his letter while the calamity was still recent, to console the captives under it.

CALVIN, "He mentions the time when the book was sent, even after the calamity which had happened, when King Jeconiah and his mother were driven into exile, and Zedekiah, his successor, was made governor in his place, as we shall presently see. It was then during these beginnings of a change that Jeremiah wrote. All things were then in such a ferment, that some feared more than what was necessary, and others entertained vain hopes, as the case usually is in a disordered state of things. It was then after this fresh calamity that Jeremiah wrote, as his words most especially shew. He might indeed, as in other instances, have mentioned the year; but as he plainly declares that this happened after the departure of Jeconiah, his purpose is sufficiently evident, even that he wished in due time to give some relief to their sorrow, who might have succumbed under it, had not God in a manner stretched forth his hand to them. For we know that fresh grief is difficult to be borne; and hence it is that it is called a bitter grief; for it was a grievous novelty, when they were violently and suddenly dragged out of their quiet nests. It was then Jeremiah’s object at that time to give them some comfort; he also saw that those who were left in Judea were greatly disturbed and continually agitating new schemes; for Zedekiah’s kingdom was not as yet established, and they despised him and were ever looking for their own king. As, then, things were thus in disorder at home, and as the miserable exiles especially, were at first very grievously afflicted, Jeremiah set before them a seasonable remedy. This then is the reason why he points out the time.The mother of Jeconiah, we know, was led away with him into captivity; and she is called, הגבירה, egebire; (205) for though she was not properly the queen, she yet ruled in connection with her son. Some render סריסים, sarisim, eunuchs; (206) but I prefer the word “chiefs;” and hence is added the word שרי, shari, princes, that is, the courtiers, who governed the people, not only in Jerusalem, but through the whole of Judea. He also adds the artificers and sculptors, (207) for Nebuchadnezzar had chosen the best of them; he had deprived the city of its nobles, that there might be none of authority among the Jews to venture on any new attempt; and then he had taken away those who were useful and ingenious, so that he left them no sculptors nor artificers. It now follows, —

3 He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom 17

Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said:

BARNES, "Elasah - Probably brother of Ahikam Jer_26:24, and therefore an acceptable person at the Chaldaean court. As Zedekiah had to go in person to Babylon in his fourth year Jer_51:59, this embassy was probably sent two or three years earlier. Its date, however, was subsequent to the vision in Jer_24:1-10. It is appended therefore to Jer. 28, not as later in point of time, but because of the similarity of subject.GILL, "By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan,.... Perhaps the brother of Ahikam, and of Jaazaniah, Jer_26:24; and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah; to distinguish him from Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, Jer_36:10; whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; as his ambassadors, on what account it is not certain; perhaps to pay the tribute money to him; or to treat with him about the restoration of some of the captives; or to cultivate friendship, and promise submission, and that he would faithfully keep the covenant he had made with him: and perhaps he might be jealous of Jeconiah using his interest with the king of Babylon for his restoration, which could not be acceptable to Zedekiah; and this might be one reason why he admitted his messengers to carry Jeremiah's letter to the captives, if he knew of it, or saw it; since it exhorted them not to think of a returns, but provide for a long continuance where they were; however, by the hand of these messengers Jeremiah sent his letter to them: saying; as follows:

JAMISON, "Zedekiah ... sent unto Babylon — In Jer_51:59, Zedekiah himself goes to Babylon; here he sends ambassadors. Whatever was the object of the embassy, it shows that Zedekiah only reigned at the pleasure of the king of Babylon, who might have restored Jeconiah, had he pleased. Hence, Zedekiah permitted Jeremiah’s letter to be sent, not only as being led by Hananiah’s death to attach greater credit to the prophet’s words, but also as the letter accorded with his own wish that the Jews should remain in Chaldea till Jeconiah’s death.

Hilkiah — the high priest who found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, and showed it to “Shaphan” the scribe (the same Shaphan probably as here), who showed it to King Josiah (2Ki_22:8, etc.). The sons of Hilkiah and Shaphan inherited from their fathers some respect for sacred things. So in Jer_36:25, “Gemariah” interceded with King Jehoiakim that the prophet’s roll should not be burned.

18

CALVIN, "This is the substance of the message, which the Prophet, no doubt, explained to them at large; but here he touches but briefly on what he wrote to the captives, even that they were patiently to endure their exile until the time of their deliverance, which was not to be such as many imagined, but such as God had fixed. Well known indeed at that time was Jeremiah’s prophecy, not only in Judea, but also to the captives, that their exile could not be completed in a shorter time than seventy years.It is said that he sent his letter by the hand of the king’s ambassadors. It is probable that this was done by the permission of Zedekiah; for there is no doubt but that in sending his ambassadors he intended to obtain favor with King Nebuchadnezzar, by whose nod he had come to the throne; for he was not of such dignity as to be made king, though of the royal seed, had not Nebuchadnezzar thought that it would be more advantageous to himself. For had he appointed any other governor over the Jews, a sedition might have been easily raised; he therefore intended in a measure to pacify them, for he knew that they were a very refractory people. However, Zedekiah ruled only by permission, not through his own power, nor on account of his wealth, but through the good pleasure of a conqueror. He then sent his ambassadors to promise all kinds of homage, and to know what was to be done in future. As, then, he did not wish the return of Jeconiah, he permitted his ambassadors to carry the letter of Jeremiah, not indeed that he wished to obey God. It was not, then, owing to any sincere regard for religion, but because he thought that it would be advantageous to him, that the Jews should remain in Chaldea till the death of Jeconiah; for he thus hoped that his kingdom would be confirmed, for Jeconiah was, as it were, his rival. Nor is there a doubt, but that Nebuchadnezzar wished to hold Zedekiah bound by this fetter; for he could any day restore Jeconiah, who was his captive, to his former state.Now, then, we understand why Zedekiah did not prohibit Jeremiah’s letter to be carried to the captives: he thought that it would serve to tranquilize his kingdom. But the holy Prophet had another thing in view; for his anxious object was, not to gain the favor of the king, but to shew, as God had commanded him, how long the captivity would be. Zedekiah indeed might have wished that a permission should be given to the exiles to return; for those who remained in Judea were only the dregs and offscourings of society; it was not an honorable state of things: and it may be that he had also this in view, in sending ambassadors to Nebuchadnezzar, that Jerusalem might not remain desolate, but that a portion at least of the exiles might return, and that there might also be some to cultivate the land which had been nearly stripped of its inhabitants. But Jeremiah declared what he knew was by no means acceptable to the king, that a return was in vain expected before the termination of seventy years. We hence see that he spoke nothing to gain the favor of the king; and yet the king did not regard with displeasure, that the letter was sent to allay all commotions, and to restrain all the violence of those who would have been otherwise too prone to make some new attempts. This accounts for the circumstance, that the letter was sent by the hand of Elasah and Gemariah

19

He adds, at the same time, that they were sent by Zedekiah to Babylon, that is, to gain the favor of King Nebuchadnezzar, or, at least, to secure his friendship. I now come to the message itself: PETT, "Verse 3‘By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), saying,’His letter was sent by the hand of messengers who were going in Zedekiah’s name to Nebuchadnezzar, no doubt with other more official correspondence. It is very probable that part of the aim was to renew Zedekiah’s submission and assure Nebuchadnezzar of his loyalty, no doubt also delivering tribute. These would be prominent men, and may even have been the sons of Shaphan the Scribe (2 Kings 22:8), and Hilkiah the High Priest (2 Kings 22:4), although this is not certain. Elasah may have been brother to Ahikam who had aided Jeremiah (Jeremiah 26:24). This probably took place not long after the exile had begun in c.597 BC, at a time when Zedekiah had no thought of rebellion, and thus earlier than the previous chapter.

4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

BARNES, "As the exile was God’s doing for their good, they were to make the best of their position, and acquire wealth and influence; whereas if they were always restlessly looking out for the opportunity of returning home, they would rapidly fall into poverty and dwindle away.

CLARKE, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts - This was the commencement of the letter.

GILL, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... For the letter was 20

written by the order of the Lord, was endited by him, and was sent in his name, the prophet was only his amanuensis; and the titles which the Lord here takes are worthy of notice: "the Lord of hosts": of the armies above and below, that does according to his pleasure in heaven and in earth, with whom nothing is impossible; who could easily destroy the enemies of his people, and deliver them, either immediately by his power, or mediately by means of armies on earth, whom he could assemble, and send at pleasure; or by legions of angels at his command: "the God of Israel"; their covenant God; who still continued to be so, notwithstanding their sins and transgressions, and though in captivity in a foreign land; and a good him this, to preserve them from the idolatry of the country they were in, and to observe unto them that he only was to be worshipped by them: unto all that are carried away captives: or, "to all of the captivity"; or, "to the whole captivity" (r); high and low, rich and poor; this letter was an interesting one to them all: whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon; for though their sins and iniquities were the moving, meritorious, and procuring causes of their captivity; and Nebuchadnezzar and his army the instruments; yet God was the efficient cause: the Chaldeans could never have carried them captive, if the Lord had not willed it, or had not done it by them; for there is no "evil of this kind in a city, and the Lord hath not done it", Amo_3:6.

HENRY 4-7, "We are here told what he wrote. A copy of the letter at large follows here to Jer_29:24. In these verses,

1. He assures them that he wrote in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,who indited the letter; Jeremiah was but the scribe or amanuensis. It would be comfortable to them, in their captivity, to hear that God is the Lord of hosts, of all hosts, and is therefore able to help and deliver them; and that he is the God of Israel still, a God in covenant with his people, though he contend with them, and their enemies for the present are too hard for them. This would likewise be an admonition to them to stand upon their guard against all temptations to the idolatry of Babylon, because the God of Israel, the God whom they served, is Lord of hosts. God's sending to them in this letter might be an encouragement to them in their captivity, as it was an evidence that he had not cast them off, had not abandoned them and disinherited them, though he was displeased with them and corrected them; for, if the Lord had been pleased to kill them, he would not have written to them.2. God by him owns the hand he had in their captivity: I have caused you to be carried away, Jer_29:4 and again, Jer_29:7. All the force of the king of Babylon could not have done it if God had not ordered it; nor could he have any power against them but what was given him from above. If God caused them to be carried captives, they might be sure that he neither did them any wrong nor meant them any hurt. Note, It will help very much to reconcile us to our troubles, and to make us patient under them, to consider that they are what God has appointed us to. I opened not my mouth, because thou didst it.3. He bids them think of nothing but settling there; and therefore let them resolve to make the best of it (Jer_29:5, Jer_29:6): Build yourselves houses and dwell in them,etc. By all this it is intimated to them, (1.) That they must not feed themselves with hopes of a speedy return out of their captivity, for that would keep them still unsettled and

21

consequently uneasy; they would apply themselves to no business, take no comfort, but be always tiring themselves and provoking their conquerors with the expectations of relief; and their disappointment at last would sink them into despair and make their condition much more miserable than otherwise it would be. Let them therefore reckon upon a continuance there, and accommodate themselves to it as well as they can. Let them build, and plant, and marry, and dispose of their children there as if they were at home in their own land. Let them take a pleasure in seeing their families built up and multiplied; for, though they must expect themselves to die in captivity, yet their children may live to see better days. If they live in the fear of God, what should hinder them but they may live comfortably in Babylon? They cannot but weep sometimes when they remember Zion. But let not weeping hinder sowing; let them not sorrow as those that have no hope, no joy; for they have both. Note, In all conditions of life it is our wisdom and duty to make the best of that which is, and not to throw away the comfort of what we may have because we have not all we would have. We have a natural affection for our native country; it strangely draws our minds; but it is with a nescio qua dulcedine - we can give no good account of the sweet attraction; and therefore, if providence remove us to some other country, we must resolve to live easy there, to bring our mind to our condition when our condition is not in every thing to our mind. If the earth be the Lord's, then, wherever a child of God goes, he does not go off his Father's ground. Patria est ubicunque bene est - That place is our country in which we are well off. If things be not as they have been, instead of fretting at that, we must live in hopes that they will be better than they are. Non si male nunc, et olim sic erit - Though we suffer now we shall not always. (2.) That they must not disquiet themselves with fears of intolerable hardships in their captivity. They might be ready to suggest (as persons in trouble are always apt to make the worst of things) that it would be in vain to build houses, for their lords and masters would not suffer them to dwell in them when they had built them, nor to eat the fruit of the vineyards they planted. “Never fear,” says God; “if you live peaceably with them, you shall find them civil to you.” Meek and quiet people, that work and mind their own business, have often found much better treatment, even with strangers and enemies, than they expected; and God has made his people to be pitied of those that carry them captives (Psa_106:46), and a pity it is but that those who have built houses should dwell in them. Nay,4. He directs them to seek the good of the country where they were captives (Jer_29:7), to pray for it, to endeavour to promote it. This forbids them to attempt any thing against the public peace while they were subjects to the king of Babylon. Though he was a heathen, an idolater, an oppressor, and an enemy to God and his church, yet, while he gave them protection, they must pay him allegiance, and live quiet and peaceable livesunder him, in all godliness and honesty, not plotting to shake off his yoke, but patiently leaving it to God in due time to work deliverance for them. Nay, they must pray to God for the peace of the places where they were, that they might oblige them to continue their kindness to them and disprove the character that had been given their nation, that they were hurtful to kings and provinces, and moved sedition, Ezr_4:15. Both the wisdom of the serpent and the innocency of the dove required them to be true to the government they lived under: For in the peace thereof you shall have peace; should the country be embroiled in war, they would have the greatest share in the calamitous effects of it. Thus the primitive Christians, according to the temper of their holy religion, prayed for the powers that were, though they were persecuting powers. And, if they were to pray for and seek the peace of the land of their captivity, much more reason have we to pray for the welfare of the land of our nativity, where we are a free people under a good

22

government, that in the peace thereof we and ours may have peace. Every passenger is concerned in the safety of the ship.

K&D 4-14, "At Jer_29:4 the contents of the letter begin. Jeremiah warns the people to prepare for a lengthened sojourn in Babylonia, and exhorts them to settle down there. Jer_29:5. "Build houses and dwell (therein), and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. Jer_29:6. Take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take for your sons wives and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and increase there and not diminish. Jer_29:7. And seek the safety of the city whither I have carried you captive, and pray for it to Jahveh, and in its safety shall be safety to you." The imperatives "increase and not diminish" give the consequence of what has been said just before. "The city whither I have carried you captive" is not precisely Babylon, but every place whither separate companies of the exiles have been transported. And pray for the city whither you are come, because in this you further your own welfare, instead of looking for advantage to yourselves from the fall of the Chaldean empire, from the calamity of your heathen fellow-citizens. - With this is suitably joined immediately the warning against putting trust in the delusive hopes held out by the false prophets. "For thus saith Jahve of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets, that are in the midst of you, and your soothsayers, deceive you, and hearken not to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed; for falsely they prophesy to you in my name; I have not sent them, saith Jahveh." מחלמים is somewhat singular, since we have no other example of the Hiph. of חלם in its sig. dream (in Isa_38:16 the Hiph. of the same root means to preserve in good health); but the Hiph. may here express the people's spontaneity in the matter of dreams: which ye cause to be dreamed for you (Hitz.). Thus there would be no need to alter the reading into חלמים; a precedent for the defective spelling being found in 2 ,מעזריםCh_28:23. What the false prophets gave out is not expressly intimated, but may be gathered from the context Jer_29:10, namely, that the yoke of Babylon would soon be broken and captivity come to an end. - This warning is justified in Jer_29:10-14, where God's decree is set forth. The deliverance will not come about till after seventy years; but then the Lord will fulfil to His people His promise of grace. Jer_29:10. "For thus saith Jahveh: When as seventy years are fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform to you my good word, to bring you back to this place. Jer_29:11. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jahveh, thoughts of peace and not for evil, to give you (a) destiny and hope. Jer_29:12. And ye will call upon me, and go and pray unto me, and I will hear you. Jer_29:13. And ye will seek me, and find me, if ye search for me with all your heart. Jer_29:14. And I will let myself be found of you, saith Jahve, and will turn your captivity, and gather you out of all the peoples and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith Jahveh, and will bring you again to the place whence I have carried you away." - לפי according ,מלאתto the measure of the fulfilment of seventy years for Babel. These words point back to Jer_25:11., and we must reckon from the date of that prediction. פקד c. accus. sig. to visit in a good sense, to look favourably on one and take his part. "My good word" is expounded by the following infinitive clause. Jer_29:11. "I know my thoughts" is not to be taken, as by Jerome, J. D. Mich., etc., as in contrast with the false prophets: I know, but they do not. This antithesis is not in keeping with what follows. The meaning is rather: Although I appoint so long a term for the fulfilment of the plan of redemption,

23

yet fear not that I have utterly rejected you; I know well what my design is in your regard. My thoughts toward you are thoughts of God, not of evil. Although now I inflict lengthened sufferings on you, yet this chastisement but serves to bring about your welfare in the future (Chr. B. Mich., Graf, etc.). - To give you אחרית, lit., last, i.e., issue or future, and hope. For this sig. cf. Job_8:7; Pro_5:4, etc. This future destiny and hope can, however, only be realized if by the sorrows of exile you permit yourselves to be brought to a knowledge of your sins, and return penitent to me. Then ye will call on me and pray, and I will hear you. "And ye will go," Jer_29:12, is not the apodosis to "ye will call," since there is no further explanation of it, and since the simple הל can neither mean to go away satisfied nor to have success. "Go" must be taken with what follows: go to the place of prayer (Ew., Umbr., Gr. Näg.). In Jer_29:13 אתי is to be repeated after "find." Jer_29:12 and Jer_29:13 are a renewal of the promise, Deu_4:29-30; and Jer_29:14 is a brief summary of the promise, Deu_30:3-5, whence is taken the graphic expression שוב - .see on that passage ;את־שבות Thereafter in

PETT, "Verses 4-9The Call For The Exiles To Settle Down In Babylon And Pay No Heed To The False Prophets (Jeremiah 29:4-9).Jeremiah 29:4“Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon,’The letter is written as from YHWH, giving His full title as found elsewhere. Notice the deliberate implication that the exile is YHWH’s doing. The indication is that they must not rebel against what He has brought about. It would appear from what follows that many had high hopes of a quick return to Judah. This was partly because among them were some prophets who were proclaiming such a return, possibly connected with stirrings of trouble in Babylonia, and partly resulting from man’s eternal optimism, especially as concerning their conviction that YHWH must, at some stage, step in as their God, just as He had delivered them from Egypt so long ago. How could He allow His house to continue to be denuded because of the vessels stolen by Nebuchadnezzar, they would have asked, and how could he allow the true ‘son of David’ not to be on the throne in Jerusalem? The thought would therefore be that ‘God had to act’.

5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 24

CLARKE, "Build ye houses - Prepare for a long continuance in your present captivity. Provide yourselves with the necessaries of life, and multiply in the land, that ye may become a powerful people.

GILL, "Build ye houses, and dwell in them,.... Intimating hereby that they must not expect a return into their own land in any short time, but that they should continue many years where they were; suggesting also, that as they had ability, so they should have liberty, of building themselves houses; nor should they be interrupted by their enemies; nor would their houses be taken from them, when built; but they should dwell peaceably and quietly in them, as their own; which they might assure themselves of from the Lord, who gives these, and the following directions: and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; and live as comfortably as you can in a foreign country; plant your gardens with vines and pomegranates, and all sorts of fruitful trees the country produces; and fear not the fruit being taken away from you; depend upon it, you shall eat the fruit of your own labour, and not be deprived of it.

JAMISON, "Build ... houses — In opposition to the false prophets’ suggestions, who told the captives that their captivity would soon cease, Jeremiah tells them that it will be of long duration, and that therefore they should build houses, as Babylon is to be for long their home.CALVIN, "God commanded the captives to build houses in Chaldea, to plant vineyards, and also to marry wives, and to beget children, as though they were at home. It was not, indeed, God’s purpose that they should set their hearts on Chaldea, on the contrary, they were ever to think of their return: but until the end of the seventy years, it was God’s will that they should continue quiet, and not attempt this or that, but carry on the business of life as though they were in their own country. As to their hope, then, it was God’s will that their minds should be in a state of suspense until the time of deliverance.At the first view these two things seemed inconsistent, — that the Jews were to live seventy years as though they were the natives of the place, and that their habitations were not to be changed, — and yet that they were ever to look forward to a return. But these two things can well agree together: it was a proof of obedience when they acknowledged that they were chastised by God’s hand, and thus became willingly submissive to the end of the seventy years. But their hope, as I have just observed, was to remain in suspense, in order that they might not be agitated with discontent, nor be led away by some violent feeling, but that they might so pass their time as to bear their exile in such a way as to please God; for there was a sure hope of return, provided they looked forward, according to God’s will, to the end of the seventy

25

years. It is then this subject on which Jeremiah now speaks, when he says, Build houses, and dwell in them; plant vineyards, and eat of their fruit For this whole discourse is to be referred to the time of exile, he having beforehand spoken of their return; and this we shall see in its proper place.But the Jews could not have hoped for anything good, except they were so resigned as to bear their correction, and thus really proved that they did not reject the punishment laid on them.We now see that Jeremiah did not encourage the Jews to indulge in pleasures, nor persuade them to settle for ever in Chaldea. It was, indeed, a fertile and pleasant land; but he did not encourage them to live there in pleasure, to indulge themselves and to forget their own country; by no means: but he confined what he said to the time of the captivity, to the end of the seventy years. During that time, then, he wished them to enjoy the land of Chaldea, and all its advantages, as though they were not exiles but natives of the place. For what purpose? not that they might give themselves up to sloth, but that they might not, by raising commotions, offend God, and in a manner close up against themselves the door of his grace, for the time which he had fixed was to be expected. For when we are driven headlong by a vehement desire, we in a manner repel the favor of God; we do not then suffer him to act as it becomes him: and when we take away from him his own rights and will, it is the same as though we were unwilling to receive his grace. This would have been the case, had they not quietly and resignedly endured their calamity in Chaldea to the end of the time which had been fixed by God.We now perceive that the Prophet’s message referred only to the time of exile; and we also perceive what was the design of it, even to render them obedient to God, that they might thus shew by their patience that they were really penitent, and that they also expected a return in no other way than through God’s favor alone. COFFMAN, "Verse 5"Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters: and multiply there, and be not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto Jehovah for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace."What a marvelous anticipation of New Testament teaching is in this paragraph. The wholehearted cooperation with the governmental powers under which one may chance to live is spoken as a cardinal principle of the gospel of Christ in Romans 13:1-12. Praying for authorities is specifically commanded in 1 Timothy 2:1-3. If the Jewish nation had properly received and obeyed this commandment, the Roman destruction of 70 A.D. would have been averted.

26

Of course, instructions such as these infuriated the false prophets."Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters ..." (Jeremiah 29:6). "The wives Jeremiah encouraged them to marry were Jewish wives, not foreign (Deuteronomy 7:3)."[8] "The Hebrew exiles in Babylon were not slaves but deportees, and free to leave about as they pleased. Some became wealthy, and some, like Daniel, attained high places in government; and the commandments of Jeremiah 29:7 were made out of regard for the welfare of Israel."[9]As a matter of fact, the prosperity of many of the exiles was so great that when the command finally came for them to return to the Holy Land, countless numbers of them elected to remain in Babylon. It was indeed only "a remnant" that returned to Jerusalem.PETT, "Jeremiah 29:5“Build you houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit from them.”But Jeremiah assures them that there would be no quick return. Thus they are to make the best of the situation, building permanent houses, living in them with a sense of permanency, planting gardens and eating the resultant fruit (which in some cases would not be available for four years). There is an indication here that, having suffered the undoubted hardship of the journey to Babylon, conditions there were not too bad for them. Indeed they were good enough for many not to want to return home when the opportunity arose (Ezra 8:15). They appear to have been free to do whatever they desired, apart from return to Judah. Compare the similar picture presented in Ezekiel of an established and relatively free community (Daniel was presumably still governing Babylonia - Daniel 2:48-49).

6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 27

GILL, "Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters,.... That is, such as had no wives, who were either bachelors or widowers; not that they were to take wives of the Chaldeans, but of those of their own nation; for intermarriages with Heathens were forbidden them; and this they were to do, in order to propagate their posterity, and keep up a succession: and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands; or "men" (s); preserving and establishing the right of parents to give their children in marriage, and pointing to them their duty to provide suitable yoke fellows for them; and hereby is signified, that not only they, but their children after them, should continue in this state of captivity: that they may bear sons and daughters, that ye may be increased there; and not diminished; like their ancestors in Egypt, who grew very numerous amidst all their afflictions and bondage.

JAMISON, "that ye ... be ... not diminished — It was God’s will that the seed of Abraham should not fail; thus consolation is given them, and the hope, though not of an immediate, yet of an ultimate, retur

CALVIN, "In bidding them to take wives for their sons, and to give their daughters in marriage, he speaks according to the usual order of nature; for it would be altogether unreasonable for young men and young women to seek partners for themselves, according to their own humor and fancy. God then speaks here according to the common order of things, when he bids young men not to be otherwise joined in marriage than by the consent of parents, and that young women are not to marry but those to whom they are given.He then adds, Be ye multiplied there and not diminished; as though he had said, that the time of exile would be so long, that except they propagated, they would soon come to nothing: and God expressed this, because it was not his will that Abraham’s seed should fail. It was indeed a kind of death, when he had driven them so far, as though he had deprived them of the inheritance which he had promised to be perpetual: he, however, administers comfort here by commanding them to propagate their kind: for they could not have been encouraged to do so, except they had their eyes directed to the hope of a return. He then afforded them some taste of his mercy when he bade them not to be diminished in Chaldea. He then adds, — PETT, "Jeremiah 29:6“Take you wives, and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and

28

give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply yourselves there, and do not be diminished.”They were to make their home in Babylonia with the longer term future in mind, marrying, having children who would also marry, and ensuring that rather than their numbers diminishing they multiplied. (He might have added, just as they had in Egypt so long ago. There is a genuine parallel between the two situations which would not go unnoticed).

7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

BARNES, "Jer_29:7Seek the peace of the city ... - Not only because their welfare for seventy years was bound up with that of Babylon, but because it would have degraded their whole moral nature to have lived as conspirators, banded together against the country that was for the time their home.

CLARKE, "Seek the peace of the city - Endeavor to promote, as far as you can, the prosperity of the places in which ye sojourn. Let no disaffection appear in word or act. Nothing can be more reasonable than this. Wherever a man lives and has his nourishment and support, that is his country as long as he resides in it. If things go well with that country, his interest is promoted by the general prosperity, he lives at comparative ease, and has the necessaries of life cheaper; and unless he is in a state of cruel servitude, which does not appear to have been the case with those Israelites to whom the prophet writes, (those of the first captivity), they must be nearly, if not altogether, in as good a state as if they had been in the country that gave them birth. And in this case they were much better off than their brethren now in Judea, who had to contend with famine and war, and scarcely any thing before them but God’s curse and extermination.

29

GILL, "And seek the peace of the city,.... The prosperity and happiness of Babylon, or any other city in Chaldea, were they were placed: this they were to do by prayer and supplication to God, and by all other means that might be any ways conducive to the good of the state where they were: whither I have caused you to be carried away captives; and as long as they continued so; for being under the protection of the magistrates of it, though Heathens, they owed them submission, and were under obligation to contribute to their peace and welfare: and pray unto the Lord for it; the city, where they dwelt; for the continuance, safety, peace, and prosperity of it; and therefore much more ought the natives of a place to seek and pray for its good, and do all that in them lies to promote it; and still more should the saints and people of God pray for the peace of Jerusalem, or the church of God, where they are born, and brought up in a spiritual sense; see 1Ti_2:1; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace; which is an argument taken from self-interest; intimating, that while the city in which they were was in safety and prosperity, was in a flourishing condition, as to its health and trade, they would partake more or less with them of the same advantages; and on the other hand, should they be distressed with the sword, famine, or pestilence, or any grievous calamity, they would be involved in the same.

HENRY, "He directs them to seek the good of the country where they were captives (Jer_29:7), to pray for it, to endeavour to promote it. This forbids them to attempt any thing against the public peace while they were subjects to the king of Babylon. Though he was a heathen, an idolater, an oppressor, and an enemy to God and his church, yet, while he gave them protection, they must pay him allegiance, and live quiet and peaceable lives under him, in all godliness and honesty, not plotting to shake off his yoke, but patiently leaving it to God in due time to work deliverance for them. Nay, they must pray to God for the peace of the places where they were, that they might oblige them to continue their kindness to them and disprove the character that had been given their nation, that they were hurtful to kings and provinces, and moved sedition, Ezr_4:15. Both the wisdom of the serpent and the innocency of the dove required them to be true to the government they lived under: For in the peace thereof you shall have peace;should the country be embroiled in war, they would have the greatest share in the calamitous effects of it. Thus the primitive Christians, according to the temper of their holy religion, prayed for the powers that were, though they were persecuting powers. And, if they were to pray for and seek the peace of the land of their captivity, much more reason have we to pray for the welfare of the land of our nativity, where we are a free people under a good government, that in the peace thereof we and ours may have peace.Every passenger is concerned in the safety of the ship.

JAMISON, "(Ezr_6:10; Rom_13:1; 1Ti_2:2). Not only bear the Babylonian yoke patiently, but pray for your masters, that is, while the captivity lasts. God’s good time was to come when they were to pray for Babylon’s downfall (Jer_51:35; Psa_137:8). They were not to forestall that time. True religion teaches patient submission, not sedition, even though the prince be an unbeliever. In all states of life let us not throw

30

away the comfort we may have, because we have not all we would have. There is here a foretaste of gospel love towards enemies (Mat_5:44).

CALVIN, "Jeremiah goes still farther, even that the Jews had been led to Babylon, on the condition of rendering willing obedience to the authority of King Nebuchadnezzar, and of testifying this by their prayers. He not only bids them patiently to endure the punishment laid on them, but also to be faithful subjects of their conqueror; he not only forbids them to be seditious, but he would have them to obey from the heart, so that God might be a witness of their willing subjection and obedience.He says, Seek the peace of the city; this may be understood of prayers; for דרש , daresh, often means to pray: but it may suitably be taken here, as I think, in reference to the conduct of the people, as though he had said, that the Jews were to do what they could, to exert themselves to the utmost, so that no harm might happen to the Chaldean monarchy; for they are afterwards directed to pray It may indeed be, that the same thing is repeated in other words; but if any one weighs the subject more fully, he will, I think, assent to what I have stated, that in the first clause the Prophet bids them to be faithful to King Nebuchadnezzar and to his monarchy. Seek, then, the peace of the city: (208) by peace, as it is well known, is to be understood prosperity.But he was not satisfied with external efforts, but he would have them to pray to God, that all things might turn out prosperously and happily to the Babylonian king, even to the end of their exile; for we must bear in mind that the Prophet had ever that time in view. We hence learn that he exhorted the exiles to bear the yoke of the king of Babylon, during the time allotted to the captivity, for to attempt anything rashly was to fight against God, and that he thus far commanded them quietly to bear that tyrannical government.He repeats again what he had said, (though I had passed it by,) that they had been carried away captives: for he had spoken of it, “all the captivity which,” he says, “I made to migrate,” or removed, or led captive, “from Jerusalem.” Now, again, he repeats the same thing, that he had carried them away captives, אשו הגליתי , asher egeliti; (209) and he said this, that they might not regard only the avarice, or the ambition, or the pride of King Nebuchadnezzar, but that they might raise up their eyes to heaven, and acknowledge Nebuchadnezzar as the scourge of God, and their exile as a chastisement for their sins. God thus testified that he was the author of their exile, that the Jews might not think that they had to do with a mortal man, but on the contrary, understand that they were kicking against the goad, if they murmured and complained, because they lived under the tyranny of a foreign king. That they might not then be agitated with vain thoughts, God comes forth and says, that the exile was imposed on them by his just judgment, in order that they might know that they would gain nothing by their perverseness, and that they might not be

31

disturbed by an anxious disquietude, nor dare to attempt anything new, for this would be to resist God, and as it were to carry on war with heaven. I will finish here. PETT, "Jeremiah 29:7“And seek the peace of the city to which I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to YHWH for it, for in its peace you will have peace.”And they were also to pray to YHWH for the peace and well-being of Babylon, so that thereby they too would enjoy peace. This remarkable command, unparalleled elsewhere in the Old Testament, demonstrated quite clearly that His favour and blessing were not to be seen as tied to ‘the promised land’. The hunger for them to return would not be His, but theirs. He was content for them to worship Him in Babylonia and to pray for peace and wellbeing for Babylon.It was also a reminder that their presence there was His doing and His will. It was He, not Nebuchadnezzar, Who had ‘caused you to be carried away captive’. They should therefore not rebel against His will, but rather pray along with it. He wanted them ‘in whatever state they were, to be content’. They would remain there until they had learned their lesson, and until their idolatrous attitudes had been purged from them. (Many would continue in idolatry. For them there would be no return).BI, "Seek the peace of the city.The best Christians the best citizens

1. They know that the prosperity of the whole is their own prosperity. They o not, therefore, selfishly seek their own advantage.2. They actually labour with all diligence for the furtherance of the common good.3. They employ for this end the power of Christian prayer. (Naegelsbach.)

The duties of Christians to their countryI. What are the things absolutely necessary to the security and prosperity, the true glory and happiness, of our country?

1. The true honour of a nation, like that of the individual, lies in character.2. The security and prosperity of our nation are inseparably associated with the advancement of religion among the people.

II. What are the best means for securing those things which are essential to our country’s highest welfare?1. General diffusion of education. “Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.”2. Equally essential that the people be virtuous. Knowledge is power, but

32

unsanctified power is power for evil.3. The general distribution of the Bible—the great instrument for enlightening the conscience and purifying the heart.4. Preaching the Gospel Our nature is a wreck, a chaos, which the Cross of Christ alone can adjust.5. Prayer (2Ch_7:13-14; Psa_106:23; Exo_32:10).

III. What arguments may enforce the duties of personal and combined activity in seeking the highest good of our land?1. Because our own individual good is intimately connected with its general happiness and prosperity. “For in the peace thereof ye shall have peace.”2. We shall thereby recommend the religion we profess.3. The work of supplying our land with the preached Gospel, and with religious institutions, is the most important work to which Christians can devote their energies. (Samuel Baker, D. D.)

The civil obligations of Christian peopleWhen a man becomes a Christian does he cease to be a member of civil society? Allowing that he be not the owner of the ship, but only a passenger in it, has he nothing to awaken his concern in the voyage? If he be only a traveller towards a better country, is he to be told that because he is at an inn which he is soon to leave, it should not excite any emotion in him, whether it be invaded by robbers, or consumed by flames before the morning? “In the peace thereof ye shall have peace.” Is not religion variously affected by public transactions? Can a Christian, for instance, be indifferent to the cause of freedom, even on a pious principle? Does not civil liberty necessarily include religious, and is it not necessary to the spreading of the Gospel? (W. Jay.)

8 Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.

33

BARNES, "Your prophets and your diviners - The evils from which the people had suffered so cruelly at home followed them in their exile.

Dreams which ye cause to be dreamed - As long as there was a market for dreams, so long there would be plenty of impostors to supply them.

CLARKE, "Neither hearken to your dreams - Rather, dreamers; for it appears there was a class of such persons, who not only had acquired a facility of dreaming themselves, but who undertook to interpret the dreams of others.

GILL, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... See Gill on Jer_29:4; let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you; their false prophets, as the Targum; and there were many such in the captivity; see Eze_13:2; and such who pretended to divine and foretell future things, and so impose upon the people, who were too apt to believe them; these insinuated, that in a little time they should have their liberty, and return to their own land again, contrary to the prophecies that came from the Lord himself: neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed; for that of a speedy return to their own land was no other than a dream, which they both dreamed themselves; their thoughts running on it in the daytime, they dreamed of it at night; and fancied it was from the Lord; a divine dream; and so built much upon it; and also which they encouraged the false prophets and diviners to dream, and tell their dreams, by their listening to them, and being pleased with them, giving credit to them as if they came from God.

HENRY 8-14, "To make the people quiet and easy in their captivity,I. God takes them off from building upon the false foundation which their pretended prophets laid, Jer_29:8, Jer_29:9. They told them that their captivity should be short, and therefore that they must not think of taking root in Babylon, but be upon the wing to go back: “Now herein they deceive you,” says God; “they prophesy a lie to you, though they prophesy in my name. But let them not deceive you, suffer not yourselves to be deluded by them.” As long as we have the word of truth to try the spirits by it is our own fault if we be deceived; for by it we may be undeceived. Hearken not to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed. He means either the dreams or fancies which the people pleased themselves with, and with which they filled their own heads (by thinking and speaking of nothing else but a speedy enlargement when they were awake they caused themselves to dream of it when they were asleep, and then took that for a good omen, and with it strengthened themselves in their vain expectations), or the dreams which the prophets dreamed and grounded their prophecies upon. God tells the people, They are your dreams, because they pleased them, were the dreams that they desired

34

and wished for. They caused them to be dreamed; for they hearkened to them, and encouraged the prophets to put such deceits upon them, desiring them to prophesy nothing but smooth things, Isa_30:10. They were dreams of their own bespeaking. False prophets would not flatter people in their sins, but that they love to be flattered, and speak smoothly to their prophets that their prophets may speak smoothly to them.II. He gives them a good foundation to build their hopes upon. We would not persuade people to pull down the house they have built upon the sand, but that there is a rock ready for them to rebuild upon. God here promises them that, though they should not return quickly, they should return at length, after seventy years be accomplished. By this it appears that the seventy years of the captivity are not to be reckoned from the last captivity, but the first. Note, Though the deliverance of the church do not come in our time, it is sufficient that it will come in God's time, and we are sure that that is the best time. The promise is that God will visit them in mercy; though he had long seemed to be strange to them, he will come among them, and appear for them, and put honour upon them, as great men do upon their inferiors by coming to visit them. He will put an end to their captivity, and turn away all the calamities of it. Though they are dispersed, some in one country and some in another, he will gather them from all the places whither they are driven, will set up a standard for them all to resort to, and incorporate them again in one body. And though they are at a great distance they shall be brought again to their own land, to the place whence they were carried captive, Jer_29:14. Now, 1. This shall be the performance of God's promise to them (Jer_29:10): I will perform my good word towards you. Let not the failing of those predictions which are delivered as from God lessen the reputation of those that really are from him. That which is indeed God's word is a good word, and therefore it will be made good, and not one iota or tittle of it shall fall to the ground. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? This will make their return out of captivity very comfortable, that it will be the performance of God's good word to them, the product of a gracious promise. 2. This shall be in pursuance of God's purposes concerning them (Jer_29:11): I know the thoughts that I think towards you. Known unto God are all his works, for known unto him are all his thoughts (Act_15:18) and his works agree exactly with his thoughts; he does all according to the counsel of his will.We often do not know our own thoughts, nor know our own mind, but God is never at any uncertainty within himself. We are sometimes ready to fear that God's designs concerning us are all against us; but he knows the contrary concerning his own people, that they are thoughts of good and not of evil; even that which seems evil is designed for good. His thoughts are all working towards the expected end, which he will give in due time. The end they expect will come, though perhaps not when they expect it. Let them have patience till the fruit is ripe, and then they shall have it. He will give them an end, and expectation, so it is in the original. (1.) He will give them to see the end (the comfortable termination) of their trouble; though it last long, it shall not last always. The time to favour Zion, yea, the set time, will come. When things are at the worst they will begin to mend; and he will give them to see the glorious perfection of their deliverance; for, as for God, his work is perfect. He that in the beginning finished the heavens and the earth, and all the hosts of both, will finish all the blessings of both to his people. When he begins in ways of mercy he will make an end. God does nothing by halves. (2.) He will give them to see the expectation, that end which they desire and hope for, and have been long waiting for. He will give them, not the expectations of their fears, nor the expectations of their fancies, but the expectations of their faith, the end which he has promised and which will turn for the best to them. 3. This shall be in answer to their prayers and supplications to God, Jer_29:12-14. (1.) God will stir them up to pray: Then

35

shall you call upon me, and you shall go, and pray unto me. Note, When God is about to give his people the expected good he pours out a spirit of prayer, and it is a good sign that he is coming towards them in mercy. Then, when you see the expected endapproaching, then you shall call upon me. Note, Promises are given, not to supersede, but to quicken and encourage prayer: and when deliverance is coming we must by prayer go forth to meet it. When Daniel understood that the 70 years were near expiring, then he set his face with more fervency than ever to seek the Lord, Dan_9:2, Dan_9:3. (2.) He will then stir up himself to come and save them (Psa_80:2): I will hearken unto you,and I will be found of you. God has said it, and we may depend upon it, Seek and you shall find. We have a general rule laid down (Jer_29:13): You shall find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. In seeking God we must search for him, accomplish a diligent search, search for directions in seeking him and encouragements to our faith and hope. We must continue seeking, and take pains in seeking, as those that search; and this we must do with our heart (that is, in sincerity and uprightness), and with our whole heart (that is, with vigour and fervency, putting forth all that is within usin prayer), and those who thus seek God shall find him, and shall find him their bountiful rewarder, Heb_11:6. He never said to such, Seek you me in vain.

JAMISON, "your dreams which ye caused to be dreamed — The Latin adage says, “The people wish to be deceived, so let them be deceived.” Not mere credulity misleads men, but their own perverse “love of darkness rather than light.” It was not priests who originated priestcraft, but the people’s own morbid appetite to be deceived; for example, Aaron and the golden calf (Exo_32:1-4). So the Jews caused or made the prophets to tell them encouraging dreams (Jer_23:25, Jer_23:26; Ecc_5:7; Zec_10:2; Joh_3:19-21).

K&D 8-13, "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.The thoughts of God to His people, peace and not evilThese words were addressed to the Jews, when they were captives in Babylon. It is very delightful when we have kind thoughts of our fellow-men; for suspicion is always a great misery. But it is especially delightful to have kind thoughts of God, when we possess enlarged and noble conceptions of His excellency and glory.I. The ground and reason of our suspicion respecting God, that He has unkind intentions or evil thoughts towards us. The chief, if not the only cause, is sin. Wicked men know that the wages of sin is death; that sin must be cancelled, or God is against them, and they are ruined. But what is the evil which men anticipate from God, and in respect to which they entertain suspicions? There is the evil of affliction. This is the sense in which the text is to be taken. It relates to temporal evil, the evil of calamity, losses, changes, and disasters. And why should men fear or anticipate evil in this form? We are not to forebode anything. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Take no thought for the morrow. We hear often of pleasures disappointed, and of hopes unrealised. Might we not speak of evils anticipated which never come? Then there is an ulterior evil; that which is far off, or apparently more remote. Are you afraid of death, or of dying? Are you afraid, when Christ has said, He that believeth in Me shall never die; I

36

am the resurrection and the life; I will raise you up at the last day? Are you afraid of eternity, of which we hear so much, and know so little? I ask, is the bird afraid, when the shell opens, and he begins to feel the soft sweet plumage grow? Is the newborn child afraid, when it comes into this world of sin and sorrow? And shall you be afraid to awake and emerge, anywhere in God’s great empire, anywhere or at anytime, in His unbounded and infinite dominion? Are we afraid of the love of God? God is love. Christ is love. God invites you and me in love. He says, Come, and I will bless you. Come, and I will pour My Spirit upon you. Come, and I will make you happy, and call you sons and daughters. Come, and I will save you, and I will soon put you in possession of heaven.II. The manner in which it pleases God to contradict these suspicions, and to deny that there is any truth in them. Suppose you are a wicked man: what does God say? Forsake your evil ways. I will multiply to pardon. Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die? I desire not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn and live. God thinks no evil: if so, could He not crush and extinguish thee, O man, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye? His thoughts towards thee are thoughts of peace, and not of evil. Then to the backsliders He says, Return, O backsliding children; I will receive you graciously, and love you freely. Are you penitent? He will give you beauty for ashes; the oil of joy for mourning; the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. You say that you are sinful, and not worthy of being called a child. What does God say? Bring the best robe. Take off the filthy garments. Put the fair mitre on his head. O God of peace! how peaceful, how pacific Thou art! You may have had changes. You may have passed through storms; but the darker the cloud, the brighter is the rainbow of promise that is stretched across it. And God intends to give His people everlasting peace.III. The expected end. What is it? To the Jews in Babylon, it was restoration to the temple and the altar, to the priests, and to the sacrifices; and by the Jews this “end” was realised. To the Hebrews of later times, the expected end is recovery to greater blessings. They are forsaken for a small moment; but with great mercy they will be gathered in again. The expected end, both to Jews and Gentiles, is the millennial light, repose, and happiness. The expected end is the end of all sin. It is to endure no more conflicts, to undergo no more labours; to be wise by intuition; to possess boundless knowledge, and perfect purity, derived immediately from Him who is the source and fountain of all purity and all perfection. They who go in, shall never go out again. (J. Stratten.)

God’s thoughts of/ peace, and our expected endI. The Lord’s thoughts towards His people.

1. It is noteworthy that He does think of them, and towards them. Observe that this Scripture saith not, “I know the thoughts that I have thought toward you.” It would be possible for you to have thought out a plan of kindness towards a friend, and you might have so arranged it that it would henceforth be a natural fountain of good to him without your thinking any more about it; but that is not after the method of God. His eye and His hand are towards His people continually. It is true He did so think of us that He has arranged everything about us, and provided for every need, and against every danger; but yet He has not ceased to think of us. His infinite mind, whose thoughts are as high above our thoughts as the heavens are above the earth, continues to exercise itself about us. “The Lord hath been mindful of us,” and He is still mindful of us. The Lord not only thinks of you, but towards you. His thoughts 37

are all drifting your way. This is the way the south wind of His thoughts of peace is moving: it is towards you. A person may happen to do you a good turn; but if you are sure that he did it by accident, or with no more thought than that wherewith a passing stranger throws a penny to a beggar, you are not impressed with gratitude. But when the action of your friend is the result of earnest deliberation, and you see that he acts in the tenderest regard to your welfare, you are far more thankful: traces of anxiety to do you good are very pleasant. Have I not heard persons say, “It was so kind and so thoughtful of him”? Do you not notice that men value kindly thought, and set great store by tender consideration? Remember, then, that there is never a thoughtless action on the part of God. His mind goes with His hand: His heart is in His acts.2. The thoughts of God are only perfectly known to Himself. It would be a mere truism for God to say, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you.” Even a man usually knows his own thoughts; but the meaning is this: when you do not know the thoughts that I have towards you, yet I know them. “Truly the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” God alone understands Himself and His thoughts. We stand by a powerful machine, and we see the wheels moving this way and that, but we do not understand its working. What does it matter? He who made the engine and controls it, perfectly understands it, and this is practically the main concern; for it does not matter whether we understand the engine or not, it will work its purpose if he who has the control of it is at home with all its hands and wheels. Despite our ignorance, nothing can go wrong while the Lord in infinite knowledge ruleth over all. The child playing on the deck does not understand the tremendous engine whose beat is the throbbing heart of the stately Atlantic liner, and yet all is safe; for the engineer, the captain and the pilot are in their places, and well know what is being done. Let not the child trouble itself about things too great for it. Leave you the discovery of doubtful causes to Him whose understanding is infinite; and as for yourself, be you still, and know that Jehovah is God.3. The Lord would have us know that His thoughts toward us are settled and definite. Sometimes a man may hardly know his own thoughts, because he has scarcely made up his mind. The case is far otherwise with the only wise God. The Lord is not a man that He should need to hesitate; His infinite mind is made up, and He knows His thoughts. With the Lord there is neither question nor debate. “He is in one mind, and none can turn Him.” His purpose is settled, and He adheres to it. He is resolved to reward them that diligently seek Him, and to honour those that trust in Him.4. God’s thoughts toward His people are always thoughts of peace. He is at peace with them through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. He delights in them; He seeks their peace, He creates their peace, He sustains their peace, and thus all His thoughts toward them are peace. Note well the negative, which is expressly inserted. It might have appeared enough to say, “My thoughts are thoughts of peace.” Yes, it would be quite sufficient, when all things are bright with us; but those words, “and not of evil,” are admirably adapted to keep off the goblins of the night, the vampires of suspicion which fly in the darkness.5. The Lord’s thoughts are all working towards “an expected end,” or, as the R.V. has it, “to give you hope in your latter end.” Some read it, “a future and a hope.” Goal is working with a motive. All things are working together for one object: the good of those who love God. We see only the beginning; God sooth the end from the

38

beginning. He regardeth not only the tearing up of the soil with the plough, but the clothing of that soil with the golden harvest. He sees the after consequences of affliction, and He accounts those painful incidents to be blessed which lead up to so much of happiness. Let us comfort ourselves with this.II. The proper attitude of God’s people towards their Lord.

1. You will all agree with me when I say that our attitude should be that of submission. If God, in all that He does towards us, is acting with an object, and that object a loving one, then let Him do what seemeth Him good.2. Next, let our position be one of great hopefulness, seeing the end of God, in all He does, is to give us “a future and a hope.” We are not driven into growing darkness, but led into increasing light. There is always something to be hoped for in the Christian’s life.3. Our relation to God should, next, be one of continual expectancy, especially expectancy of the fulfilment of His promises. “I will perform My good Word toward you.” His promises are good words: good indeed, and sweetly refreshing. When your hearts are faint, then is the promise emphatically good. Expect the Lord to be as good as His good Word.4. Again, our position towards God should be one of happy hope, as to blessed ends being answered even now. Affliction is the seal of the Lord s election. I remember a story of Mr. Mack, who was a Baptist minister in Northamptonshire. In his youth he was a soldier, and calling on Robert Hall, when his regiment marched through Leicester, that great man became interested in him, and procured his release from the ranks. When he went to preach in Glasgow, he sought out his aged mother, whom he had not seen for many years. He knew his mother the moment he saw her; but the old lady did not recognise her son. It so happened that when he was a child, his mother had accidentally wounded his wrist with a knife. To comfort him she cried, “Never mind, my bonnie bairn, your mither will ken you by that when ye are a man.” When Mack’s mother would not believe that a grave, fine-looking minister could be her own child, he turned up his sleeve and cried, “Mither, mither, dinna ye ken that?” In a moment they were in each other’s arms. Ah, the Lord knows the spot of His children. He acknowledges them by the mark of correction. What God is doing to us in the way of trouble and trial is but His acknowledgment of us as true heirs, and the marks of His rod shall be our proof that we are not bastards, but true sons. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God’s thoughtsI. God thinks of His people. That seems a very simple thing to say, does it not? It is as sublime as it is simple! God thinks of His people. Though so occupied—I had almost said, “though so busy,”—God finds time and opportunity to give thought to His children. He numbers the hairs of our head; He knows every inch of our path; our sorrows and our joys are all calculated and catalogued by Him. He knows our uprising and our downsitting, our going out and our coming in. What is there of which He has not perfect cognisance? What is there in which He is not interested? Oh, wonder of wonders, that this busy God of ours knows us, loves us, cares for us, enters into the petty details of our fleeting life, and counts no grief too slight for us to take to Him in prayer. The current of

39

His thoughts sets our way. Like a great warm gaff-stream, the loving thoughts of God lave the shores of every believing soul, and bring life and verdure to the full, by means of their helpful influences.1. This is the more wonderful, when we remember how sinful we are. He sees and knows all about you, and you He loveth still.2. I learn hence, also, that God thinks very definitely and deliberately about His people.3. Best of all is it He thinks so tenderly about us. “Thoughts of peace.” It is He who has made peace possible ’twixt God and man, for He longs to have us reconciled to Him. It is Jesus who has made peace by the death of His Cross. It is the Holy Ghost who speaks peace to troubled hearts and consciences. It is His kind providence that keeps us in perfect peace, our minds being stayed on Him.

II. God’s thoughts concerning His people are often of a private nature. The emphasis of this verse should come upon the personal pronoun. “I know the thoughts that I think towards you.” They are hidden from you. “My way,” says God, “is not yet discovered.” My purposes remain unrevealed. None can know perfectly the mind and will of God. How can we reach to such an awful height? How can we plunge into such abysmal depths?1. Let the fact that God Knows His thoughts satisfy our curiosity. It is childish in the extreme to lift the plant that has been lately put into the ground, and it will fail to grow if treated thus. It is childish—is it not?—to break the drum-bead, in order to discover whence the music comes. But we are not less childish who want to know what God has not revealed, and who are not content to do His bidding without saying, “But why?” The why and the wherefore may not concern us. But the duty does concern us. Let us hasten in the way of His commandment.2. This, also, should calm our restlessness. Let the spirit of patience possess you. Wait, wait, wait, till God sees fit to bless.3. Meanwhile, let there be no distrust. It is fear that misconstrues the purposes of God. It is unbelief that misinterprets the words and ways of Jehovah. Even when things appear to be against us, let us trust and not be afraid.

III. When god thinks, he thinks to purpose. “To give you an expected end.” God always works to an end, and with a motive. Here He speaks about the people’s dreams. They were mere dreams—“the baseless fabric of a vision.” But God has no dreams. His thoughts are honest, earnest, fruitful, resultful. Moreover, His works ever agree with the thoughts from which they spring. God does not leave His people to haphazard, nor does He do anything by halves. Trust Him in all His works and ways, and you will see that “as for God, His way is perfect.” When He sets Himself to make a world, He rests not till He has made it perfectly, and can pronounce it good. When He sets Himself to destroy sinful men, He makes a clean sweep of them, whether it be with flood or flame. And when He comes from heaven to redeem a sinful race of men, His tears do not stop, nor does His blood cease flowing, till He can cry, “It is finished.” (Thomas Spurgeon.)

God’s thoughtsGod’s thoughts are like God,—they are wonderful as Himself, and worthy of Himself. His

40

ways are the results of His thoughts, and their revelation to us. Creation, in all its vastness and completeness, is the thought of God,—a thought that embraced not only the great outlines, but all the details of the work of His Word,—a thought that did not require to be supplemented or enlarged. Providence, in its heights and depths, its lengths and breadths, is His thought,—a thought that takes in the entire history of our race, and is ever at work to bring about one great purpose, one glorious design. Redemption, in all its surpassing glory, is His thought,-a thought of which the whole Gospel is the revelation.I. God’s thoughts must be revealed. They are known only to His Spirit, “for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” These deep things are known to us, for God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. We are permitted to know the thoughts of God that have had reference to ourselves; we are assisted in our conceptions of these thoughts, and it is wonderful to be told that they come into our minds, that they dwell in our hearts, and that we have communion with the thoughts of God. God is ever at work in the world, not only on its great stage, but on the narrow platform of our own dwellings; and we are permitted, in our brief lives, to see the impressions that are thrown off from the mind of God, the thoughts of God, in the dispensations of His providence. “Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward.” God has spoken to man. He spake unto the fathers by the prophets, but He hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. All that God has to say cannot be spoken; all that He has to reveal cannot be told us in words. We must have the death as well as the life of Jesus.II. God’s thoughts are revealed, and they are thoughts concerning us. However wonderful these thoughts, they might not concern us, they might not be about us; they might be about angels, and not about men,—about other worlds, and not this small province in God’s empire. But these thoughts become to us of the greatest moment, when we are told that they are about us—that God thought of us long ago—that before the world began, the thoughts of God were concerning us. How is man magnified by this very fact!III. What is the character of these thoughts concerning us

1. Sometimes we think God’s thoughts towards us are evil, because His ways are so full of mystery. We see the means to the end—we do not see the end. But the way to it is dark and sorrowful, and the events by which it is to be brought about, we baptise by the name of evil.2. God’s thoughts are eminently practical They are thoughts to an end. God is “wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.” God alone could originate the thoughts that fill His mind; He only can accomplish them. He does not merely think,—He speaks, He works, and fulfils His designs.

IV. God has the most perfect acquaintance with his own thoughts, and with their character.1. “I know the thoughts that l, think toward you.” The Infinite Mind knows no change. God’s thoughts are the same to-day as yesterday; and hence His promises are like thoughts that have just been breathed in our world; and His gifts and calling are without repentance.2. Let us acquaint ourselves with these thoughts. We have the record. We have the words of Him who spake as never man spake. Let us get these Divine thoughts into

41

our minds, that our thoughts may be quickened and strengthened, that we may think the thoughts of God, that we may have communion with the mind of God.V. If God has placed His thoughts before our minds, let us place our thoughts before God. Let us not only think about Him, but to Him. Let us thus have fellowship with Him.VI. Let us so act and live, as to carry out and exemplify God’s thoughts. “The grace of God has appeared to us, teaching us that we should deny ungodliness.” Let us profit by its teaching; let us act out its teaching by living Godlike. (H. J. Bevis.)

To give you an expected end.God’s future and hope for human raceI. The human race is under Divine training for a blessed and glorious future. God cannot create a single creature to hate and to leave in sin and misery, and if He could, how could He be God?II. Let us with reverence and humility try to learn something of God’s great thoughts respecting the future of fallen men. Try to think of the future of God’s lost children in the light of what He has done for them. If we consider it in the light of the Incarnation of the Son, His heavenly teaching, His mighty works, and His voluntary sufferings, we shall never despair. Think further of what God is doing through His Spirit; for He is through His Spirit enlightening men’s minds, leading them to the truth, convincing them of sin, and purifying the nature and perfecting the character of believers. If earthly fathers are so anxious for making a worthy and honourable future for their children, is it likely that the Divine Father will be heedless about the future of His children? No; that cannot be. In all the sufferings, trials, and discipline of the present, He has their future perfection, happiness, and glory in view.

1. Holiness of nature.2. Perfection of character.3. Perfection of service.4. Perfection of joy. (Z. Mather.)

Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. Divine purposes fulfilled in answer to prayerI. A certain danger declared (Jer_29:8-9). We have here the same caution which the Redeemer subsequently gave, to “beware of false prophets.” In all ages have they appeared, and most disastrous have been the effects produced by their teaching (Eze_13:10-14).II. A blessed deliverance promised.

1. The grounds on which it rested. “For thus saith the Lord.”2. The time of their return is expressly declared (Jer_29:10). God’s time is always

42

the best.3. In their restoration the Divine faithfulness would be strikingly manifested. “I will visit you,” &c.4. The procuring cause of their deliverance was the boundless compassion of Jehovah (Jer_29:11).

III. An important duty enjoined. Prayer.1. It is a duty Divinely ordained.2. It is a duty to the observance of which the greatest encouragement is afforded. “I will hearken unto you.”3. This duty, in order to be successful, must not be attended to in a formal and lifeless manner. (Anon.)

Captivities and how to improve themI. We may describe every real affliction which comes upon the christian as a captivity. To be in a condition which we never should have voluntarily preferred, or to be held back, by the power of something which we cannot control, from that which we eagerly desire to do,—is not that the very thing in an experience which makes it a trial? Take bodily illness, for example, and when you get at the root of the discomfort of it, you find it in the union of these two things: you are where you do not want to be, and where you would never have thought of putting yourself, and you are held there, whether you will or not, by the irresistible might of your own weakness. The same thing comes out in every sort of affliction. You are, let me suppose, in business perplexities. Well, that is not of your own choosing. If you could have accomplished it, you would have been in quite different circumstances. But, in spite of you, things have gone crooked. You have been carried from the Jerusalem of comfort to the Babylon of perplexity, by no effort of yours, nay, perhaps, against the utmost resistance on your part, and now you can do nothing. So sometimes, also, our providential duties are a kind of affliction to us. We had no choice in determining whether we would assume them. They came to us, unbidden, at least, if not undesired, and they have chained us to themselves, so that when we are asked to take part in some effort for the benefit of others we are compelled to say “No.”II. Every captivity of which the Christian is the victim will have an end. “Time and the hour run through the roughest day.” “Be the day weary, or be the day long, at last it ringeth to evensong.” It is but a little while, at the longest, and we shall be where “sorrow and sighing shall for ever flee away.” This state of limitation, this conflict between our aspirations and our abilities, is not to last for ever. Not for ever shall we be in bondage to the weakness of the body, hampered by its liability to disease, and hindered by its proneness to fatigue. Not always shall we be at the mercy of the unscrupulous and dishonest. Not continually shall we be held down by the encumbrances that overweight us here on earth. For in the fatherland above we shall work without weariness, and serve God without imperfection. But, while there is much in this view of the case to sustain us, we must not lose sight of the moral end which God has in view in sending us into our captivity. Ah! how many of our idolatries He has rebuked and rectified by our captivities! We had been worshipping our reputation, and lo! an illness came which laid us aside, and our names were by and by forgotten, as new men came to the front; and then,

43

learning the folly of out false ambition, we turned from the idolatry of self to the homage of Jehovah. Or, we had made an idol of our business; but now it is in ruins, and as we see the perishableness of earthly things, we turn to Him who is unchanging and eternal. Or, we had made a god of our dwelling, and by some reverse of fortune it is swept away from us, just that we might learn the meaning of that old song of Moses (Psa_90:1). How many portions of His Word, also, have been explained to us by our trials! There is no commentator of the Scriptures half so valuable as a captivity. It unfolds new beauties where all had appeared to be beautiful before; and where formerly there was what we thought a wilderness, it has revealed to us a fruitful field.III. If we would have such results from our captivity, there are certain important things which we must cultivate.

1. A willing acceptance of God’s discipline, and patient submission to it. The impatient horse which will not quietly endure his halter only strangles himself in his stall. The high-mettled animal that is restive in the yoke only galls his shoulders; and every one will understand the difference between the restless starling of which Sterne has written, breaking its wings against the bars of its cage, and crying, “I can’t get out,” “I can’t get out,” and the docile canary that sits upon its perch and sings as if he would outrival the lark soaring to heaven’s gate, and so moves his mistress to open the door of his prison-house and give him the full range of the room. He who is constantly looking back and bewailing that which he has lost, does only thereby unfit himself for improving in any way the discipline to which God has subjected him; whereas the man who brings his mind down to his lower lot, and deliberately examines how he can serve God best in that, is already on the way to happiness and to restoration.2. Unswerving confidence in God. If we doubt Him we at once become the prey to despondency, impatience, and rebellion. Confidence in your physician is itself more than half the cure, and trust in God is absolutely essential if we would gain benefit from His discipline. Yet because a change in men’s conduct toward us is usually the indication of a difference in their disposition toward us, we think that God has ceased to care for us when He puts us into trial or sends us into captivity. But it is not so. To-day the medical man gives his patient liberty to take anything he chooses; to-morrow he cuts off all indulgence, and uses severe and painful remedies; but does he care the less for him because he thus changes his treatment, or has his purpose regarding him undergone an alteration? Not at all In both cases he is equally earnest to have his health restored. And it is quite similar with God in His dealings with His people.3. Fervent prayer. No calamity can be to us an unmixed evil if we carry it in direct and fervent prayer to God, for even as one in taking shelter from the rain beneath a tree may find on its branches fruit which he looked not for, so we, in fleeing for refuge beneath the shadow of God’s wing, will always find more in God than we had seen or known before. It is thus through our afflictions that God gives us fresh revelations of Himself; and the Jabbok ford, which we crossed to seek His help, leads to the Peniel, where, as the result of our wrestling, we “see God face to face,” and our lives are preserved. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

Finding God44

To search after God is really to educate oneself. To know God requires that we should be educated in the Divine qualities. The knowledge of God is not something outside of us, and far removed from us. It is revealed in us, and by some quality that is within us. Now, to search after God has always been considered or spoken of as a work involving the expenditure of great zeal and intensity; and the question arises, Is it so difficult for men to know God? Fellowship and a knowledge of God are the food of the soul; they are the conditions of a true and large manhood; and axe we pushed so far from Him by the intrinsic difficulties of knowledge that we cannot know Him? We surely can know God by the use of our ordinary senses so far as He is made manifest in the exterior world, as the Maker, as the Sustainer, as the Architect, and the Engineer; we behold what He is by what He has done; and yet, we have thus approached but a very little way toward Him. Can we, then, by sitting down to contemplation, can we by any such method as that of the laboratory, or that analysis which the philosopher employs, draw out a more perfect knowledge of God? Only in after stages, and only in a subsidiary sphere, can men gain knowledge by the internal philosophical method. It succeeds other methods, and methods of more importance. So the difficulty of searching after God is real; but it is not the kind of difficulty which men suspect. It is not that God is purposely hidden. It is because the overruling of our lower nature, the subjugation of pride, the restraint of vanity, the putting down of avarice, the overcoming of the fever of ambition, and the regulation of the passions—it is because these things are so difficult, that the strife and the seeking are made necessary by the required formation of a God-like nature in ourselves; for we shall see God only through so much of the impartation of the Divine nature as is given to us and received by us, The Divine qualities—the qualities of truth, justice, mercy, long-suffering, love, kindness, self-sacrifice, disinterested benevolence—these can be appreciated only by those who have something of them in themselves; and when we seek after God to know Him, we are seeking really to know ourselves, and to fashion ourselves. It is a work of self-education through which we come to a knowledge of the supreme Being; and this does require searching. How, then, do men seek after God? They have been told that the knowledge of God, that the presence of God in their souls, is quite necessary for their safety in death, and for their remission from hell in the life that is to come; and out of the most selfish or the most superstitious feeling they often make a languid and feeble search after God purely for protective purposes—not from honour; not from love; not from conscious weakness to be impleted; not from a sense of their inferiority and a desire of aggrandisement by things that make nobility in the soul; not from any worthy purpose, but that they may have a barrier to keep off the avalanche of death. There are others who join with me in denouncing folly upon such, who are scarcely better, although they are frivolous in a higher mood. There are many who seek after God as poets seek after conceits. They love God as they love music; they love Him as they love the chant of the singer, or the effusion of the smooth-rhymed poet; and only thus do they seek after God. To them He is a vision; He is a floating cloud; He is a spring morning; He is a thundering sea; He is a landscape; He is a poem; but He is not Jehovah; He is not Father; He is not Governor, or Judge, or Rewarder. Well, there be others that seek after God, as a philosopher seeks after a proposition, disentangling intellectual conceptions, framing new ideas in some collected form into a speculative and philosophic God—a God of propositions; a God of attributes; a God of syllogisms; a logical God; a rhetorical God; a demonstrative, conceptional God. Whatever may come through the moulds of the intellect they employ in building up a bloodless God, a soulless God, a God of abstractions; and they think when they have hedged Him in with one and another and another distinction sharply drawn, and have clearly rounded out 45

their conception, that they have sought after God, and that they have found Him—and God laughs. For who by such searching can find out God; as if a man who never talked with you, who never walked with you, who never worked with you, who never lived with you, and who was never loved by you; as if one that had no personal acquaintance with you could ever out of his own consciousness deduce a correct idea of what you are! Searching for God with one’s heart is the way to find Him out; for God is discerned by the heart. That is the temple in the soul of God; and only they that enter into the searching of God by the heart can come near to Him or know Him. All they who seek after God then, irresolutely, occasionally, with fluctuating zeal, for selfish ends, dreamily, imaginatively, poetically, or by speculation and the lines of a dry philosophy—all such come short. They never can reproduce God. Only they who have framed in themselves some conception of high moral qualities, and have learned out of their own experience to frame a notion of God for the sake of making that notion their governor, their schoolmaster—only they can reproduce God. Frame a conception of God as of a Father full of pitifulness, full of tenderness, full of gentleness, full of wrath, but wrath that protects; full of severity, but the severity of a father for the cleansing of his son; frame a conception of God as reigning not to destroy but to recover, not to beat down but to lift up, not to shut men in prisons but to open the prison-doors, not to weld shackles or to impose them, hut to break them; frame a conception of God which is eminent in characteristics of motherhood, and give to it the magnitude of infinity; and then when these moral qualities are once established in thy sympathy and in thy thought, and magnified by the imagination, and lifted into the heavenly sphere, and thou mayest bow down before it, and say to it, “Thou God of reason, Thou God of compassion, Thou God of infinite love, Thou God whose thoughts rain bounty, Thou God who livest not for Thyself but for Thy creatures, Thee I behold; to Thee I submit, because Thou art infinitely good beyond all conception- Thee I worship and Thee I obey.” And then, having framed some such initial conception of God, be thou trained into the same likeness, and develop in thyself whatever is in harmony with this image of the Creator. You find portrayed in the Gospels the mind and will of God. That men may know Him personally, four lives are given of the Lord Jesus Christ, besides the interpretations and comments that are found in the letters and epistles. Study earnestly that slight yet wonderful sketch and portraiture of this superior Being. Keep it before your mind until you have a distinct conception of the personality of the Lord Jesus Christ. The critical and determinative question with you is this-Wilt thou have such an One to rule over you? Are you willing to lift, in your conception, into the heavenly places, such an idea of God as you derive from the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you willing to say, “Thy will, and not mine, be done”? Are you willing to take this oath and covenant of allegiance, never to be broken, “I dedicate my life to the fulfilment of Thy commands, and to the development in myself of Thy disposition”? If you are, you have found your God. The moment you have this conception of a loving Being, with a determinate moral character, who requires of you a corresponding moral character, and the moment there is in you a genuine volition and purpose to love and obey such an One, the work is begun, and you have been introduced to your Master. Now, after that, the very first step which you take in your attempt to act justly, you will be environed by the bands and hoops of society; by its imperfections; by the injustice which custom always imposes; and you will have a conflict with the prevailing tendencies by which you are surrounded. Your large and Christian conception of justice will stand in marked contrast with the contracted and worldly conception of justice which is prevalent; and you will become a reformer; and you will feel, “I must take up my cross; and if I follow Christ I must suffer.” Yes, you 46

must suffer if you would enjoy. Not that you are to suffer as if religion itself were a suffering, for religion itself is just the opposite; but you are coming out of a state of ignorance and bondage into a state of knowledge and freedom. You are going toward the right; and having once come to the right, it will be a blessing; for the right is s reward in over-measure. Your first impulse should be to act beneficently; and there is to be a power of beneficence in your soul. You should have a feeling that you are not your own. You that are strong should bear with the weak. You should carry one another’s burdens. You should manifest towards your fellow-men the disposition of love. Working out, then, your conception of God little by little; gathering conceptions of the Divine Being from all that is good and high and noble in practical life, and bringing back to yourself as motives in your own soul corresponding qualities, that your nature in its measure may become like God, growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will find that your sense of the Divine Presence purifies itself, cleanses itself, augments itself, makes itself more and more powerful, until the time comes in which you can say, literally, “I walk with God. My God made the heavens and the earth He is a God of force, and a God of tranquillity. My God is father and mother to my thought. He is all that is transcendent in patience and meekness and goodness; and not because He is inert; not because He is weak; for He will by no means clear the guilty. He upholds the right. He stands for the oppressed. He is a God who is determined that good shall prevail as against evil. But He works with a mother-heart, by tears, by groans, by death itself. He gives Himself for the poor, and the outcast, and the sinful, and the needy. He bore our sins in His own body; and by His stripes we are healed.” (H. W. Beecher.)

Seekers directed and encouragedI. To the unconverted. Our text has a word for you. You have lost your God: you m e at a distance from Him; your sins have separated you from your Maker, and nothing will ever be really right—till you get back to your God. The prodigal said, “I will arise and go to my father,” and some such spirit must be in you, or we cannot hope well of you. You must search after the Lord. You are allowed to search for Him, and what a privilege that is. When Adam sinned, he could not go back to Paradise, for with a flaming sword in his hand there stood the mailed cherub to keep the way that he might not touch the tree of life. But God, as far as the garden of His mercy is concerned, has moved that fiery sentinel, and Jesus Christ has set angels of love to welcome you at mercy’s gate. You may come to God, for God has come to you. He has taken upon Himself your nature, and His name is Emmanuel, God with us. Search for Him, and you must find Him, for so stands His own Word, “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me.” The text, however, demands that our searching after God should be done with all our heart. There axe several ways of seeking God which must prove failures. One is to seek Him with no heart at all. This is done by those who take their book and read prayers, never thinking what they say; or who attend a dissenting place of worship, and hear another person pray, but never join in it. If any of you have fallen into a formal religion, and seek the Lord without your heart, your seeking is in vain. Some seek God with a false heart. Their piety is an affectation of feeling, and not deep soul-work; it is sentimentality, and not the graving of God’s Spirit upon the heart. God grant us to be saved from a lie in the heart, for it is a deadly canker, fatal to all hope of finding the Lord. Some seek Him, too, with a double heart—a heart and a heart, as the Hebrew puts it. If one oar pulls towards earth and the other towards heaven the boat of the soul will revolve in a circle of folly, but never reach the happy shore. Beware of a double heart. And some seek God with half a heart. They have a little

47

concern, and are not altogether indifferent; they do think when they pray, or read, or sing, but the thought is not very intense. Superficial in all things, the seed is sown in stony ground, and soon it is withered away, because there is no depth of earth. The Lord save us from this! Now, ye that are seeking Christ, remember that if you would find Him you must neither seek Him without heart, nor with a false heart, nor with a double heart, nor with a half heart, but “Ye shall find Me,” saith the Lord, “when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” What did Jesus say?—“The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Heaven’s celestial bastions must be stormed by downright importunity. But why is it that when men search with all their heart they do find God? I will tell you. The only way in which we can find God is in Jesus Christ. There He meets with men, but nowhere else, and to get to Jesus Christ there is nothing on earth to be done but simply to believe in Him. The saving Word is near thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, and that is why when men seek the Lord with their whole hearts they find Him, for before they called the Lord was ready to answer. Jesus was always ready; but other wishes and other thoughts made the seeker unready. Sins were there, and lusts of the flesh, and all manner of hamper to hinder the man. When a man comes to seek God with all his heart, he lets those things go, and soon sees Jesus. Then, too, a man becomes teachable, for when a man is in earnest to escape from danger he is glad enough to be told by anybody. I charge you, then, you that seek the Lord, to be whole-hearted in it, for you cannot expect peace and joy in the Holy Ghost till all those straggling affections and wandering desires are tied up into one bundle, and your entire being is eager in the search for God in Christ Jesus.II. The backslider. Backsliders, you have left your Lord. Oh, you who once made a profession of religion, I cannot understand how you can dare to think of the judgment day, for you will not be able to plead ignorance, for you knew the truth and professed to believe it. If a prince of the blood were sent to a common gaol, what a misery it would be to him. I pity every man who has to work upon the treadmill, so far as he can deserve pity, but most of all the man who has been delicately brought up and scarce knows what labour means, for it must be hard indeed to him. Ah, you delicate sons and daughters of Zion, you whose mouths were never stained with a curse, and whose hands have never been defiled with outward sin, if your hearts be not right with God, you must take your place with the profane and share with them. What say you to this? Do you say, “I would fain return and find acceptance in Christ”? To you the text speaks expressly. Then shall you “find Me when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.”III. My last word is to you, the members of this Church. Thus saith the Lord, “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Heart searchings1. Man, through all the ages of time, has been influenced by a principle of reform. The pathway of the generations has been trodden amidst the Babel-tongued shouts of “Progress!” True progress has ever been characterised by diligent research. So we may well-nigh estimate the excellence of acquirement by intensity of endeavour to attain, and calculate worth by the economics of moral labour.2. This searching is the child of necessity. For possession begets desire; the perfecting of one design reveals the incompleteness of another, or the converse; the

48

failure of one scheme throws into bolder relief the success of another.3. The searching, to be successful, must also be thorough: “with all your heart.” The discoveries of insincerity are accidental. “Heart searchings” are illumined by the light of heaven.4. Application—

(1) The ultimate and inevitable object of search, “Me.”(2) The certainty of success assured, dependent only upon the one condition named, i.e. earnestness, “Ye shall find Me.”(3) “Searching” is not always strenuous exertion; study the might of systematic inaction. “Canst thou by searching (alone) find out God? Wait patiently for Him.” “Stand still and see the salvation of God.”(4) Note the individual reference of the text: “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me,” &c. (Preacher’s Analyst.)

Searching with all the heartKepler, first in fact and in genius of modern astronomers, deservedly called “the legislator of the heavens,” sought with all his heart to solve astronomical problems. With agony he strove to enter the straight gate and narrow way that led to the secret chamber of science, and explain the enigmas of six thousand yearn Vainly did the secrets of planetary and stellar worlds seek to elude him. He forged key after key, that he might unlock the doors of these mysteries. His courage and patience transfigured even failure into success. If one theory proved inadequate, there was at least one less to try, and so the limits became narrower within which truth would be found. He exhausted eight years of toil, only to prove worthless nineteen successive experiments. At last, driven to abandon the circular orbit, he founded his twentieth hypothesis on the curve which is next to the circle in simplicity, namely, the ellipse, and as all the conditions were met, the problem was solved. Bursting with enthusiasm, he cried: “O Almighty God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee!” Pressing his research further, he established his second and third laws, and, almost wild with triumph, exclaimed: “Nothing holds me! I will indulge my sacred fury! The book is written to be read either now or by posterity; I care not which! It may well wait a century for a reader, since God has waited six thousand years for an observer.” If Kepler was the minister of science, Agassiz was her missionary. He had no time to make money; but was found wandering alone on Pacific slopes, a pilgrim, to gather specimens of flora and fauna, minerals and metals, shells and pebbles, for the cabinets of science. What would not such zeal accomplish in religion! (A. T. Pierson.)

Concentration of heartA broken heart is a great blessing, when it is broken by contrition for sin; but a divided heart is often a fatal disease. One secret of success in life is concentration; and many of our young men find it out too late. The founder of the Vanderbilt family bent his whole powers upon money-making, and left the richest family on the Continent. Sir Isaac Newton’s famous explanation of his splendid success was, “I intend my whole mind

49

upon it.” Prof. Joseph Henry, of Washington, our great Christian scientist, used to say: “I have no faith in universal geniuses: my rule is to train all my guns on one point until I make a breach.” In these days of hot competition there is no room on the street for any man who puts only a fraction of himself into his business.

CALVIN, "As the minds of almost all were taken up, as we have seen, with that vain and false confidence which they had imbibed from false prophecies, that they should return after two years, the Prophet gives this answer, and reminds them to beware of such impostures. And thus we see that it is not sufficient for one simply to teach what is right, except he also restores from error those who have been already deceived or are in danger of being deceived. For to assert the truth is only one-half of the office of teaching, because Satan ever leads his ministers to corrupt the pure doctrine with falsehoods. It is not then enough to proclaim the truth itself, except all the fallacies of the devil be also dissipated, of which there is at this day a manifest instance under the Papacy; for as the minds of almost all are there inebriated with many corrupt inventions, were any one only to shew that this or that is right, he would certainly never in this way eradicate errors from the hearts of men. And hence Paul bids bishops not only to be furnished with doctrine in order to shew the right way to the teachable, but also to be so armed as to be able to resist adversaries and to close their mouths. (Titus 1:9.)Inasmuch then as from the beginning of the world Satan has never ceased to try and attempt, as far as he could, to corrupt the truth of God, or to immerse it in darkness, it has hence been always necessary for God’s servants to be prepared to do these two things — faithfully to teach the meek and humble, — and boldly to oppose the enemies of truth and break down their insolence. This is the rule which the Prophet now follows; he had exhorted the Jews to bear patiently the tyranny to which they were subject, because it was God’s yoke; but as on the other hand the false prophets boasted that there would be a return in two years, it was necessary for him to oppose them; on this point then he now speaks.And that what he was going to say might have more weight, he speaks again in God’s name, Let not your prophets who are in the midst of you deceive you For while Jeremiah had many adversaries at Jerusalem, the devil was also deceiving the miserable exiles in Chaldea. He then warns them not to believe these impostors; and though by way of concession he calls them prophets who were wholly unworthy of so honorable a name, he yet by way of reproach gives them afterwards the name of diviners Then the first name refers to that outward profession in which they gloried, when they boasted that they were sent by God and brought his commands. He then conceded to them the name of prophets, but improperly, or as they say, catachristically; as the case is at this day; for we do not always fight about names, but we call those priests, bishops or prelates, who are so brutal that they ought not to be classed among men. In like manner, as it has already often appeared, the prophets spoke freely, and never hesitated to call those prophets who had already

50

gained some estimation among the people. But that they might not be proud of such fallacious boasting, he afterwards designated them by another name; he called them diviners, and then dreamers; and afterwards he adds, Attend not to your dreams He addresses here the whole people; and there were a few who, under the color and pretense of having a prophetic spirit, announced prophecies.But Jeremiah did not without reason transfer to the whole people what belonged to a few; for we know that the devil’s ministers are cherished not only through the foolish credulity of men, but also through a depraved appetite. For the world is never deceived but willingly, and men, as though they were given up to their own destruction, seek for themselves falsehoods in every direction, and though unwilling to be deceived, they yet for the most part seek to be deceived. Were any one to ask, does the world wish to be deceived? all would cry out, from the least to the greatest, that they shun and fear nothing so much; and yet whence is it that as soon as Satan gives any sign, he attracts vast multitudes, except that we are by nature prone to what is false and vain? Then there is another evil, that we prefer darkness to light. Jeremiah then did no wrong to the people by telling them to beware of the dreams which, they dreamt.Some indeed take מחלמים, mechelmim, in a transitive sense, as it is in Hiphil, and ought to have been written here מחלימים , mechelimim; but it may be taken in the neuter gender. (211)However this may be, the meaning of the Prophet is not ambiguous; for he imputes this to all the Jews, that they were deceived by vain dreams, and that the fault could not be confined to a few impostors, for it was an evil common to them all. And the pronoun אתם , atere, is emphatical, ye, he says, dream; for he sets these false dreams in opposition to prophecies. We know that God formerly revealed his will either by visions or by dreams. There were then dreams, which were divine, of which God was the author. But he shews here that the people devised all these impostures for themselves, so that it availed them nothing to pretend that they were prophets, the interpreters of God, and that they announced what they had received by dreams; for what makes the difference is, whether one dreams from his own brain, or whether God reveals to him in a dream what ought to be deemed oracular. We now then understand the design of the Prophet. It follows, — COFFMAN, "Verse 8"For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets that are in the midst of you, and your diviners, deceive you; neither hearken ye to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith Jehovah.""Your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed ..." (Jeremiah 29:8) The dreams mentioned here seem to be accredited to the people themselves. We do not know if the meaning here is that, from the intense desire of the people for independence,

51

their subconscious minds produced the dreams, or if the false prophets, knowing the longings of the people for liberty, invented the dreams to suit the wishes of the people; but we suppose the latter is intended.Some scholars of the scissors and paste experts excise these verses; but, as Green stated it, "There is no real basis for the excision. The verses undergird what precedes and prepare for what follows."[10]PETT, "Jeremiah 29:8“For thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, Do not let your prophets who are in the midst of you, and your diviners, deceive you, nor listen you to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.”In consequence of this, on the word of YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, they were not to pay any heed to any prophets, diviners/fortune-tellers, or dreamers who stated anything else. ‘Dreams which you cause to be dreamed’ indicates that they expected their prophets to ‘dream’ on their behalf, and encouraged them to do so, listening eagerly to the results of what were probably drug-induced dreams.

9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.

GILL, "For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name,.... They pretended to have the authority of God for what they said; that their prophecies and dreams were from him, and as such they delivered them in his name; though they were false ones; that they might be the better received by the people: I have not sent them, saith the Lord; they had no mission or commission from the Lord, no warrant or authority from him; they set up themselves; and ran without being sent; and prophesied out of their own hearts what came into their heads, the fancies of their own brain, or the delusions of Satan, under whose power and influence they were; therefore sad must be the case of a people giving heed to such seducing spirits.

52

CALVIN, "He confirms what he had said by this reason, that they ran without being called, according to what we found in Jeremiah 23:21. He then repudiates these false prophets, for they spoke not from the mouth of God. But the difference was rendered very obscure and indistinct, when they pompously alleged the name of God and professed that they brought forward nothing but what they had learnt from him; yet as we have elsewhere said, no one can be deceived except willingly and knowingly; for God never leaves his faithful people destitute of the spirit of discernment, provided they offer themselves cordially and sincerely to be taught by his true and legitimate servants. And then the Jews ought to have examined all the doctrines and all the prophecies by the rule of the Law. But if the Law was difficult to be understood, they ought, as I have said, to have sought of God the spirit of wisdom and discernment.Jeremiah then did not without reason reject whatever the false prophets boasted of, for the purpose of gaining the approbation and applause of the people; for they were not sent nor approved by God. So also at this day, every one who wishes to distinguish with certainty between various doctrines, by which the world is agitated, nay, shaken, can without difficulty attain his object, provided he offers himself as a scholar to Christ, and connects the Law and the Prophets with the Gospel, and makes use of this rule to prove all doctrines; and provided in the meantime he trusts not to his own acumen, but submits himself to God and seeks of him the spirit of judgment and discrimination. It ought also to be observed, that in the same way the false prophets can be abundantly exposed when we thus shew that they are not sent by God; and we further convince them of vanity, when we prove their doctrine to be inconsistent with the Law and the Gospel.However this may be, this principle ought to be held, that none ought to be attended to, but those who can shew that they bring messages from God and are furnished with his word. We have said elsewhere, that in order that any one may be accounted as sent by God, it is necessary, first, that he should be rightly called, and secondly, that he should faithfully execute his office; for whosoever thrusts in himself without the command of God, though he may speak what is true and holy, he yet deserves not the name of a Prophet or teacher; and then vocation itself will not be sufficient, except there be faithfulness and integrity. But what Jeremiah mainly insists on here is, that those who promised the people a return in a short time did not speak from the mouth of God: They prophesy falsely, he says, in my name; how? Because I have not sent them. It follows — PETT, "Jeremiah 29:9“For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, the word of YHWH.”And YHWH gave them His solemn guarantee (neum YHWH) that such prophets were prophesying falsely in His Name and that He had not sent them.

53

10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.

BARNES, "After seventy years - literally, according to the measure of the fulfillment of 70 years for Babylon. The 70 years (Jer_25:11 note) are primarily the length of the Babylonian empire, and only in a secondary sense that of the Jewish exile.

CLARKE, "For thus saith the Lord - It has been supposed that a very serious transposition of verses has taken place here; and it has been proposed to read after Jer_29:9 the sixteenth to the nineteenth inclusive; then the tenth, and on to the fourteenth inclusive; then the twentieth, the fifteenth, the twenty-first, and the rest regularly to the end.

That after seventy years be accomplished - lephi meloth, “at the לפי מלאתmouth of the accomplishment,” or “fill to the mouth.” Seventy years is the measure which must be filled; - fill this to the brim; - complete this measure, and then you shall be visited and released. The whole seventy must be completed; expect no enlargement before that time.

GILL, "For thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon,.... These seventy years are not to be reckoned from the last captivity under Zedekiah; nor from the precise present time; nor from the first of Jeconiah's captivity; but the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and the first of Nebuchadnezzar, when he first came up against Jerusalem; see Jer_25:1; I will visit you; in a way of mercy, by stirring up Cyrus king of Persia to grant them their liberty: and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return to this place; meaning the promise of return from their captivity to their own land; which was a good word of promise, a promise of good things; which was good news to them, and of which there was no doubt of its performance, since God is faithful who has promised, and is able also to perform. It was from hence, and Jer_25:11; that Daniel learned the

54

time of the captivity, and the return from it, Dan_9:2.JAMISON, "(See on Jer_25:11; Jer_25:12; Dan_9:2). This proves that the seventy

years date from Jeconiah’s captivity, not from the last captivity. The specification of time was to curb the impatience of the Jews lest they should hasten before God’s time.good word — promise of a return.

SBC 10-14, "I. We may describe every real affliction which comes upon the Christian as a captivity. To be in a condition which we should never voluntarily have preferred, or to be held back by the power of something which we cannot control, from that which we eagerly desire to do—is not that the very thing in an experience which makes it a trial? This is the case with bodily illness, with business perplexities; sometimes even with providential duties. Every captivity of which the Christian is the victim will have an end. In the fatherland above we shall work without weariness, and serve God without imperfection. So in the prospect of that home we may well be reconciled for a season to the discomforts of our present exile.II. But while there is much in this view of the case to sustain us, we must not lose sight of the moral end which God has in view in sending us into our captivity. He sees the result from the beginning, and all the afflictions which He sends are but like the hammer-strokes of the sculptor, each of which removes some imperfection or brings some new loveliness to view. How many of our idolatries He has rebuked and rectified by our captivities! How many portions of His word have been explained to us by our trials! How many of us might say with truth that we had never really prayed till God sent us into captivity.III. If we would have such results from our captivity, there are certain important things which we must cultivate. I mention: (1) a willing acceptance of God’s discipline and patient submission to it; (2) unswerving confidence in God; (3) fervent prayer.W. M. Taylor, The Christian at Work, June 20th, 1878.

CALVIN, "In order to expose the dreams by which the false prophets had inebriated the people, he again repeats what he had said, that the end of their exile could not be expected until the end of seventy years. And this way of teaching ought to be particularly observed, for the truth of God will ever avail to dissipate all the mists in which Satan never ceases to envelop the pure truth. As then we have before seen, that when the people are imbued with any error, it ought to be boldly resisted; so now we see with what weapons all God’s servants ought to fight, in order to expose all those fallacies by which pure doctrine is assailed, even by setting in opposition to them the word of God: for this is the way which Jeremiah points out to us by his own example. He had spoken of the false prophets, he warned the people not to believe them; but as the minds of many were still vacillating, he confirms what he had said that they were not sent by God, because God never varies in his purpose, and never changes, and is never inconsistent with himself: “Now he has prefixed seventy years for your exile; whoever, then, tries to impugn that truth, is a professed and an open enemy to God.” We now perceive the object of the Prophet; When seventy years then shall be fulfilled, etc (212)

55

The Prophet here puts a restraint on the Jews, that they might not hasten before the time; and then he gives them the hope of a return, provided they quietly rested until the end fixed on by God. There are then two things in this verse, — that the people would ill consult their own good, if they hastened and promised to themselves a return before the end of seventy years, — and that when that time was completed, the hope of a return would be certain, for God had so promised.He adds, And I will raise up my good word towards you By good word he means what might bring joy to the Jews. Though God’s word is fatal to the unbelieving, yet it never changes its nature; it ever remains good. And hence Paul says that the Gospel is a fatal odor to many, but that it is, nevertheless, a sweet odor before God, (2 Corinthians 2:16;) for it ought to be imputed to the fault of those who perish, that they receive not the doctrine of the Gospel to their own salvation. The word of God is then always good: but this commendation is to be referred to experience, that is, when God really shews that he is propitious to us. And a shorter definition cannot be given, than that the good word denotes the promises, by which God testifies his paternal favor. But we have seen elsewhere that threatenings are called an evil word: why so? This character cannot, indeed, as it has been just said, be suitably applied to God’s word; yet God’s word which threatens destruction is called evil, as it is said,“I am he who create good and evil,” (Isaiah 45:7)but it is so according to our apprehension of its effects. And all this reasoning seems nearly superfluous, when we understand that God by the word of evil strikes the unbelieving with fear, but that the Prophet now means no other thing than to bear testimony to God’s favor to the Jews: and hence he says, that they would find by experience, that God had not in vain promised what he had before mentioned.But he is said to rouse up (213) his good word, that is, when it produced its effects before their eyes; for when God only speaks, and the thing itself does not yet appear, his word seems in a manner to he dormant and to be useless. And for seventy years the Jews could perceive no other thing than that God was displeased with them, and thus they were continually in fear; for the promise continued as it were dormant, as its effects were not as yet visible. God then is said to rouse up his word, when he proves that he has not promised anything in vain. The meaning is, that the prophecy which Jeremiah had related would not be fruitless; but if the people did not soon know this, yet God, when the time came, would really prove that he deceives not his people, nor allures them when he promises anything, by vain hopes.And the Prophet explains himself, for he says that God would restore them to their own country: for this was the good word, the promise of deliverance, as the word, according to what the people felt, was evil, and bitter, and bad, when God had threatened that he would cast away the reprobate. But it is an accidental thing, as I have said, that men find God’s word to be evil for them or adverse to them; for it

56

proceeds from their own fault, and not from the nature of the word. It follows — COFFMAN, ""For thus saith Jehovah, After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end. And ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith Jehovah, and I will gather you from all the nations, and I will return again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith Jehovah; and I will bring you again unto the place whence I cause you to be carried away captive.""After seventy years ... for Babylon ..." (Jeremiah 29:10). Yes, the captivity would end, but not until the seventy years were accomplished. Notice also that there are overtones here that reach unto the end of time. The gathering of God's people from "all the nations" is at the present time taking place in the preaching of the gospel all over the world. There is far more in these verses than the mere return of a few Jews to Jerusalem."The accomplishment of the seventy years for Babylon ..." (Jeremiah 29:10). "These words indicate that `the seventy years' are primarily the length of the Babylonian empire, and only in a secondary sense, the length of the Jewish exile."[11] The actual duration of the Babylonian domination was from, "The fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C. to the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C."[12] a period of 73 years. Counting from the accession of Nebuchadnezzar in 606 (Jewish method of reckoning) to the fall of Babylon to Cyrus, there was a period of 67 years. As far as we are concerned, there is no need to talk about "round numbers" in a prophecy as exact as this one.PETT, "Verses 10-14YHWH Promises That Once Seventy Years Have Passed His People Will Have The Opportunity To Return To Their Own Land (Jeremiah 29:10-14).Jeremiah 29:10“For thus says YHWH, After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return to this place.”For the true situation was that Babylon had been granted seventy years of rule by YHWH, and that time had to be accomplished (Jeremiah 25:11-12). However, once that seventy years was accomplished, and only then, He would visit them again, and fulfil His promise to them that they would return to ‘this place’ (Jerusalem, Judah). He would perform ‘His good word’ (the word that promised what they sought, the word of hope) towards them.

57

We should note that ‘seventy years’ was not only to be seen as a time note, but also as an indication that it would happen within YHWH’s ‘divinely perfect time’ (seven intensified). Everything would happen within God’s chosen timing. It would not come to an end on the basis of the calendar, but on the basis of God’s purposes. It was not a prognosticator’s forecast, but YHWH’s determination.In the event we may see it as beginning in c. 605 BC, when Egypt were decisively beaten by Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar gained control of Palestine (or 609 BC when the Assyrian yoke was broken and Babylon finally ruled an empire) and ending in 539 BC when Cyrus conquered Babylon, or a year or two later when the exiles actually began to return. As the period covered both the period of Babylonian supremacy (609 BC to 539 BC) and the period of exile (605 BC for the first exiles, to a year or two after 539 BC) it has to be seen as flexible.

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

BARNES, "An expected end - Rather, a future and a hope. The nation shall not come to an end; the exile shall be followed by a restoration.

CLARKE, "Thoughts of peace - Here God gives them to understand,1. That his love was moved towards them.2. That he would perform his good word, his promises often repeated, to them.3. That for the fulfillment of these they must pray, seek, and search.4. That he would hearken, and they should find him; provided,5. They sought him with their whole heart, Jer_29:10-13.

58

GILL, "For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord,.... The purposes and resolutions of his heart concerning their welfare, particularly the restoration of them to their own land; these were within him, and known to him, and him only; they were remembered by him, and continued with him, as the "thoughts of his heart are to all generations"; and so would not fail of being performed; men think and forget what they have thought of, and so it comes to nothing; but thus it is not with God; he has taken up many thoughts in a way of love, grace, and mercy, concerning sinful men; about their election in Christ; a provision of all spiritual blessings for them; redemption and salvation by Christ; their effectual calling, adoption, and eternal life: thoughts of peace, and not of evil: or "for evil" (t); these thoughts were concerning the temporal peace and prosperity of the Jews in Babylon, and not of anything to their hurt; yea, even their captivity was for their good, Jer_24:5; and thoughts concerning his spiritual Israel, their peace and reconciliation with God, and the manner of bringing it about, by the blood, sufferings, and death of his Son in human nature, with whom he consulted and agreed about this matter; and concerning their inward spiritual peace of mind and conscience now, and their eternal peace hereafter: nor does he ever think of evil for them; whatever evil he thinks towards others, angels or men, he thinks none towards them; and whatever evil befalls them, he means it for good, and it does work for good unto them; he cannot think otherwise concerning them, consistent with his everlasting and unchangeable love to them; since he has designed so much good for them, does so much to them, and has so much to bestow upon them. The issue of all which is, to give you an expected end; a very desirable one; such as they wished and hoped to have, and expected; such as would put an end to all their troubles, and put them into the enjoyment of all good things promised and waited for. This, in the mystical sense, may have reference to the Messiah, in whom all God's thoughts of peace, concerning his special people, issue; he is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, of all things, Rev_1:8; of all things in creation; of the Scriptures, promises and prophecies of it: "the end of the law for righteousness", Rom_10:4, the fulfilling end of it, by his obedience, and sufferings, and death; and who was to come, and did come, at the end of the Jewish world, at the end of their civil and ecclesiastical state: he was long promised and prophesied of and was much waited for and expected, by the saints before the flood; from thence to Moses; from Moses to David; from David to the Babylonian captivity; from thence to the times of his coming, when there was a general expectation of him; and expected end was then given, as an instance of grace and good will to men. It may also be applied to salvation by Christ; the end of all God's gracious purposes and designs; the end of the covenant of grace, the provisions, blessings, and promises of it; the end of Christ's coming into the world, and of his obedience and death; the end of his prayers and preparations now in heaven; and the end of the faith of the saints on earth: this is an end hoped, waited for, and expected by faith; and for which there is good reason; since it is wrought out, prepared, and promised; saints are heirs of it; and now it is nearer than when they believed; and will be bestowed as a free grace gift, through Jesus Christ our Lord; and will be enjoyed as the issue and result of God's eternal thoughts of peace concerning them. Some render it, "an expected reward" (u); which is given at the end of the work: others, "posterity and hope" (w); a numerous posterity, and hope and expectation of good things from the Lord, promised in the days of the Messiah.

59

JAMISON, "I know — I alone; not the false prophets who know nothing of My purposes, though they pretend to know.

thoughts ... I think — (Isa_55:9). Glancing at the Jews who had no “thoughts of peace,” but only of “evil” (misfortune), because they could not conceive how deliverance could come to them. The moral malady of man is twofold - at one time vain confidence;then, when that is disappointed, despair. So the Jews first laughed at God’s threats, confident that they should speedily return; then, when cast down from that confidence, they sank in inconsolable despondency.expected end — literally, “end and expectation,” that is, an end, and that such an end as you wish for. Two nouns joined by “and,” standing for a noun and adjective. So in Jer_36:27, “the roll and the words,” that is, the roll of words; Gen_3:16, “sorrow and conception,” that is, sorrow in conception. Compare Pro_23:18, where, as here “end” means “a happy issue.”

CALVIN, "He confirms the same thing, and employs many words, because it was difficult to raise up minds wholly broken down. For the world labors under two extreme evils, — they sink in despair, or are too much exalted by foolish pride: nay, there is no moderation except when ruled by God’s Spirit we recumb on his word; for when they devise vain hopes for themselves, they are immediately rapt up above the clouds, fly here and there, and in short think that they can climb into heaven; this is the excess of vain and foolish confidence: but when they are dejected, then they fall down wholly frightened, nay, being astonished and lifeless they lose every feeling, receive no comfort, and cannot taste of anything which God promises. And both these evils prevailed evidently among the Jews. We have seen how much the Prophet labored to lay prostrate their pride and arrogance; for they laughed at all threatenings, and remained ever secure; though God, as it were, with an armed hand and a drawn sword menaced them with certain destruction, yet nothing moved them. And when they were driven into exile, they were extremely credulous when the false prophets promised them a quick return; while, in the meantime, God, by his servants, shewed to them that he would be gracious to them, and after seventy years would become their deliverer; but they were deaf to all these things, nay, they rejected with disdain all these promises, and said,“What! will God, forsooth, raise up the dead!”(Ezekiel 37:12)This, then, is the reason why the Prophet now speaks so largely of their future redemption: it was difficult to persuade the Jews; for as they thought that they would soon return to their own country, they could not endure delay, nor exercise the patience which God commanded. They were at the same time, as we have said, quite confident, inasmuch as the false prophets filled their minds with vain hopes.He therefore says, I know the thoughts which I think towards you Some think that God claims here, as what peculiarly belongs to him, the foreknowledge of future things; but this is foreign to the Prophet’s meaning. There is here, on the contrary,

60

an implied contrast between the certain counsel of God, and the vain imaginations in which the Jews indulged themselves. The same thing is meant when Isaiah says,“As far as the heavens are from the earth, so far are my thoughts from your thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:9)for they were wont absurdly to measure God by their own ideas. When anything was promised, they reasoned about its validity, and looked on all surrounding circumstances; and thus they consulted only their own brains. Hence God reproved them, and shewed how preposterously they acted, and said, that his thoughts were as remote from their thoughts as heaven is from the earth. So also in this place, though the two parts are not here expressed; the Prophet’s object was no other than to shew, that the Jews ought to have surrendered themselves to God, and not to seek to be so acute as to understand how this or that would be done, but to feel convinced that what God had decreed could not be changed.It must yet be remarked, that he speaks not here of his hidden and incomprehensible counsel. What then are the thoughts of which Jeremiah now speaks? They were those respecting the people’s deliverance, after the time was completed, for God had promised that he would then be propitious to his Church. We hence see that the question here is not about the hidden counsels of God, but that the reference is simply to the word which was well known to the Jews, even to the prophecy of Jeremiah, by which he had predicted that the Jews would be exiles for seventy years, and would at last find that their punishment would be only a small chastisement, as it would only be for a time: I know then my thoughts But still he indirectly condemns the Jews, because they entertained no hope of deliverance except from what came within the reach of their senses. He then teaches us that true wisdom is to obey God, and to surrender ourselves to him; and that when we understand not his counsel, we ought resignedly to wait until the due time shall come.He says that they were thoughts of peace, (214) that is, of benevolence. Peace, as it has been often said, is taken for felicity, as in Jeremiah 29:7,“For the peace of Babylon shall be your peace;”that is, if Babylon be prosperous, you shall be partakers of the same happiness. So now, in this place, God declares that his thoughts were those of peace, for he designed really to shew by the effect his paternal kindness towards his people.He afterwards adds, that 1 may give you the end and the expectation By אחרית, achrit, which means in Hebrew the last thing, we are to understand here the end, as though he had said, that it was to be deemed as final ruin, when people had been driven away to a foreign land. For it was no small trial when the Jews were deprived of that land which was the rest and habitation of God; it was the same as though they had been cut off from every hope: it was then a sort of repudiation, and

61

repudiation was a kind of death. But here God declares that he would put an end to their exile, as it was to be only for a time. It is hence to be inferred, that the people did not perish when they were led into exile, but that they were only chastised by God’s hand.He adds expectation, which Jerome has rendered “patience,” but in a very forced manner. There is, indeed, no doubt but that by this second word the Prophet more fully and clearly expressed what he meant by the first word, אחרית , achrit, even the end that was wished or desired, I will then give you the end, even that ye may enjoy the promises, as ye wish and expect, and ought to hope for, since God has made them. (215) Here I will make an end.In mentioning purposes and not purpose, the intention probably was to shew its firmness and certainty. The Hebrews sometimes used the plural number in order to enhance the meaning, as “wisdoms” for perfect wisdom, in Proverbs 9:1. Then the meaning of the word would be, “the very sure purpose;” and in a version, the meaning, and not the word literally, ought to be given. — Ed. NISBET, "GOD’S THOUGHTS OF PEACE‘The thoughts that I think toward you.’Jeremiah 29:11I. God thinking of us in our need.—‘I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me.’ ‘Yet’ is an interpolation of the English version. It would be nearer the truth to say, ‘therefore the Lord thinketh upon me.’ Why is it necessary to emphasise the fact that God thinks of men? (1) Men were saying in Israel’s days of trial that God had given them up, and that these evil times were only the beginning of the end. Even so; men are now making light of the Gospel—preaching ‘other Gospels’ not stamped with the Divine character of free grace. Any delusion is easier for the sinner to believe than that God is altogether loving and gracious—even to him in his sin. (2) Uneasy consciences suggest a gloomy view of the sinner’s case. It is the duty of conscience to condemn the sinner and make him feel his sin; but it is the work of the Gospel to persuade him of the all-forgiving mercy of God. The prophet sets God’s word against that of false witnesses. So let us hold to the message. God has not put us out of His kindly thought. For—II. God protests the peaceableness of His thoughts towards Israel: ‘thoughts of peace.’—‘Conscience makes cowards of us all.’ ‘The wicked fleeth when no man pursueth.’ Even so the sinner flees from God, because he argues that since he has been so long at war with God, God must be at war with him. As God did not leave Israel in Babylon, so He will not leave us in our sins if we accept His salvation.The Old Testament man cries, ‘Woe is me! for I have seen the Lord.’ The New Testament man says, ‘Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord!’ Everybody

62

knows there must be a distance put between God and sin, but the spiritually enlightened know that the proper way is to put away sin—not to ask God to leave us. He who understands the Gospel knows that God has put away sin by the sacrifice of Jesus—that Jesus has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Hence, God can think thoughts of peace and not of evil concerning the sinner. It was for the sake of a Christ to be crucified that God could deal mercifully with Israel: it is for the sake of a Christ Who has been crucified that He can think thoughts of peace concerning us. The sinner flees from God. The God of his imagination may be a God of vengeance and of evil thoughts about us. But the true picture of God is here given. ‘The thoughts that I think—thoughts of peace, and not of evil.’III. Jeremiah closes the verse by saying God is to give His people an expected end.—Let us ask ourselves what kind of end ought we to expect as the gift of a God full of such thoughts as God protests He has towards us? Fill in all your best and noblest expectations or thoughts of love, peace, eternal blessings, home comforts for ever, with no interruptions—these are all in the promise of God; no good thing will He withhold from those who close with His offers of mercy.When we have learned to ‘expect great things from God,’ we shall begin to get great things. All things are ours in Christ—deliverance from captivity included. Sin and Satan are no more powerful to hold us than Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar to hold Israel, when God’s word of peace and goodwill is accepted by us.Illustration‘In a land where the custom of the vendetta was practised, a man had the cruel (supposed) duty laid on him of vindicating the death of his brother, who had been slain in a sudden heat of passion by his own dearest friend. He set out on the odious task, but on his way he learned that another member of his family had already avenged the murder on a member of the murderer’s family. Delighted to be set free from the burden of shedding his friend’s blood, he now pursued him to let him know that the old peace need not be disturbed; the vile custom was satisfied. But it was long before he could get his errand of mercy accomplished. The murderer ever fled from his approach, fearing vengeance, though it was mercy that brought his comrade after him.’PETT, "Jeremiah 29:11“For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, the word of YHWH, thoughts of wellbeing, and not of evil, to give you hope and a latter end (a future).”But the important implication was of what it revealed about YHWH’s purpose towards them. His thoughts towards them (and this was on the sure word of YHWH) were thoughts of wellbeing (shalom - peace, wellbeing) and not of evil. His aim was to give them ‘hope and a latter end’, that is, once they had passed through the sufficient period of their captivity, and had truly repented.

63

SIMEON, "GOD WILL BE FOUND OF SINCERE WORSHIPPERSJeremiah 29:11-13. I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.THE calamities which God inflicts upon mankind in this world are intended to bring them to repentance; and though he often removes his rod in anger, when he sees that it produces not the desired effect, yet he often continues to punish till he sees that the heart is humbled for its iniquity. Thus he dealt with the Jews whom he sent captive to Babylon. They at first despised his chastening, and promised themselves a speedy return to their native land: but he declared that their captivity should be protracted to the end of seventy years; and that, at the expiration of that time, when they should have learned to acknowledge him, he would again appear for them, and bring them back in answer to their fervent petitions. His declaration respecting this suggests to us two important observations:I. God’s purposes of love and peace shall all in due time be accomplished—God has “thoughts of peace” towards many who never think of him—[Even before the foundation of the world God determined to remedy the evils which he foresaw sin would bring upon mankind. When our first parents were ruined, and fled from his face, he sought them out and communicated to them his gracious intentions relative to the substitution of his Son, in their stead. And while the Jews were imbruing their hands in the blood of his Son, it was his fixed purpose to pour down his Spirit upon them, and to bring them into a state of reconciliation with himself. And have we not also reason to confess, that whatever we either possess or hope for is the result of his purpose and grace which he purposed in Christ Jesus before the world began [Note: 2 Timothy 1:9.]? Yea, who can tell, but that, at this moment, some careless sinner is the object of his special attention, and that this is the very hour, wherein his merciful designs shall be matured and executed?]These thoughts of his shall all in due season be accomplished—[It may be a long time before his eternal counsels are manifested by visible and correspondent acts. But not one of his purposes shall ever be frustrated. Paul was “a chosen vessel unto him,” and “separated, in the Divine intentions, from his mother’s womb [Note: Acts 9:15. Galatians 1:15.]: but how long was he suffered to go on in the most inveterate enmity against Christ and his Gospel! Yet when his hour was come, God stopped him in his mad career, and transformed a bitter persecutor into a zealous Apostle. Thus it was that Zaccheus also was made a partaker of Christ’s salvation, when he thought of nothing but gratifying a foolish curiosity [Note: Luke 19:4-5; Luke 19:9.]. And thus many of us also received our first serious impressions,

64

when we were far enough from desiring to fear God. And it is a comfortable reflection, that many, who are yet dead in trespasses and sins, are in the Divine purpose “predestinated to the adoption of children [Note: Ephesians 1:5.],” and will one day be “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.”]Nor shall any expectations founded upon his word be ever disappointed—[Improbable as the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon was, God brought them out at the appointed time. And as he gave “them an expected end,” so will he to all of us. If an ungodly man begin to look unto the Lord Jesus Christ for repentance and remission of sins, he shall not look to him in vain. If an afflicted or tempted soul flee to him for consolation and succour, the desired aid shall not be withheld. Provided only we rely on his word, and not on any presumptuous imaginations of our own, we may rest assured that he will interpose effectually on our behalf.]But however fixed his purposes may be,II. They must nevertheless be called forth by the exercise of fervent prayer—God has appointed prayer as the means of obtaining his blessings—[This is the universal voice of Scripture, “Ask, and ye shall have.” Even where God most freely promises his blessings, he still says, “Nevertheless I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them [Note: Ezekiel 36:37.].” We do not say that he never deviates from this method of conveying his mercies; for sometimes “he is found of them that sought him not, and known to them that inquired not after him [Note: Isaiah 65:1.]:” But the earnestness with which this duty of prayer is inculcated in the text, is of itself a sufficient proof that we are to expect no blessing without it. God would have us know, and feel our wants; and by opening them before him, get our own hearts affected with them. If at any time he vouchsafe his blessings to those who have not sought him, he instantly stirs them up to prayer, which is as necessary to the welfare of a regenerate soul, as breathing is to the existence of a new-born infant.]Nor should a discovery of his purposes relax, but rather quicken, our diligence in prayer—[This was the effect which was produced on Daniel as soon as ever he learned that the time fixed for Israel’s captivity was near its termination [Note: Daniel 9:2-4.]. Nor should it produce any other effect on us. As well might Hezekiah have declined the use of food because God had prolonged his life fifteen years, as we neglect the means of spiritual advancement, if we knew that God had predestinated us unto life. On the contrary, the certain prospect of success is our greatest encouragement to pray, and to comply with any terms which God has prescribed.]If we use these means aright, we may be sure we shall attain whatsoever his

65

unerring wisdom sees to be good for us—[God has “never said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain [Note: Isaiah 45:19.].”. On the contrary he will “hearken” to our cry with parental tenderness, he will discover to the inquiring soul the riches of his grace, and “enable us to comprehend with all saints the height and depth of his love which passeth knowledge.” But then we must pray in earnest and, “search for him with our whole heart [Note: Leviticus 26:40-41, Deuteronomy 4:29.]” It is not a mere listless petition that will prevail with him; we may ask and not have, if we thus ask amiss:” but importunate and believing prayer shall bring down every blessing which God himself is able to bestow.]This subject will be found of peculiar use,1. To humble the proud—[Every natural man conceives that his salvation must arise solely from his own exertions. But here we are taught to trace all our inclination and ability for what is good to God, who, in the prosecution of his eternal purposes, imparts both the one and the other to our souls [Note: See also Ephesians 1:11 and Philippians 2:13.]. Let us learn, then, to acknowledge him in all that we have received, and to look to him for all that we want. And let the hope, that there may yet be in his heart many undiscovered thoughts of peace towards us, stimulate us to fervent prayer, and diligent exertions.]2. To awaken the secure—[Some will pervert the truths of God, and say that their exertions are useless, if God have not thoughts of peace towards them; and superfluous, if he have. But God’s decrees are no rule of action for us, seeing that they are hidden from us: it is his precepts, which we are to regard; and if we will not seek him according to his command, we can have no hope that we shall ever find him. Will any man then consign himself deliberately to perdition, because he does not absolutely know that God has “ordained him unto life?” Should we not justly blame a man who made the uncertainty of life a reason for refusing bodily sustenance? yet he would act as rationally as the other. Let this then be known; the man that lives without God, will die without hope; and, when he perishes, he must accuse, not the hidden purposes of God, but his own folly, sloth, and negligence.]3. To comfort the feeble-minded—[Some, who are diligent in the use of means, are apt to perplex themselves with doubts respecting the Divine decrees. But they have within themselves the very best answer to all their doubts: let them only ask themselves, Whence arose my desires after God? Whence is it that I am enabled to seek him in any measure? The snare will then instantly be broken: for, the aid they have already received from God, is a far better ground for concluding that he has designs of peace towards them, than

66

any remaining imperfections can be, of his purpose to reject them. Only then wait upon God in prayer, and rest assured that a praying soul can never perish. Continue to ask, and you shall have; for however secret his purposes may be, his promises are plain and sure: and he says, “Ye shall find me, when ye shall search for me with your whole heart.”]

12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

GILL, "Then shall ye call upon me,.... When the expected end is about to be given; when God intends and is about to bestow a mercy, he gives his people a spirit of prayer to ask for it; and even the promise of it is a considerable argument to encourage and engage more to pray for it: and ye shall go and pray unto me: walk in my ways; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech; or rather ye shall go into your private closets, or into those public places where prayer was wont to be made, and there put up your petitions; or it may be the meaning is, that they should continue praying unto him; should pray without ceasing, until they enjoyed the blessing, and had the expected end given them: and I will hearken unto you: God is a God hearing prayer; he listens to the requests of his people, and answers them in his own time and way; which is no small encouragement to pray unto him.

JAMISON, "Fulfilled (Dan_9:3, etc.). When God designs mercy, He puts it into the hearts of His people to pray for the mercy designed. When such a spirit of prayer is poured out, it is a sure sign of coming mercy.

go — to the temple and other places of prayer: contrasted with their previous sloth as to going to seek God.CALVIN, "Jeremiah pursues the same subject, even that the Jews, after having undergone the punishment allotted to them by God, would at length return to their own country and find God merciful, and hence learn that their chastisement in exile would prove useful to them. He had indeed in the last verse explained this with sufficient clearness, but he now expresses the manner; and that would be by calling on God. he uses two words, Ye shall call on me, he says, and pray. The verb put between these two הלכתם, elcatem, is regarded almost by all as referring to a right

67

course of life, as though the Prophet had said, that those who before wandered after their own lusts would now walk in the way of God, that is, in his Law; but this seems to me to be too forced an explanation. I doubt not then, but that the Prophet here indirectly reproves the indifference of the people in not immediately acknowledging that they were chastised by God’s hand, that they ought in due time to repent. To go then or to walk is the same thing, in my judgment, as though he had said, “After having suffered the exile, not of one year, but of seventy years, ye shall then begin to be wise.”It was not only sloth but stupidity, that they were not subdued by God’s scourges so as to call on him; but as they were of a disposition so rude and refractory the Prophet here briefly reminds them that many years had been necessary to subdue them, as twenty or thirty years were not sufficient. We now then understand the design of the word הלק, elek, to walk. (216) The meaning then is, that after having profited under the scourges of God, they would become humble so as to deprecate his wrath.But there is added a promise, that God would hear them. It may however appear, that God promised conversion even in the first clause; and, no doubt, prayer is the fruit of repentance, for it proceeds from faith; and repentance is the gift of God. And further, we cannot call on God rightly and sincerely except by the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit; for he it is who not only dictates our words, but also creates groanings in our hearts. And thus Augustin, writing against the Pelagians, understands the passage, and proves that it is not in the power of man either to convert himself or to pray; “for God,” he says, “would in vain promise what is in the power of man to do; and this is the promise, ye shall pray; it then follows, that we do not pray through the impulse of our own flesh, but when the Holy Spirit directs our hearts, and in a manner prays in us.” I do not, however, know whether the Prophet intended to speak in so refined a manner. From other passages of Scripture it is easy to prove, that we cannot pray to God, except he anticipates us by his own Spirit. But as to this passage, I prefer to take a simpler meaning, that God would hear, when they began to pray; but yet he shews that it would not be after a short space of time, because they were almost untameable, and would not repent until after many years. It follows, — PETT, "Jeremiah 29:12“And you will call on me, and you will go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”And then they would ‘call on Him, and go, and pray to Him’ (the common threefold pattern) and He would listen to them’. Note that there could be no return without repentance and a seeking of His face as a repentant people, which were essential elements in their return.(How different was the return of Jews to Israel in 20th century AD. Then it was in the arrogance of nationhood, not in repentance and seeking after God. It was of a

68

nation still in unbelief. It was man-determined, not God-determined. It was the very opposite of what is in mind here).

13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

GILL, "And ye shall seek me, and find me,.... When persons seek the Lord aright, they always find him; a God hearing prayer; a God in Christ; bestowing favours upon them; granting them his presence; indulging them in communion with him; and favouring them with fresh supplies of his grace, and everything needful for them; every mercy, temporal and spiritual; that is, when they seek him in Christ, who is the only way to the Father, under the guidance and influence of the blessed Spirit; in the exercise of faith upon him and his promises; with fervency of spirit and ardour of mind; with diligence and importunity; with earnest desires and strong affections; and, as follows, with all sincerity of soul: when ye shall search for me with all your heart; which, as Calvin rightly observes, does not design perfection, but integrity and sincerity; when they draw nigh with a true heart, and call upon him in truth, and search for him with eagerness, with a hearty desire to find him, as men search for gold, and silver, and hid treasure.

JAMISON, "(Lev_26:40-42, Lev_26:44, Lev_26:45).CALVIN, "He confirms in other words the same thing; and yet the repetition, as we said yesterday, is not useless; for as the Jews perversely despised all threatenings, so it was difficult for them to receive any taste of God’s goodness from his promises. This then is the reason why the Prophet employs many words on this subject. By the word seek, he means prayers and supplications, as mentioned in the last verse. And Christ also, exhorting his disciples to pray, says, “Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.” There is no doubt but that he speaks there of prayer; he yet adopted various modes of speaking, derived from the common habits of men. But to seek, when we feel the need of God’s grace, is nothing else than to pray. Hence the Prophet says, ye shall seek me and ye shall find me And though he addresses here the Israelites, yet this doctrine ought to be extended to the whole Church; for God testifies that he will be propitious to all who flee to him.

69

But as hypocrites are abundantly noisy, and seem to surpass the very saints in the ardor of their zeal, when the external profession is only regarded, the Prophet adds, Because (217) ye shall seek me with your whole heart There is no doubt but that the Jews groaned a thousand times every year when oppressed by the Chaldeans; for they had to bear all kind of reproaches, and then they had nothing safe or secure. They were therefore under the necessity, except they were harder than iron, to offer some prayers. But God shews that the seasonable time would not come, until their prayers proceeded from a right feeling; this he means by the whole heart. It is indeed certain that men never turn to God with their whole heart, nor is the whole heart ever so much engaged in prayer as it ought to be; but the Prophet sets the whole heart in opposition to a double heart. Perfection, then, is not what is to be understood here, which can never be found in men, but integrity or sincerity.We now then perceive the meaning of the Prophet’s words, — that the Jews, when they began in earnest to flee to God, would find him propitious, provided only they did this in sincerity of heart and not in dissimulation; and also that this would not take place soon, for their hardness and obstinacy were greater than that they could be brought to repent in a short time. Therefore God reminds them that there was need of many evils, so that they might at length turn and divest themselves of that perverseness to which they had wholly surrendered themselves.Now the whole of this, as I have already observed, ought to be applied to the benefit of the Church; for this promise is to be extended to all the godly, — that when they call on God in their miseries, he will hear them. And Jeremiah seems to have taken this sentence from Isaiah,“As soon as thou callest on me, I will hear thee; before thou speakest, I will stretch forth my hand.” (Isaiah 58:9)And this circumstance also ought to be noticed, that the Prophet addressed the Jews who were miserably oppressed. Let us then know that this sentence is rightly addressed to those in distress, who seem to have God against them and displeased with them; and this is the seasonable time which is mentioned by David in Psalms 32:6.This passage also teaches us, that it is no wonder that the Lord doubles his scourges and does not immediately pardon us, because we are not so ready to bend as to return to him on the first day. He is therefore constrained by our perverseness to chastise us for a longer time; and yet this promise is still to be held valid, that if we even late repent, God will be still propitious to us, only that the reprobate are not under this pretext to indulge in their vices; for we see that profane men trifle with God, and wickedly abuse his paternal indulgence. Let the sinner then beware lest he should lay up for himself a store of vengeance, if he waits till the end of life. But there is still a hope set before those who have been long torpid in their sins, that if they at length come, though late, they shall still come in time, for God will hear

70

them. But the exception ought to be carefully observed, that God will not be intreated, except he is sought with the whole heart, that is, in sincerity. So there is no reason for us to wonder that his ears are often closed to our prayers, because we only pretend to seek him, and that we are endued with no sincerity appears from our life. It now follows, —In our version the meaning of the two verbs is reversed; the first ought rather to be rendered as meaning “to search for,” and the latter to “seek.” With the first is connected “finding,” and this implies searching, and the verb בקש means sometimes to search for what is lost. The verse should be, — “And ye shall search for me and ye shall find me, because ye shall seek me with all your heart.” To seek God means to seek his favor. They would search for him whom they had, as it were, lost, and they would find him because they would seek his favor with all sincerity; it would not be for a mercenary purpose, but for the sake of enjoying God’s favor. — Ed PETT, "Jeremiah 29:13“And you will seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.”For one purpose of their exile was so that they might learn to ‘seek Him, and find Him, and search for Him with all their hearts’. All idolatry would be thrust away. All rivals to His complete pre-eminence would be cast aside. All hindrances to His supremacy would be dealt with. He would be all in all to them. These were all pre-conditions to their return.

14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.[b] I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

BARNES, "urn away your captivity - Or, “restore your prosperity.”71

CLARKE, "I will gather you from all the nations - A quotation from Deu_30:3, and see also Deu_4:7.

GILL, "And I will be found of you, saith the Lord,.... As he is; when his favour is shown, his presence is enjoyed, and the blessing sought for is obtained: and I will turn away your captivity; this designs the captivity of Jeconiah, or of the Jews that were carried captive with him; and which had its accomplishment when the Jews returned to their own land, upon the edict of Cyrus: and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; for though the greatest part might be carried to Babylon, and continue there; yet others might be removed or moved into other countries; and besides, this may respect their brethren who should come into captivity, and return with them at the end of the seventy years; for the expressions are very large and general: and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive; that is, Jerusalem, and the land of Judea; though the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "and I will make you to return from the place to which I have caused you to go captive;'' meaning Babylon. The sense comes to the same; but the common rendering is most agreeable to the Hebrew text.

JAMISON, "to be found — (Psa_32:6; Isa_55:6).turn ... captivity — play upon sounds, shabti ... shebith.

CALVIN, "The Prophet now applies what he seemed to have spoken generally. He then shews the effect of God’s favor, after having been reconciled to his people, even that he would restore their captivity, and gather them from all places. This was particularly said to the Jews; but the two former verses contain, as I have said, a general doctrine. He had before said, Ye shall find me; but he says now, I shall be found by you, or, I will shew myself to you. There is an implied contrast between the hiding and the manifestation, for God had in a manner hid himself during the time of exile; but he suddenly made his face to shine forth, and thus manifested himself as a Father, after having apparently forgotten his people. Suitably then does the Prophet speak here; for though the Lord ever looks on us, we on the other hand do not see him, nay, we think that he is far from us. But he then only appears to us, when we perceive that he cares for our salvation.

72

By saying, from all nations and from all places, he evidently obviated a doubt which otherwise might have crept into the minds of many, “How can it ever be that God will gather us after we have been thus dispersed?” For no certain region had been allotted to them, in which they might dwell together so as to form one body; but they had been scattered as by a violent whirlwind like chaff or stubble; and God had so driven them away that there was no hope of being again gathered. As then it was incredible, that a people so dispersed could be collected together, the Prophet says, “from all nations and from all places.” The same thing is declared in the Psalm,“He will gather the dispersions of Israel.” (Psalms 147:2)For when the Jews looked on their dreadful dispersion, they could entertain no hope. We see then how the Prophet encouraged them still to hope, and bade them to struggle against this trial. The sentence seems to have been taken from Moses, for he says,“Though you be scattered through the extreme parts of the world, yet God will gather you.” (Deuteronomy 30:1)We see that Moses there expressly reproves the unbelief of the people, if they despaired of God’s mercy and salvation, because they were torn and scattered. he therefore shews that God’s power was abundantly sufficient to collect them again, though they were scattered to the four quarters of the world. We now perceive the object of the Prophet. (218)And hence we may gather a useful doctrine, — that God in a wonderful manner gathers his Church when scattered, so as to form it into one body, however he may for a time obliterate its name and even its very appearance. And of this he has given us some proof in our time. For who could have thought that what we now see with our eyes, would ever take place? that God would in a secret manner gather his elect, when there was everywhere a dreadful desolation, and no corner found in the world where two or three faithful men could dwell together. We hence see that this prophecy has not been fulfilled only at one time, but that the grace of God is here set forth, which he has often manifested, and still manifests in gathering his Church. It follows, — PETT, "Jeremiah 29:14“And I will be found of you, the word of YHWH, and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, the word of YHWH, and I will bring you again to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive.”Then He would be found of them (the guaranteed word of YHWH) and He would restore their captivity, and would gather them from all nations, and from all the place where He had driven them, (the guaranteed word of YHWH), and He would

73

bring them again to the place from which He had caused them to be carried away captive. (Compare Deuteronomy 30:2-3)So the order is clear. First exile, then repentance, then a seeking of Him with all their hearts, then a return in belief and obedience, and this not only for those in Babylon but for those around the world. And this was undoubtedly what happened during the inter-testamental years, for by the time of Jesus people of all tribes (and of none) had returned to Palestine and settled once again in the land, both north and south, Galilee and Judea. We know only a little of the history of that return, mainly as portrayed in Ezra-Nehemiah, and the later prophets, but that was only a small part of the future, the initial movement. It was like the seed growing secretly. Through the years those of His people who had been purged and who believed came from all parts and were once again planted in the land. Judah/Israel was restored, and at one time even became an independent nation.

15 You may say, “The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,”

CLARKE, "Because ye have said - The Septuagint very properly insert this verse between the twentieth and the twenty-first, and thus the connection here is not disturbed, and the connection below completed.

GILL, "Because ye have said,.... That is, some of them; for here the Lord, by the prophet, turns from the godly among the captives, whom he had been advising, encouraging, and comforting before, to those who gave heed to the false prophets, who promised them a speedy return to their own land, and which they believed; and therefore rejected and despised the prophecies of Jeremiah, and others: the Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon; and therefore stood in no need of other prophets that were in Judea, or in Jerusalem, nor should hearken to them; but believe those that were raised up among themselves, rather than others at a distance; and though these were false prophets, yet, being such that prophesied to them things that were agreeable, they were willing to believe them, and to consider them, and receive

74

them, as prophets sent of God, when they were not.HENRY 15-23, "Jeremiah, having given great encouragement to those among the

captives whom he knew to be serious and well-affected, assuring them that God had very kind and favourable intentions concerning them, here turns to those among them who slighted the counsels and comforts that Jeremiah ministered to them and depended upon what the false prophets flattered them with. When this letter came from Jeremiah they would be ready to say, “Why should he make himself so busy, and take upon him to advise us? The Lord has raised us up prophets in Babylon, Jer_29:15. We are satisfied with those prophets, and can depend upon them, and have no occasion to hear from any prophets in Jerusalem.” See the impudent wickedness of this people; as the prophets, when they prophesied lies, said that they had them from God, so the people, when they invited those prophets thus to flatter them, fathered it upon God, and said that it was the Lord that raised them up those prophets. Whereas we may be sure that those who harden people in their sins, and deceive them with false and groundless hopes of God's mercy, are no prophets of God's raising up. These prophets of their own told them that no more should be carried captive, but that those who were in captivity should shortly return. Now, in answer to this, 1. The prophet here foretells the utter destruction of those who remained still at Jerusalem, notwithstanding what those false prophets said to the contrary: “As for the king and people that dwell in the city, who, you think, will be ready to bid you welcome when you return, you are deceived; they shall be followed with one judgment after another, sword, famine, and pestilence, which shall cut off multitudes; and the poor and miserable remains shall be removed into all kingdoms of the earth,” Jer_29:16, Jer_29:18. And thus God will make them, or rather deal with them accordingly, as the salt that has lost its savour, which, being good for nothing, is cast to the dunghill, and so are rotten figs. This refers to the vision and the prophecy upon it which we had Jer_24:1-10. And the reason given for these proceedings against them is the same that has often been given and will justify God in the eternal ruin of impenitent sinners (Jer_29:19): Because they have not hearkened to my words. I called, but they refused. 2. He foretells the judgment of God upon the false prophets in Babylon, who deceived the people of God there. He calls upon all the children of the captivity, who boasted of them as prophets of God's raising up (Jer_29:20): “Stand still, and hear the doom of the prophets you are so fond of.” The two prophets are named here, Ahab and Zedekiah, Jer_29:21. Observe, (1.) The crimes charged upon them - impiety and immorality: They prophesied lies in God's name (Jer_29:21), and again (Jer_29:23), They have spoken lying words in my name. Lying was bad, lying to the people of God to delude them into a false hope was worse, but fathering their lies upon the God of truth was worst of all. And no marvel if those that had the face to do that could allow themselves in the gratification of those vile affections to which God, in a way of righteous judgment, gave them up. They have done villainy in Israel, for they have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives. Adultery is villainy in Israel, and in such as pretend to be prophets, who by such wickednesses manifestly disprove their own pretensions. God never sent such profligate wretches on his errands. He is the Lord God of the holy prophets, not of such impure ones. Here it appears why they flattered others in their sins - because they could not reprove them without condemning themselves. These lewd practices of theirs they knew how to conceal from the eye of the world, that they might preserve their credit; but I know it and am a witness, saith the Lord. The most secret sins are known to God; he can see the villainy that is covered with the thickest cloak of hypocrisy, and there is a day coming when he will bring to light all these 75

hidden works of darkness and every man will appear in his own colours. (2.) The judgments threatened against them: The king of Babylon shall slay them before your eyes; nay, he shall put them to a miserable death, roast them in the fire, Jer_29:22. We may suppose that it was not for their impiety and immorality that Nebuchadnezzar punished them thus severely, but for sedition, and some attempts of their turbulent spirits upon the public peace, and stirring up the people to revolt and rebel. So much of their wickedness shall then be detected, and in such a wretched manner they shall end their days, that their names shall be a curse among the captives in Babylon, Jer_29:22. When men would imprecate the greatest evil upon one they hated they would think they could not load them with a heavier curse, in fewer words, than to say, The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab. Thus were they made ashamed of the prophets they had been proud of, and convinced at last of their folly in hearkening to them. God's faithful prophets were sometimes charged with being the troublers of the land, and as such were tortured and slain; but their names were a blessing when they were gone and their memory sweet, not as these false prophets. As malefactors are attended with infamy and disgrace, so martyrs with glory and honour.

JAMISON, "Because — referring not to the preceding words, but to Jer_29:10, Jer_29:11, “Jehovah saith this to you” (that is, the prophecy of the continuance of the captivity seventy years), “because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon,” namely, foretelling our speedy deliverance (this their prophecy is supposed,not expressed; accordingly, Jer_29:16-19 contradict this false hope again, Jer_29:8, Jer_29:9, Jer_29:21). He, in this fifteenth verse, turns his address from the godly (Jer_29:12-14) to the ungodly listeners, to false prophets.

K&D 15-20, "Jeremiah informs the captives of the judgments that is to gall on such as are still left in the land. Jer_29:15. "If ye say: Jahveh hath raised us up prophets in Babylon - Jer_29:16. Yea, thus saith Jahveh of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity, Jer_29:17. Thus saith Jahveh of hosts: Behold, I send amongst them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and make them like horrible figs, that cannot be eaten for badness, Jer_29:18. And hunt after them with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and give them to be abused to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach among all the peoples whither I have driven them; Jer_29:19. Inasmuch as they have not hearkened to my words, saith Jahveh, wherewith I sent to them my servants the prophets, from early morning on sending them, and ye have not hearkened, saith Jahveh. Jer_29:20. But ye, hear the word of Jahveh, all ye captives whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon." - The design with which Jeremiah tells the captives of this judgment may be gathered from the terms of Jer_29:15, with which this prophecy is introduced: God had raised up to us prophets in Babel (בבלה, lit., as far as Babel, i.e., extending His agency so far beyond the bounds of Judah). Hence it is clear that the announcement of judgment to come on those left in the land is in direct opposition to the predictions of the prophets that had appeared in Babylon. these prophesied a swift end to Chaldean domination and an immediate return of the exiles to their fatherland. So long as one of David's posterity sat on his throne in Jerusalem, and so long as the kingdom of Judah

76

was maintained, the partial captivity of the people and removal of the plundered treasures of the temple would appear as a calamity which might soon be repaired. The false prophets in Babylon laid, therefore, great stress on the continued existence of the kingdom, with its capital and the temple, in their efforts to obtain belief amongst the exiles. As Näg. justly remarks, it was to take this ground from beneath their feet that Jeremiah predicted expulsion and destruction against the people of Jerusalem. The prophecy does indeed bear upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "but not in the first reference; its immediate purpose was to overthrow the foundations on which the false prophets of the exile stood" (Näg.). Taken thus, these verses form and integral part of the message sent by Jeremiah to the exiles, which was of no small weight for quieting the excitement, nourished by the false prophets, which reigned amongst them. One is struck by the want of connection between Jer_29:15 and Jer_29:16. The beginning of Jer_29:16, "Yea, thus saith," comes directly after the end of Jer_29:15 without any joining link. Näg. holds the כי to be the pleonastic כי which often introduces a saying. But its position before the "thus saith" makes this impossible. Here it serves to strengthen the asseveration: yea, thus fitly introducing what Jahveh says to the contrary; and Jer_29:15and Jer_29:16 are, tersely and immediately, set over against one another. "If ye say" means: as regards your saying that Jahveh hath raised you up prophets in Babylon, the answer is: Thus hath Jahveh said. This is the connection of Jer_29:16 with Jer_29:15.

(Note: By the above exposition of the connection and progress of the thought, are disposed of all the objections that have been brought by Houb., Lud. Capp., Ven., etc., against the genuineness of these verses, or, at least, against the true position for them. The fact of their being wanting in the lxx, on which Hitz. mainly grounds his charge of spuriousness, proves nothing more than that these translators were unable to understand the train of thought in the verses, especially seeing that the substance of them has several times been expressed by Jeremiah, particularly Jer_29:17 and Jer_29:18; Jer_24:9-10, cf. Jer_15:4; Jer_19:8; with Jer_29:19 cf. Jer_7:13, Jer_7:25. Against the attempts to alter the text, Graf's remarks are admirable: "It is much easier to explain how the passage was omitted as out of place by the lxx than to show how it could have been introduced as an interpolation. It is too long for a mere marginal gloss that had at a later time found its way into the text; and why it should have been placed here, would remain all the more incomprehensible if it were so wholly unconnected with the body of the text. We cannot admit that it is merely an erroneous displacement of b. 15, which originally stood before Jer_29:21; since it is less likely that Jer_29:16 could have come directly after Jer_29:14. In respect of form, Jer_29:16-20 is connected with and forms a continuation of what precedes. Jer_29:20 implies the presence of Jer_29:16 as an antithesis, and at the same time completes again the connection that had been interrupted with Jer_29:15, and leads on to Jer_29:21. Connection in thought seems to be wanting only because Jer_29:16does not express the connecting idea, and because the contrast is so abrupt." - The other arguments adduced by Hitz. to throw suspicion on the passage, we can afford to pass over as wholly without force.)"Your brethren that," etc., is co-ordinate with "all the people." The words: "I make them like horrible figs," make allusion to the vision in Jer_24:2., but do not imply that this vision was known to the exiles, for they are quite intelligible to him who knows nothing of Jer_24:1-10 (Näg.). The adject. שער is found only here, from שער, shudder; horrible, that on tasting which one shudders. With Jer_29:18, cf. Jer_24:9. "Wherewith I sent my servants," i.e., commissioned them. This verb construed with double accus. as in 2Sa_

77

11:22; Isa_55:11. "Ye have not hearkened," the 2nd pers. instead of the 3rd, is hardly to be explained by the fact that the prophet here cites in full an often quoted saying (Hitz., Näg., etc.). The reason is that the prophet is thinking of the exiles also as having been equal to their brethren remaining in Judah in the matter of not hearkening. Thus the way is prepared for the summons: But ye, hear, Jer_29:20.

CALVIN, "Many interpreters connect the first of these verses with the preceding ones, and they seem not to think so without reason; for the reason given is not unsuitable, if we refer to what the Prophet had said, even that the Jews were by no means to hope for a return until the end of seventy years. But the meaning I adopt is more probable; the particle כי, ki, is repeated; the first is causal, and the second an illative; (219) and consistently with the usage of Scripture the learned and the experienced think that this is the real meaning of the Prophet. He then says, that the captives were very foolish who hoped for a quick end to their exile, because they had false prophets who gave them such a promise; ye have then said, that prophets have been given you, in Chaldea, and that God had there pitied you, because there are those who prophesy of a return in a short time. As then ye are so foolishly credulous, Thus saith Jehovah to your brethren, he then turns his discourse to the exiles, and exhorts them not to suffer themselves to be led astray. But here he indirectly reproves them, because they could not bear a condition which was even better than that of the residue, as though he had said, “What means this your unreasonableness! that when all your ways are closed up against you, and the power of your conqueror is so great that ye cannot move a finger without his nod, ye should yet think that you shall be set free in two years! and surely if you were before foolishly secure and confident, your calamities ought now to make you humble. But your brethren, who seem yet to enjoy liberty because they dwell at Jerusalem, (for those alone were then remaining,) even these your brethren suffer far more grievously than ye do.”Another thing advanced by Blayney, though countenanced by Houbigant and Horsley, two rival innovators, is not to be admitted, — that the letter terminates at the end of the 20th verse (Jeremiah 29:20), and not at the end of the 23d (Jeremiah 29:23), and that what follows forms another letter. It is evident that what is contained in the 24th (Jeremiah 29:24) and in the following verses to the end, was written in consequence of an answer from Babylon to this letter. Compare verse 5th (Jeremiah 29:5) with the 28th (Jeremiah 29:28). — Ed.COFFMAN, ""Because ye have said, Jehovah hath raised us up prophets in Babylon; Thus saith Jehovah concerning the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and concerning all the people that dwell in this city, your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity; thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. And I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an execration, and an

78

astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them; because they have not hearkened unto my words, saith Jehovah, wherewith I sent unto them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith Jehovah. Hear ye therefore the word of Jehovah, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.""Jehovah hath raised us up prophets in Babylon ..." (Jeremiah 29:15). This evidently comes from some communication which Jeremiah had received from the captives themselves. Of course, such prophets were false prophets; and Jeremiah warned against the captive's being deceived by them.Jeremiah 29:16-17 have the prophecy of the complete destruction of the remainder of Judah in Jerusalem; and we reject the idea that this prophecy does not belong in Jeremiah's letter. Oh yes, it is missing from the Septuagint (LXX), but what of that? As Smith noted, "The whole text of the Septuagint is here so brief and confused as to be practically inexplicable; but on the other hand the Hebrew text represents the original manuscript, and is especially trustworthy in the case before us."[13] "The fact of these verses being lacking in the LXX proves nothing except that the translators of the Septuagint (LXX) were unable to understand the main thought of the passage!"[14] It is for exactly this same reason that present-day commentators would prefer to omit the passage.The vital relevance of this prophecy against the remainder of Judah in Jerusalem is that it was necessary to silence and destroy the campaign of the false prophets. Their whole message was, "All of us will be back home in Judah within two years." Jeremiah had already been fully verified as a true prophet of God; and this message sent to the exiles effectively killed their whole campaign. It infuriated them; but it also silenced them.Cheyne's notion that Jeremiah 29:16-20 "are an interpolation"[15] is therefore an unfortunate error. It is another example of a scholar claiming "an interpolation" as an explanation of something he does not understand.Henderson understood the necessity for these verses in Jeremiah's letter, writing, "They are designed to contradict the false hopes held out to the captives that the Jewish state in Jerusalem should stand, and that they would be restored to their brethren in Judaea."[16]"Vile figs ..." (Jeremiah 29:17). The captives already knew about this prophecy; but Jeremiah repeated it here. See Jeremiah 24:2f. This letter had nothing in it about the destruction of Judah that was not already known by Zedekiah; and any thought that he would not have allowed a communication like this to go to Babylon is denied by the facts that Zedekiah probably did not see the letter; and that, if he had seen it, he would have allowed it anyway. He evidently believed that Jeremiah was a true prophet. His later rebellion was due solely to his weakness.

79

PETT, "Verses 15-19They Are Therefore Not To Listen To The False Prophets As, Rather Than Experiencing Quick Restoration, Zedekiah And Jerusalem Are Doomed Because They Have Not Listened To YHWH’s Words (Jeremiah 29:15-19).Jeremiah 29:15“Because you have said, ‘YHWH has raised us up prophets in Babylon,”Men must always have some hope to cling on to, and there are always those who will seek to profit by it. So in this case prophets had arisen among the exiles in Babylon, and this had enthused the people. It had made them feel that YHWH had perhaps not after all deserted them. Some were good prophets like Ezekiel, and it was they who rebuilt the broken nation. But others were chancers who were more politically minded and seized the opportunity to proclaim ‘instant deliverance’, a message which would have been eagerly seized on. They promised a quick return of the exiles to their brothers and sisters in Judah. This no doubt partly arose because there was an awareness of rumblings in Babylon which would always arise among peoples constrained there against their will. What they overlooked was that such rumblings rarely actually came to anything.PULPIT, "Jeremiah's denunciation of two leading false prophets at Babylon, with a digression on the fate of Zedekiah and Jerusalem. Some eminent critics maintain that verses 16-20 are an interpolation, and this view is certainly supported By the omission of these verses in the Septuagint. It must also in fairness be admitted that the natural connection of verse 15 is with verse 21, not with verse 16. But it does not follow that verses 16-20 are an arbitrary interpolation. They may be regarded either as a digression in the original letter, or as inserted by an after-thought when the substance of the letter was brought into its present form.

16 but this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your fellow citizens who did not go with you into exile—

80

BARNES, "These verses are not in the Septuagint. But the text of the Septuagint is here throughout so brief and confused as to be explicable only on the supposition, that it represents what was left behind in Egypt when Jeremiah died, copied probably with extreme haste, and with no opportunity of careful collation afterward. On the other hand the Hebrew text represents no hurried transcript, but the original manuscript, and is especially trustworthy in the case of these letters sent to Babylon (see also Jer. 51), because the originals of them would be available for collation with the text preserved by Jeremiah himself. The verses were probably intended to allay excitement in Babylon consequent upon the knowledge that the representatives of various kings were assembled at that very time at Jerusalem to form a coalition against Babylon Jer_27:3.GILL, "Know that thus saith the Lord,.... Or "for", or "wherefore thus saith the Lord" (x); for the word "know" is not in the text, and seems needless; though it is also supplied by other interpreters (y). The words are illative, and follow upon the former; and the sense is, that since they gave heed to their false prophets in Babylon, who told them that they should quickly return; therefore the Lord sent the following message to them, informing them that it was so far from being true that they should in a short time return to Jerusalem, that, on the other hand, they that were there should soon be with them in captivity, or be destroyed: of, or "concerning" the king that sitteth on the throne of David; that is, King Zedekiah, who was then the reigning king at Jerusalem: and of all the people that dwelleth in this city; the city Jerusalem, where Jeremiah was, and from whence this letter was written, in the name of the Lord, to the captives at Babylon: and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity; that lived in the several parts of the land of Judea, who were left behind, and not carried captive, when those were to whom these words are directed.

JAMISON, "people ... in this city ... not gone forth — So far from your returning to Jerusalem soon, even your brethren still left dwelling there shall themselves also be cast into exile. He mentions “the throne of David,” lest they should think that, because David’s kingdom was to be perpetual, no severe, though temporary, chastisements could interpose (Psa_89:29-36).CALVIN, "We now perceive for what purpose the Prophet, after having addressed the captives, turned his discourse to King Zedekiah and to the Jews, who as yet remained at home or in their own country; it was, that the captives might hence know how great was their madness to promise to themselves a return, after having been driven to remote lands, when final ruin was nigh both the king and the people, who as yet remained at Jerusalem; Thus then saith Jehovah to ting who sits on the throne of David, and to all the people who sit in this city, etcTo sit, as I have already said, is to be taken here in two different senses; the king is

81

said to sit on his throne while he retains his dignity; but the people are said to sit while they rest and dwell quietly in any place. It is not without reason that the word king is here expressly mentioned, for the exiles were ever wont to connect it with the hope of their return; “The Temple still remains, God is there worshipped, and the kingdom still exists; these things being secure, it cannot be all over with our nation.” The safety of the people depended on the kingdom and the priesthood. When therefore, on the one hand, they fixed their eyes on royalty, and on the other hand, on the priesthood and sacrifices, they felt persuaded that it could not be otherwise but that God would soon restore them; for God had promised that the kingdom of David would be perpetual, as long as the sun and moon would shine in heaven. Except then this splendor or glory had been extinguished, the Israelites could not have been humiliated, especially as those who had been led into exile were of the tribe of Judah. We now understand why the word king was expressly mentioned. Though, then, a king still sat on the throne of David, he yet declares that his condition and that of his people was harder than that of the captive multitude. PETT, "Jeremiah 29:16“Thus says YHWH concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who have not gone forth with you into captivity,”But they did seem to have significance to those who believed that their own king ‘sat on the throne of David’, the David who had ruled such a great empire The words used here would suggest that the false prophets were laying a great emphasis on ‘the king who sat on David’s throne’. It must be remembered that even after their experiences with Babylonian troops their knowledge of the power and size of the Babylonian empire was limited. There were no countrywide, or even local, newspapers, no roving reporters, no radio, no television. They only knew what they themselves had seen, and what was learned from passing travellers. And one set of troops seemed very like another. Thus their hopes lay in the king appointed by YHWH, ‘His firstborn, ruler of the kings of the earth’ (Psalms 89:27) who would one day ‘chastise the nations with a rod of iron’ (Psalms 2:9). They had sung about it in the Temple. Now was the time to believe in it.But Jeremiah dampens their enthusiasm. This king in whom they were pinning such hopes, and this city to which they looked with such longing, and their brothers who had been left behind, were themselves facing judgments, judgments from YHWH which would remove all hope from them.

17 yes, this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will 82

send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.

BARNES, "Jer_29:17Vile - The word does not occur elsewhere, but comes from a root signifying to shudder, and thus has an intense meaning.

CLARKE, "Behold, I will send upon them the sword - Do not envy the state of Zedekiah who sits on the throne of David, nor that of the people who are now in the land whence ye have been carried captive, (Jer_29:16), for “I will send the sword, the pestilence, and the famine upon them;” and afterwards shall cause them to be carried into a miserable captivity in all nations, (Jer_29:18); but ye see the worst of your own case, and you have God’s promise of enlargement when the proper time is come. The reader will not forget that the prophet is addressing the captives in Babylon.

GILL, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, I will send upon them the sword,.... The sword of the Chaldeans, by which many of them should fall, as they did. The Targum is, "I will send upon them those that kill with the sword:'' who, though they were prompted to come against the Jews, through a natural and ambitious desire of conquering and plundering, yet were sent of God; nor would they have come, had he not willed and suffered it:

JAMISON, "vile figs — Hebrew, “horrible,” or nauseous, from a root, “to regard with loathing” (see Jer_24:8, Jer_24:10).

CALVIN, "He says, I will pursue them with the sword, and famine, and pestilence The surrender of Jeconiah, as we have elsewhere seen, was voluntary; he was therefore more kindly received by the king of Babylon. At length the city was attacked, and as the siege was long, there was more rage felt against the king and the whole people, for the Chaldeans had been wearied by their obstinacy. Hence it was, that they dealt more severely with them. But nothing happened except through the just vengeance of God; for though they exasperated the Chaldeans, there is no

83

doubt but that God blinded their minds so that they procured for themselves a heavier judgment. It was, then, a punishment inflicted on them by God; and hence rightly does Jeremiah testify that God was the author of those calamities, for the Chaldeans, as we have seen elsewhere, were only ministers and executioners of God’s vengeance; Jehovah of hosts then says, Behold, I will pursue you, etc.He then adds, And I will make them like worthless figs He calls the figs here שערים, sherim, worthless; but in the twenty-fourth chapter he called them bad; still the meaning is the same. There is no doubt but that he refers to the prophecy which we there explained. For the Prophet saw two baskets of figs, in one of which were sweet figs, and in the other bitter. God asked, “What seest thou?” he said, “Good figs, very good, and bad figs, very bad.” God afterwards added, “The good and sweet figs are the captives; for I will at length shew mercy to them, and liberty to return shall be given them. They shall then be good figs, though now a different opinion is formed; for they who still lived at Jerusalem, think themselves more happy than the exiles; but the bad and bitter figs,” he says, “are this people who pride themselves, because they have not been led into captivity; for I will consume them with the pestilence, and the famine, and the sword.” This was the Prophet’s language in that passage. He now again declares that King Zedekiah and all the people would be like bitter and putrid figs, which, being so bad, are not fit to be eaten. He then adds, — PETT, "Jeremiah 29:17“Thus says YHWH of hosts, Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”For YHWH of hosts was about to send on them sword, and famine and pestilence to such an extent that it would make Jerusalem and Judah not a good place to be. They were to become like rotten, loathsome, inedible figs (compare Jeremiah 24:3; Jeremiah 24:8, although the word for vile here is different and signifies utterly loathsome), which turn men off and have nothing to offer them. Thus any idea of the current throne of David being a succour to them should be immediately dismissed..

18 I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse[c] and an object of horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the 84

nations where I drive them.

GILL, "And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence,.... Or, "follow after (a) them"; such as should make their escape out of the city, and go into Egypt, or other countries, for shelter and safety, should be pursued by the vengeance of God, and should fall by sword, famine, or pestilence, in other places: and will deliver them; such as should not perish by the above mentioned calamities: to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth; where they should be scattered, and live in exile: or "for a shaking to all the kingdoms of the earth" (b); who should shake and tremble at such a dreadful spectacle of vengeance; or rather they should shake and tremble at the wrath of God upon them; or else their enemies, among whom they should be, should shake their heads at them, by way of insult and triumph over them: to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them; where men shall look at them with amazement, and curse theft, and hiss at them, and reproach them, as the offscouring of the world.

JAMISON, "removed to all ... kingdoms — (Jer_15:4; Deu_28:25).curse, etc. — (Jer_29:6; Jer_18:16; Jer_19:8).

CALVIN, "He goes on with the same subject, — that he would not cease to consume them with pestilence, famine, and the sword, until he wholly destroyed them, according to what we find in the twenty-fourth chapter. He repeats what is in that chapter; but the words are taken from the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, and from the twenty-ninth. The prophets, we know, drew the substance of their doctrine from the fountain of the Law, and, strictly speaking, brought forward nothing new, but accommodated the doctrine of Moses to the circumstances of the time in which each lived.Hence we find among the curses of the Law these words, I will set them for a commotion, or a concussion. The word may be explained in two ways, — either that the nations would tremble at such a sad spectacle, — or that they would shake their head. The second view is to be preferred, according to what I have stated elsewhere, I will then set them for a commotion, that is, every one who shall see their miseries, will shake his head in contempt, as though he had said, “All will assent to the just vengeance of God, and ye shall be objects of reproach among all the heathens; for

85

all will acknowledge that ye suffer most justly for your sins.”He adds, for a curse The word אלה, ale, is properly an oath, but is taken in many places for a curse, which is introduced or understood when we swear. But as men often expose themselves to punishment for perjury, the word means, frequently, a curse; and what is to be understood, as it has been explained elsewhere, is a pattern or formula of a curse; and we have seen in what sense the Prophet said this, that is, that every one who wished to curse himself or others, or to imprecate, as they say, some dire things, would take the Jews for an example, “May God curse thee as he did the Jews;” or, “May he draw forth his severity to thy ruin, as he did to the Jews.” He then says that they would be for a curse, that is, that they would be so miserable that they would be taken as an example in imprecations.He afterwards adds, for an astonishment, as he had spoken of the shaking of the head, so now he mentions astonishment, which is something more grievous, that is, when such a spectacle presents itself as makes all men to stand astonished, as not knowing what it means. Hissing is mentioned; as it is said elsewhere that they would be a proverb, משל, meshel, and also a taunt, so Jeremiah says in this place, that they would be a hissing, as he has spoken of the shaking of the head.And lastly he adds, that they would be a reproach even to all nations, for all would deem them worthy of their calamities, however grievous they were, when a comparison would be made between their iniquities and God’s vengeance. The reason follows, because they hearkened not to God But I cannot now finish. PETT, "Jeremiah 29:18“And I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an execration, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them,”And not only would they experience the sword, and famine, and pestilence, but these things would continue to pursue them wherever they went, and they would be tossed to and from among all the kingdoms of the earth (compare Jeremiah 15:4; Jeremiah 24:9), to become an execration, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations to which YHWH would send them (compare Jeremiah 24:9). The idea would appear to be that they would not participate in the coming restoration at the end of the seventy years because they were so perverted but would become a permanent spectacle to the nations who would simply despise them.

86

19 For they have not listened to my words,” declares the Lord, “words that I sent to them again and again by my servants the prophets. And you exiles have not listened either,” declares the Lord.

GILL, "Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord,.... Which were spoken to them by the prophets; not hearkening to them, but despising them, were the same as not hearkening to him, and despising him; contempt of God, and his word, was the cause of their ruin; see 2Ch_36:15; which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets; such as Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, and others: rising up early, and sending them; which denotes the frequency of their mission; the diligent care of God towards them; and his earnest solicitude for their welfare; and the plenty of means they were favoured with; all which were aggravations of their sin: but ye would not hear, saith the Lord; the words of the Lord by his prophets; the counsel and admonitions he gave them; but pursued their own ways and counsels, and listened to the false prophets.CALVIN, "The Prophet, after having denounced God’s judgment on those who remained in their own country as well as on the exiles, subjoins this reason, because they hearkened not to the word of the Lord; and this was a most grievous sin. Though ignorance is no excuse before God, for those who are without the Law must perish; yet the servant who knew his Lord’s will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. And the more abundant God’s grace is in calling us to the right way of salvation, the more base is our ingratitude when we close our ears and disregard the concern and care which he manifests for our salvation. Let us then know that nothing is less tolerable than the rejection of the prophetic word.And we must notice what follows, which I sent them by my servants the prophets The Jews might have otherwise objected and said, that they did not intend to be rebellious against God, but that there were many contentions among the prophets. Lest, then, they should seek an evasion by a pretense of this kind, he says that the word, brought by his ministers and witnesses the prophets, was worthy of no less reverence than if angels came down from heaven to them. And this passage serves to shew the use of external doctrine, which fanatical men despise, thinking the hidden

87

word sufficient, that is, whatever they may dream. But God thus proves the obedience of our faith, while he rules us by the hand and labor of men. Whosoever then rejects the faithful teachers of the word, shews that he is a despiser of God himself. The meaning is, that God defines his word, not as an oracle of any kind, but as the doctrine which has been deposited with faithful teachers.He afterwards adds, rising up early and sending The metaphor is taken from men who are sedulous and diligent. We indeed know that God never awakes and never changes place; but he could not otherwise express his paternal care toward his people, as though he had said, that he was sedulously engaged in admonishing them. And thus the more inexcusable was rendered the sloth of the people; for God hastened as it were to rise up early, as they who spare no labor, but willingly deprive themselves of some portion of their sleep, that they may complete their work or their journey. As God then manifested so much diligence in securing the wellbeing of men, the more shameful is the sloth of men, when they become deaf, or are not moved, but remain in their indifference. It now follows, — PETT, "Jeremiah 29:19“Because they have not listened to my words, the word of YHWH, with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, but you would not hear, the word of YHWH,”And this would happen to them because of their continual refusal to listen to His words as spoken by Jeremiah (this was the assured prophetic word of YHWH), and by previous prophets, words which He had, in terms of the usual Jeremaic expression (rising up early, etc. - Jeremiah 7:13, Jeremiah 25 : Jeremiah 26:5; Jeremiah 32:33; Jeremiah 35:15), been at great pains to deliver to them.But at this stage He now also includes those to whom Jeremiah is writing, for He deliberately changes from ‘them’ to ‘you’. The exiles must not be allowed to think that somehow they are not equally to blame for what has happened.

20 Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

88

CLARKE, "Hear ye therefore the word - Dr. Blayney thinks there were two letters written by the prophet to the captives in Babylon, and that the first ends with this verse. That having heard, on the return of the embassy (Elasah and Gemariah, whom Zedekiah had sent to Babylon, and to whom the prophet entrusted the above letter, Jer_29:3), that the captives had not received his advises favourably, because they were deceived by false prophets among them, who promised them a speedier deliverance, he therefore wrote a second letter, beginning with the fifteenth verse, and going on with the twenty-first, etc., in which he denounces God’s judgments on three of the chief of those, Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shemaiah.

GILL, "Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord,.... What he was now about to say concerning their false prophets: all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon; all that were carried captive along with Jeconiah. Some parts of this letter are directed to one sort of the captives, and others to another sort of them; some being good men, some bad; but what follows all are called upon to observe, good and bad; it being a prediction of a certain event, which they would see fulfilled in a short time; and therefore might be of service of them; to the godly, for the confirmation of them in the belief of what the Lord had promised; and to the rest, to make them stop giving heed to false prophets, that should here after arise.CALVIN, "Jeremiah announces a special prophecy, but in confirmation of his former doctrine. His object is still the same, to prevent the captives, as they had begun, to listen to flatteries, and to make them feel assured that they were to bear their exile till the end of seventy years. But he speaks here of three impostors; he connects two of them together, and mentions the third by himself. He directs his discourse especially to all the captives, for he deigned not to address those who professed to be God’s enemies, and sold themselves as slaves to the devil for the purpose of deceiving. It was therefore useless to spend labor on them. But he addressed the whole people, and at the same time foretold what would happen to these two false prophets, even Ahab and Zedekiah. He calls one the son of Kolaiah, and the other the son of Maaseiah; for Ahab was a name then in frequent use, and Zedekiah was a name which, on account of the memory of a pious and godly king, was in high esteem among the good. To prevent then any mistake, he mentioned their fathers.The import of the prophecy is, that a judgment would soon overtake them, as they would be killed by King Nebuchadnezzar. They were in exile, but such madness had possessed them, that they hesitated not to provoke the wrath of that tyrant whom they knew to be cruel and bloody. Then Jeremiah declares, that as they thus deceived the people, they would soon be punished, as Nebuchadnezzar would slay them. There is yet no doubt but that Nebuchadnezzar had regard to his own private

89

advantage; for before they were brought before him, he wished to allay every cause of tumult. As they ceased not to encourage the hope of a speedy return, without some check, it could not be otherwise but that frequent disturbances would arise. Therefore Nebuchadnezzar, as it is usual with earthly kings, consulted his own benefit. But he was in the meantime the servant of God; for those two impostors who had promised a return to the people, were to be exposed to contempt. Their death then disclosed their vanity, for it thereby appeared that they were not sent by God. It is indeed true that God’s faithful servants are often cruelly treated, nay, even slain by the ungodly. But the case was different as to these two. For they were not proved guilty of falsehood, because they happened to have unhappily prophesied, but because they raised up a standard as it were, and said, that the people would soon return to their own country; and henceit was that they were slain. We then see that what would take place was not without reason foretold by Jeremiah; for from their death it might have been concluded, that whatever they had promised respecting the return of the people, were mere fallacies; and they were slain even before the time which they had predicted. We now perceive the meaning. We shall now notice the words.He says, Hear ye, the, whole captivity, the word of Jehovah He would have the Jews to be attentive, for if a thousand impostors had been killed, yet their faith in falsehood would never have been destroyed, had not Jeremiah prophesied before the time what would take place. He then sits here as a judge; for though Nebuchadnezzar ordered them to be killed, yet it appears evident that it was ordained by God, and indeed for this end, that the people might learn to repent. We hence see that Jeremiah was their judge; and Nebuchadnezzar afterwards executed what God by the mouth of his servant had pronounced as a judgment. This is the reason why he addressed his words to the whole people.He yet at the same time adds, that they had been sent by God, whom I have sent, etc. and he said this, in order that they might not imagine that they went there by chance or by adverse fortune, and that they might acknowledge that when they were deprived of their own country, it was a just punishment for their sins. PETT, "Verses 20-23A Warning Not To Listen To The False Prophets Who Are Already Doomed Because Of Their False Prophecies And Equally False Ways (Jeremiah 29:20-23).Jeremiah 29:20“Hear you therefore the word of YHWH, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.”Having explained why what the prophets were declaring was hopelessly wrong, Jeremiah now calls on all who are in captivity, despatched by YHWH from Jerusalem to Babylon, to hear the word of YHWH concerning the prophets

90

themselves.

21 This 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 will deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your very eyes.

CLARKE, "He shall slay them before your eyes - Nebuchadnezzar would be led by political reasons to punish these pretended prophets, as their predictions tended to make his Israelitish subjects uneasy and disaffected, and might excite them to rebellion. He therefore slew them; two of them, it appears, he burnt alive, viz., Ahab and Zedekiah, who are supposed by the rabbins to be the two elders who endeavored to seduce Susanna, see Jer_29:23. Burning alive was a Chaldean punishment, Dan_3:6, and Amo_2:1. From them other nations borrowed it.GILL, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... See Gill on Jer_29:4; of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you: two false prophets, of whom we have no account any where else but here; and are, no doubt, the prophets, or however two of them, that they of the captivity boasted of that God had raised unto them in Babylon, Jer_29:15. The Jews (c)say, and so Jerom relates, that these are the two elders that attempted the chastity of Susannah: behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon: they should be suffered to commit some crime against the state, of which notice should be given, and they should be seized as seditious persons; which was so permitted in providence, that they might be brought to punishment for other sins they were guilty of:

91

and he shall slay them before your eyes; by roasting them with fire: as follows: JAMISON, "Zedekiah — brother of Zephaniah (Jer_29:25), both being sons of

Maaseiah; probably of the same family as the false prophet under Ahab in Israel (1Ki_22:11, 1Ki_22:24).

K&D 21-23, "After having set forth the divine determination, the prophet's letteraddresses itself specially against the false prophets and tells them their punishment from God. Jer_29:21. "Thus saith Jahveh, the God of hosts, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy to you in my name falsely: Behold, I give them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, that he may smite them before your eyes. Jer_29:22. And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the exiles ofJudah that are in Babylon, saying: Jahveh make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, Jer_29:23. Because they have done folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and have spoken in my name lying words which I have not commanded them. But I know it and am witness, saith Jahveh." - Beyond what is here told, we know nothing of these two pseudo-prophets. The name אחאב is written in Jer_29:20 without א; thus the Kametz comes to be under the ח, and in consequence of this the Pathach is changed into a Seghol "Smite," i.e., slay. The manner of their death is called, probably with allusion to the name Kolaiah, קלה, roast, burn in a heated furnace; a mode of execution usual in Babylon, acc. to Dan_3:6. This punishment is to fall on them because of two kinds of sin: 1. Because they have done folly in Israel, namely, committed adultery with their neighbours' wives; 2. Because they have prophesied falsely in the name of Jahveh. Except in Jos_7:15, the phrase: commit folly in Israel, is always used of the grosser sins of uncleanness; see on Gen_34:7. So here also. - The Chet. הוידע is expounded in the Keri by דע ו according to which there has been a transposition of the letters ,הי and י, as in Jer_2:25; Jer_8:6, etc. Still the article here is extraordinary, since עד has none. Therefore J. D. Mich., Ew., Hitz., Graf suppose we should read הו א the ,ידע having been dropped from הוא in scriptio continua, as it often is, especially after י, in הביא and other words, cf. Jer_19:15; Jer_39:16, 1Ki_21:29, etc. הוא is then the copula between subject and predicate, as in Isa_43:25; cf. Ew. §297, b.

CALVIN, "By saying, I will give (or deliver) them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the Prophet still more clearly expresses what I have just said, that they would be thus slain by the order of the king, because God had determined what was to be done to them. And he assigns the cause of their death or mentions its author, that the Jews might not fix their eyes on the king of Babylon. What had Nebuchadnezzar in view? to preserve a peaceable kingdom; he saw the danger of a tumult if he pardoned these two men, who had disturbed the people. Lest, then, the Jews should look only on the design of the king, God here sets before them another and a higher reason, even because they prophesied falsely in his name. A clearer explanation

92

follows, — COFFMAN, ""Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie unto you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes; and of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captives of Judah that are in Babylon, saying, Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire; because they have wrought folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbor's wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I commanded them not; and I am he that knoweth, and am witness, saith Jehovah.""Concerning Ahab ... and Zedekiah ..." (Jeremiah 29:21). This part of Jeremiah's letter is directed to these two men, with a message from God that they shall be put to death. This was a rather lengthy communication which Jeremiah sent to Babylon, as Cawley and Millard noted, "This letter includes messages to no less than four different groups:(1) those already in captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:10-14);(2) those who would become captives later (Jeremiah 29:15-19);(3) Ahab, Zedekiah and their fellow false prophets (Jeremiah 29:21-23); and(4) to Shemaiah (Jeremiah 29:24-32)."[17]This extensive letter, addressed to different groups, indicates that Jeremiah's communication with the captives had been rather extensive. Shemaiah was among those who had written a letter which Jeremiah read; and there were doubtless other examples also."Roasted in the fire ..." (Jeremiah 29:22). The Babylonian method of putting criminals to death was by casting them alive into the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:6); "But the Babylonians would hardly have put men to death for committing adultery ... Nebuchadnezzar probably put them to death for plotting a rebellion against Babylon."[18]The curse mentioned here is interesting. "When the exiles would imprecate the greatest evil upon one whom they hated, the heaviest curse in the fewest words they could think of was, `The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab.' "[19]Cheyne wisely commented that, "There is an important and melancholy addition to our knowledge of false prophets in Jeremiah 29:23, namely, that they committed adultery. They were not only misleading prophets, but immoral men in their private capacities."[20] This pattern in the lives of false teachers has prevailed throughout history, and even to the present day.

93

PETT, "Jeremiah 29:21-23“Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in my name, ‘Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes, and of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, YHWH make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, because they have wrought folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I did not command them, and I am he who knows, and am witness, the word of YHWH.”It would appear that the two named prophets were actively conspiring against Nebuchadrezzar along with other dissidents in Babylon, as well as seeking to arouse the exiles to join in their conspiracy. That would be why they were picked out for special attention. Their names are otherwise unknown to us, but they were clearly known to Nebuchadrezzar. (The change back to Nebuchadrezzar from Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 29:1; Jeremiah 29:3) was because the former was how it was spelled in the letter, an incidental confirmation of the accuracy of the narrative). The fact that Jeremiah knew of them confirms that he was in close touch with what was happening among the exiles, and that regular correspondence went to and fro. Thus he was able to declare what would happen to them when he learned of their activities. YHWH would cause them to be arrested and brought before Nebuchadrezzar and sentenced to burning in a furnace, which was seemingly a regular punishment meted out by Nebuchadrezzar (Daniel 3:11; Daniel 3:15; Daniel 3:20-21). And this would be done before the eyes of the exiles as a warning to them of what happened to those who engaged in treasonable activity.But the wider reason for the judgment brought on them as far as YHWH was concerned was that they had not only told lies in His Name, but had also ‘wrought folly in Israel’, a phrase which regularly indicates adultery and always a gross sin worthy of death (compare Genesis 34:7; Deuteronomy 22:21; Joshua 7:15; Judges 20:6). For they had committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, possibly when being officially consulted by them. As YHWH’s prophets this brought deep shame on His Name. And on top of this were the lies that they told in His Name, which He had not commanded. Thus they were doubly worthy of death, and a death so shocking that it would be used as a curse among the Jewish exiles in Babylon in the future. That this occurred we need not doubt. That is why it is recorded.‘And I am he who knows, and am witness, the word of YHWH.’ These words are probably YHWH’s although they could be Jeremiah’s. For He is the One Who knows all things, and was therefore witness to their transgression. Either way they were a distinct reminder that YHWH knew exactly what was going on in Babylon. They should all be aware that they could not escape from His scrutiny just because they were there and not in Jerusalem.

94

22 Because of them, all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire.’

BARNES, "A curse - There is a play here of words. which probably was the cause why the death of these men passed into a proverb. One of them was named ben-Kolaiah; and they are to be made a curse (קללה qelâlâh), because Nebuchadnezzar had roasted .them. Compare the marginal reference note (qâlâh קלה)

GILL, "And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon,.... A form of cursing; when they cursed anyone, or wished him ill, it should be in such like manner as follows; so odious and detestable would these men be afterwards to them, whom they, at least some of them, took to be the prophets of the Lord: saying, the Lord make thee like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire; or "burnt them" (d); not at once, but with a slow fire; so the Maccabees were roasted, "Then the king, being in a rage, commanded pans and caldrons to be made hot: '' (2 Maccabees. 7:3) Burning persons with fire, and casting them into a fiery furnace, were ways used by the Chaldeans in putting persons to death, Dan_3:6; and roasting men at a fire was used by the Chinese (e).

JAMISON, "shall be taken ... a curse — that is, a formula of imprecation.Lord make thee like Zedekiah — (Compare Gen_48:20; Isa_65:15).roasted in the fire — a Chaldean punishment (Dan_3:6).

CALVIN, "Here we are to notice the circumstances; for if Jeremiah had only 95

spoken of their death, the Jews might still have been doubtful whether he had delivered a prophecy; but when now is added what kind of punishment was inflicted on them, Jeremiah points out as by the finger what was as yet unknown, and even incredible. It might indeed have happened to the captives that the king should order them to be slain, but it could not have occurred to any man to suppose what Jeremiah declares, that they would be roasted (220) in the fire We hence see that God here obviates the evasions of perverse minds, so that there would be no room for evading, when he specifies the very kind of death which they were to undergo.But he says first, Taken from them shall be a curse, that is, the form of cursing. Mentioned yesterday was אלה, ale, an oath; he puts down now קללה, kolle; and קלל, koll, is to curse. The meaning then is, that they would become an exemplar of a curse to all the captives, who would say, May God make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted The cause of their death is again repeated; and the Prophet did not without reason dwell on this, that he might turn away the eyes of the people from the immediate cause, which was commonly known, that is, that Nebuchadnezzar would not endure any tumults to be raised in his dominions; that they might therefore acknowledge God to be the author of this punishment, he says, —PULPIT, "A curse; i.e. a formula of cursing (comp. Isaiah 65:15). There is here a play upon words, such as the Biblical writers delighted in, partly with the view of assisting the memory. "A curse" is in Hebrew kelalah, and "to roast" is kalah. Roasted in the fire. "Casting into the midst of a burning fiery furnace" was a common punishment both among the Assyrians and the Babylonians, see e.g. ' Records of the Past,' vol. 9. p. 56; and comp. Daniel 3:1-30.

23 For they have done outrageous things in Israel; they have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and in my name they have uttered lies—which I did not authorize. I know it and am a witness to it,” declares the Lord.

BARNES, "Villany - Elsewhere folly, in the sense of lewdness Jdg_20:6, unchastity.96

CLARKE, "Have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives - This is supposed to refer to the case of Susanna. See above.

GILL, "Because they have committed villany in Israel,.... Or "folly" (f); as the sins of adultery, and prophesying falsely, are afterwards mentioned. This was not the reason why the king of Babylon put them to death; though the Jews (g) have a tradition that they attempted the chastity of Nebuchadnezzar's daughter, for which reason he case them into a furnace; but rather it was on account of their prophesying immediate destruction to Babylon; and telling the captives that they should be delivered in a short time; and stirring them up to prepare to go to their own land; but the reasons here given are those which moved the Lord to deliver them into the hands of the king of Babylon for their destruction: and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives; which was a piece of villany, as well as folly; and which abundantly showed that these men were not the prophets of the Lord, or were sent by him, being such impure wretches: and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; as that the people should return to their own land in a short time; this was another part of their villany and folly, and for which they were given up into the hands of the king of Babylon, to be punished: even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord; for though their adulteries might be very secretly committed, and their lying prophecies were not seen to be such by the people in common; yet God, who is omniscient, saw all their impurity, and knew all their lies and falsehood, and was, and would be, a swift witness against them, here and hereafter. The Targum is, "and before me it is manifest, and my word is a witness, saith the Lord.''

JAMISON, "villainy — literally, “sinful folly” (Isa_32:6).

CALVIN, "We perceive why the Prophet mentions the cause of their death; it was, that the Jews might regard the event, not according to their own thoughts, but that they might feel assured that God took vengeance on the impiety of those who had falsely pretended his name. For we know that we always look here and there, and that when we find an immediate cause, we neglect and esteem as nothing the judgments of God. In order then to correct this evil, Jeremiah again repeats that Zedekiah and Ahab were not punished by the king of Babylon, but by God himself, because they committed villany in Israel. Some render, נבלה, nubele, enormity or abomination; but I am disposed to render it villany, or turpitude, or filthiness. (221) They, then, committed a filthy thing He afterwards specifies two kinds, that they committed adultery with the wives of their friends, and that they falsely prophesied

97

in the name of GodBy the first clause we see how great was the stupidity of the people, for they did not consider what was the life of those who pretended to be witnesses for God, as though they were angels come down from heaven. Their wickedness might indeed have been concealed; but there is no doubt but that the Jews were extremely stupid, for they had willingly seized on the vain promises, which afforded them gratification. As, then, they were anxious to return, and wished to be restored to their own country as it were against the will of God, and sought to break through all obstacles by the force of their own obstinacy; it was a just punishment, that they were so blinded as not to see what was yet sufficiently manifest, even that these vaunting prophets were adulterers, and that the filthiness of their life was so great, that it was certain that they had nothing divine or heavenly in them.Then there is another kind of evil added, that they prophesied falsely in God’s name. This was an atrocious crime; for as his truth is precious to God, so it is a sacrilege that he cannot bear, when his truth is turned into falsehood. But as the minds of them all were so corrupted, that no one would open his eyes, God testifies, that though their adulteries might be unknown to the people, that though their vanity in their false prophecies might not be perceived, yet it was enough that he knew and was a witnessNow this passage is worthy of special notice; for hypocrites, until they find that they are proved guilty before men, fear nothing, nay, they haughtily exalt themselves, even when things are justly laid to their charge. Since, then, the hardness and dishonesty of hypocrites are so great, it is necessary to summon them before God’s tribunal, that they may know that they may a hundred times be acquitted by the world, and yet that this derogates nothing from God’s judgment. It now follows —

Message to Shemaiah24 Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite,

BARNES, "A narrative showing the effects of Jeremiah’s letter. Shemaiah the leader of the false prophets wrote to Zephaniah, urging him to restrain the prophet’s zeal with the prison and the stocks.

98

Jer_29:24To Shemaiah - Rather, concerning.The Nehelamite - Not as in the margin; but one belonging to the village of Nehlam (unknown).CLARKE, "Speak to Shemaiah - Zephaniah was the second priest, sagan, or chief

priest’s deputy, and Seraiah, high priest, when Jerusalem was taken. See Jer_52:24. Shemaiah directs his letter to the former, and tells him that God had appointed him to supply the place of the high priest, who was probably then absent. His name was either Azariah or Seraiah his son, but called Jehoiada from the remarkable zeal and courage of that pontiff. See the passages in the margin. - Dodd. After the taking of Jerusalem, Zephaniah was put to death by Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, see Jer_37:3. The history of Jehoiada may be seen 2Ki_11:3, etc.

GILL, "Thus shalt thou speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite,.... Or, "the dreamer" (h); because he pretended to have dreams from the Lord; or because what he delivered as prophecies were mere dreams; as that the captives should quickly return to their own land; so Kimchi: but Jarchi takes it to be the name of a place, from whence he was so called; perhaps the place of his birth, or habitation formerly; so the Targum, paraphrasing "who was of Halem;'' he was, another of the false prophets in Babylon. This latter part of the chapter is of a later date than the former; and refers to what was done after the above letter of Jeremiah came to the captives in Babylon; and after, the return of the messengers from thence, who brought, account how it was received, and what umbrage it gave to the false prophets: saying; as follows:

HENRY 24-32, "We have perused the contents of Jeremiah's letter to the captives in Babylon, who had reason, with a great deal of thanks to God and him, to acknowledge the receipt of it, and lay it up among their treasures. But we cannot wonder if the false prophets they had among them were enraged at it; for it gave them their true character. Now here we are told concerning one of them,

I. How he manifested his malice against Jeremiah. this busy fellow is called Shemaiah the Nehelamite, the dreamer (so the margin reads it), because all his prophecies he pretended to have received from God in a dream. He had got a copy of Jeremiah's letter to the captives, or had heard it read, or information was given to him concerning it, and it nettled him exceedingly; and he will take pen in hand, and answer it, yea, that he will. But how? He does not write to Jeremiah in justification of his own mission, nor offer any rational arguments for the support of his prophecies concerning the speedy return of the captives; but he writes to the priests, those faithful patrons of the false prophets, and instigates them to persecute Jeremiah. He writes in his own name, not so much as pretending to have the people's consent to it; but, as if he must be dictator to all 99

mankind, he sends a circular letter (as it should seem) among the priests at Jerusalem and the rest of the people, probably by the same messengers that brought the letter from Jeremiah. But it is chiefly directed to Zephaniah, who was either the immediate son of Maaseiah, or of the 24th course of the priests, of which Maaseiah was the father and head. He was not the high priest, but sagan or suffragan to the high priest, or in some other considerable post of command in the temple, as Pashur, Jer_20:1. Perhaps he was chairman of that committee of priests that was appointed in a particular manner to take cognizance of those that pretended to be prophets, of which there were very many at this time, and to give judgment concerning them. Now, 1. He puts him and the other priests in mind of the duty of their place (Jer_29:26): The Lord hath made thee priest instead of Jehoiada the priest. Some think that he refers to the famous Jehoiada, that great reformer in the days of Joash; and (says Mr. Gataker) he would insinuate that this Zephaniah is for spirit and zeal such another as he, and raised up, as he was, for the glory of God and the good of the church; and therefore it was expected from him that he should proceed against Jeremiah. Thus (says he) there is no act so injurious or impious, but that wicked wretches and false prophets will not only attempt it, but colour it also with some specious pretence of piety and zeal for God's glory, Isa_66:5; Joh_16:2. Or, rather, it was some other Jehoiada, his immediate predecessor in this office, who perhaps was carried to Babylon among the priests, Jer_29:1. Zephaniah is advanced, sooner than he expected, to this place of trust and power, and Shemaiah would have him think that Providence had preferred him that he might persecute God's prophets, that he had come to this government for such a time as this, and that he was unjust and ungrateful if he did not thus improve his power, or, rather, abuse it. Their hearts are wretchedly hardened who can justify the doing of mischief by their having a power to do it. These priests' business was to examine every man that is mad and makes himself a prophet. God's faithful prophets are here represented as prophets of their own making, usurpers of the office, and lay-intruders, as men that were mad, actuated by some demon, and not divinely inspired, or as distracted men and men in a frenzy. Thus the characters of the false prophets are thrown upon the true ones; and, if this had been indeed their character, they would have deserved to be bound as madmen and punished as pretenders, and therefore he concludes that Jeremiah must be so treated. He does not bid them examine whether Jeremiah could produce any proofs of his mission and could make it to appear that he was not mad. No; that is taken for granted, and, when once he has had a bad name given him, he must be run down of course. 2. He informs them of the letter which Jeremiah had written to the captives (Jer_29:28): He sent unto us in Babylon, with the authority of a prophet, saying, This captivity is long, and therefore resolve to make the best of it. And what harm was there in this, that it should be objected to him as a crime? The false prophets had formerly said that the captivity would never come, Jer_14:13. Jeremiah had said that it would come, and the event had already proved him in the right, which obliged them to give credit to him who now said that it would be long, rather than to those who said that it would be short, but had once before been found liars. 3. He demands judgment against him, taking it for granted that he is mad, and makes himself a prophet. He expects that they will order him to be put in prison and in the stocks (Jer_29:26), that they will thus punish him, and by putting him to disgrace possess the people with prejudices against him, ruin his reputation, and so prevent the giving of any credit to his prophecies at Jerusalem, hoping that, if they could gain that point, the captives in Babylon would not be influenced by him. Nay, he takes upon him to chide Zephaniah for his neglect (Jer_29:27): Why hast thou not rebuked and restrained Jeremiah of Anathoth? See how insolent and imperious these false 100

prophets had grown, that, though they were in captivity, they would give law to the priests who were not only at liberty, but in power. It is common for those that pretend to more knowledge than their neighbours to be thus assuming. Now here is a remarkable instance of the hardness of the hearts of sinners, and it is enough to make us all fear lest our hearts be at any time hardened. For here we find, (1.) That these sinners would not be convinced by the clearest evidence. God had confirmed his word in the mouth of Jeremiah; it had taken hold of them (Zec_1:6); and yet, because he does not prophesy to them the smooth things they desired, they are resolved to look upon him as not duly called to the office of a prophet. None so blind as those that will not see. (2.) That they would not be reclaimed and reformed by the most severe chastisement. They were now sent into a miserable thraldom for mocking the messengers of the Lord and misusing his prophets. This was the sin for which God now contended with them; and yet in their distress they trespass yet more against the Lord, 2Ch_28:22. This very sin they are notoriously guilty of in their captivity, which shows that afflictions will not of themselves cure men of their sins, unless the grace of God work with them, but will rather exasperate the corruptions they are intended to mortify; so true is that of Solomon (Pro_27:22), Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.II. How Jeremiah came to the knowledge of this (Jer_29:29): Zephaniah read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah. He did not design to do as Shemaiah would have him, but, as it should seem, had a respect for Jeremiah (for we find him employed in messages to him as a prophet, Jer_21:1, Jer_37:3), and therefore protected him. He that continued in his dignity and power stood more in awe of God and his judgments than he that was now a captive. Nay, he made Jeremiah acquainted with the contents of the letter, that he might see what enemies he had even among the captives. Note, It is kindness to our friends to let them know their foes.III. What was the sentence passed upon Shemaiah for writing this letter. God sent him an answer, for to him Jeremiah committed his cause: it was ordered to be sent not to him, but to those of the captivity, who encouraged and countenanced him as if he had been a prophet of God's raising up, Jer_29:31, Jer_29:32. Let them know, 1. That Shemaiah had made fools of them. He promised them peace in God's name, but God did not send him; he forged a commission, and counterfeited the broad seal of Heaven to it, and made the people to trust in a lie, and by preaching false comfort to them deprived them of true comfort. Nay, he had not only made fools of them, but, which was worse, he had made traitors of them; he had taught rebellion against the Lord, as Hananiah had done, Jer_28:16. And, if vengeance shall be taken on those that rebel, much more on those that teach rebellion by their doctrine and example. 2. That at his end he shall also be a fool (as the expression is, Jer_17:11); his name and family shall be extinct and shall be buried in oblivion; he shall leave no issue behind him to bear up his name; his pedigree shall end in him: He shall not have a man to dwell among this people; and neither he nor any that come from him shall behold the good that I will do for my people. Note, Those are unworthy to share in God's favours to his church that are not willing to stay his time for them. Shemaiah was angry at Jeremiah's advice to the captives to see to the building up of their families in Babylon, that they might be increased and not diminished, and therefore justly is he written childless there. Those that slight the blessings of God's word deserve to lose the benefit of them. See Amo_7:16, Amo_7:17.

101

JAMISON 24-32, "A second communication which Jeremiah sent to Babylon, after the messenger who carried his first letter had brought a letter from the false prophet Shemaiah to Zephaniah, etc., condemning Jeremiah and reproving the authorities for not having apprehended him.

Nehelamite — a name derived either from his father or from a place: alluding at the same time to the Hebrew meaning, “a dreamer” (compare Jer_29:8).

K&D 24-32, "Threatening against the false prophet Shemaiah. - Jeremiah's letter to the exiles (vv. 1-23) had excited great indignation among the false prophets in Babylon, who predicted speedy restoration. One of them, named Shemaiah, wrote accordingly letters to Jerusalem addressed to the people, and especially to the priest Zephaniah, who held the highest place in the management of the temple, insisting that he should immediately take steps to punish Jeremiah and check his labours (Jer_29:24-28). When Zephaniah read this letter to Jeremiah, the latter received from God the commission to tell the pseudo-prophet of the punishment awaiting him, that and his race should perish and not survive Israel's liberation (Jer_29:29-32). - This threatening accordingly dates from a somewhat later time than the letter, vv. 1-23, since it was its arrival and influence upon the exiles that led Shemaiah to write to Jerusalem that letter, to which the threatening of the present verse is the reply. But on account of their historical connection, the letter of Jeremiah and that of Shemaiah were, at the publication of Jeremiah's prophecies, placed the one after the other. - From the introductory clause of Jer_29:24 : "And to Shemaiah the Nehelamite thou shalt speak thus," we might conclude, with Graf, that what Jeremiah had to say was not addressed by letter to Shemaiah himself; and hold it to have sufficed that he should read it, like all the exiles, in the letter which doubtless found its way to Babylon. But this is incompatible with the command of God, Jer_29:31 : Send to all the captives, saying, etc. For it was only by writing that Jeremiah could send to the exiles the sentence from God on Shemaiah that follows in Jer_29:31. The introductory clause is therefore interposed by the author of the book to form a link of connection between the two utterances regarding the pseudo-prophets at Babylon. We cannot make sure whether "the Nehelamite" refers the man to a family or to a place of which we know nothing else. Jer_29:25. Next the introduction to the divine sentence comes (from "Because thou" on) a statement of the occasion that called for it, which extends to Jer_29:28. Then in Jer_29:29-31 we are told that Zephaniah read to Jeremiah the letter he had received from Shemaiah in Babylon, and that Jeremiah was then commissioned by God to intimate to Shemaiah the punishment to be sent on him by God for his false and seducing prophecies. Then, again, attached to the preliminary statement by "therefore," the introductory phrase "Thus saith Jahveh" is repeated, and what the Lord said follows.Jer_29:25-28

"Because thou hast sent in thy name (without divine commission) letters to all the people in Jerusalem, and to Sephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying." ספרים may be a single letter, cf. 2Ki_10:1-2; but since these were sent to the people, the priest Zephaniah, and all the people, the word doubtless means here letters in the plural. As to Zephaniah ben Maaseiah, see at Jer_21:1. - In Jer_29:26-28follows the main substance of the letter: "Jahveh hath set thee to be priest in the stead of

102

the priest Jehoiada, that there should be officers in the house of Jahveh for every man that is mad and prophesieth, that thou shouldest put him in the stocks and in neck-irons. Jer_29:27. And, now, why hast thou not restrained Jeremiah of Anathoth, that prophesieth to you? Jer_29:28. For therefore hath he sent to us to Babylon (a letter) to the effect: It will last long; build houses and dwell (therein), and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them." Zephaniah occupied, acc. to Jer_29:26, the post of a chief officer of the temple, was a chief warden, as Pashur had been before him, Jer_21:1, who had charge of the police regulations of the temple.In the stead of the priest Jehoiada. These words Grot., Hitz., and Gr. refer to the high

priest Jehoiada under King Joash, 2Ki_11:18, who set up officers (ת over the (פקדtemple. But this view cannot be reconciled with the words of the text: "Jahveh hath set thee to be priest in Jehoiada's stead, that there should be officers;" since from these ambiguous words, Zephaniah filled the same post as Jehoiada had done, and was his successor in office. The other well-known Jehoiada was high priest, who appointed officers; Zephaniah, on the other hand was only "the second priest," and as such had charge of the temple arrangements and of public order there. Nor is there any hint here or elsewhere that Zephaniah was the immediate successor of Pashur in this office, nor any indication to make it unlikely that Jehoiada held the post after Pashur and that Zedekiah succeeded him. The plural "officers" is general: that at all times there should be officers. "For every man that is mad an prophesieth." משגע, the deranged or mad person, is here closely associated with מתנבא, him that bears himself as prophet. The former word is used in the evil sense of the apparently deranged behaviour of the man on whom the Spirit of God has laid hold, 2Ki_9:11; Hos_9:7. The idea is not: for (or against) every prophet, but: for every madman that plays the prophet. The temple, i.e., the outer court of the temple, was the usual place for prophets to take their stand. Shemaiah accordingly means that it was the duty of the chief warden of the temple to repress attempts to speak in the temple on the part of pretended prophets, by putting such persons in stocks and irons. As to מהפכת, see on Jer_20:2. צינק is ἁπ λεγ.. It certainly does not mean prison after צנק, in Samaritan = clausit; but apparently neck-irons after Arab. znâq, necklace, ring. Since both words are used together here, and since the meaning is apparently that Jeremiah should be put into both instruments at once, Hitz. conjectures that both together were needed to make the stocks complete, but that each had its own proper name, because it was possible to fix in the neck, leaving hands and feet free, or conversely, as in Jer_20:2. - גער, rebuke, check by threats, restrain, cf. Rth_2:16; Mal_3:11, etc. "For therefore," sc. just because thou hast not restrained him from prophesying he has sent to Babylon. שלח with לאמר following, send to say, means: to send a message or letter as follows. לאמר ארכה היא Hitz. renders: for he thought: it (Babylon) is far away; Jeremiah's meaning being, that in Jerusalem they would know nothing about his letter he was sending to Babylon. But such a hidden purpose is utterly foreign to the character of the prophet. He had publicly predicted in Jerusalem the long seventy years' duration of the exile; and it was not likely to occur to him to wish to make a secret of the letter of like import which he sent to Babylon. Besides, Hitz.'s interpretation is forced. Since there is no לאמר before בנו לאמר the ,בתים before ארכה can only be introductory to the contents of the letter. For אר used of duration in time, cf. 2Sa_3:1; Job_11:9. "Long-lasting it is," sc. your sojourn in Babylon. These words give the burden of his prophecy, that on which he founded his counsel: build houses, etc.

103

Jer_29:29Zephaniah read aloud to Jeremiah the letter he had received from Babylon. With what design, we are not told; probably simply to inform him of the proceedings of the pseudo-prophets in Babylon. If we may judge by Jer_21:1 and Jer_37:3, Zephaniah seems to have been friendly to Jeremiah.

Jer_29:30-32In consequence of this, Jeremiah received from the Lord the commission to predict to Shemaiah his punishment at the hand of God, and to send the prediction to all that are in Babylon in banishment. With Jer_29:31, cf. Jer_28:15. The punishment is this: Shemaiah shall have no posterity among his people, i.e., of his children none shall be left amongst the people, nor shall he see, i.e., experience, have any share in the blessings which the Lord will yet bestow upon His people. The extinction of his race and his own exclusion from the privilege of seeing the day of Israel's redemption are the punishment

that is to fall on him for his rebellion against the commandment of the Lord. With 'כיסרה cf. Jer_28:16.

CALVIN, "Here Jeremiah prophesies respecting a third person, who had written a letter to the priests and to the whole people against himself, and had expostulated with the chief priest and with others, because Jeremiah had, with impunity, long exhorted the people to bear their long exile. This is the import of the passage; but as to his punishment we shall see what it was at the end of the chapter. I did not wish to give the whole, because I cannot finish this prophecy today. I have therefore taken the former part only, even that Shemaiah had not only encouraged the people, as others did, to hope for a return, and to raise a commotion, but had also scattered his poison at Jerusalem, and had endeavored to load Jeremiah with ill-will, that he might be slain as a false prophet, and an enemy to the public good, as well as to the Law and the Temple.Thou shalt then say to or of Shemaiah, for אל, al, may be taken in either sense. (222) His crime is now related, we shall hereafter see what his punishment was. His crime was, that he wrote in God’s name Had he only been a fanner of cruelty, he would have deserved no pardon; but his crime was doubled, for he dared to pretend the authority of God, and to boast that he was as it were his scribe, as though he had said that his letter had been dictated by the Holy Spirit, that he had not spoken his own thoughts, or presumptuously, but that God could not endure the liberty given to Jeremiah; for though he continually preached of long exile, yet the chief-priest suffered him, and no one of the whole priestly order opposed him; and at the same time he blames the people for their indulgence. That he did all this in God’s name was far more grievous than if he had written as a private individual. And it is said that he had written to the whole people, even in order that they might all in a body unite against Jeremiah. For, had he written only to the priests, they might have objected that they were not at liberty to act so violently against Jeremiah, as sedition might be raised. We hence see the craft of this base man; though he despised the people, yet that all of them, even the least, might help the priests to do this act of

104

cruelty, and that there might be the union of all, he included the whole people in his letter. COFFMAN, ""And concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite thou shalt speak, saying, Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thine own name unto all the people that are in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying, instead of Jehoida, that there may be officers in the house of Jehovah, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in the stocks and in the shackles. Therefore, why hast not thou rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who maketh himself a prophet to you, forasmuch as he hath sent unto us in Babylon, saying, The captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them?"The usual explanation of this passage is that, "These words are a second communication from Jeremiah to Babylon, sent after Shemaiah had sent Jeremiah the letter mentioned in Jeremiah 29:25."[21] This may well be the case; and if this is right, it would indicate that the false prophets in Babylon were really infuriated by Jeremiah's letter, and that they promptly mounted a campaign to get Jeremiah silenced. In that case, this letter has been added to "the letter" mentioned in Jeremiah 29:1, because of the similarity between them.Smith explained this and the verses to the end of the chapter as being, "Appended to Jeremiah's letter without any introduction, that it might tell its own tale, showing the effects of the letter. The Zephaniah mentioned here was the deputy high priest."[22]The whole account here is abbreviated, because Shemaiah's letter stated that Jeremiah had prophesied a "long captivity," but the letter as recorded here omits the word "long." In such a condensation as we evidently have here, it is impossible to fill in all the details accurately.Smith also noted that the letter which Shemaiah wrote to the deputy High Priest was manifestly different from the one written to "all the people," indicating that Shemaiah wrote a lot of letters (note that they are mentioned in the plural); and that one of those had, in fact, triggered what is here called "the letter" and that this paragraph addressed to Shemaiah was actually a part of it. The whole question is of no major importance."The captivity is long ..." (Jeremiah 29:28). The literal text here is, "It is long." "The omission of the noun here is far more forcible than its inclusion would have been. What is long? God's anger is long; their punishment is long; the time necessary for their repentance is long; the exile is long; the seventy years are long; everything is indeed long for men who are homesick, and who will never live to see their native land again."[23]

105

PETT, "Verses 24-32Postscript Concerning The Request From Shemaiah The Prophet In Babylon Calling For Jeremiah To Be Severely Disciplined As A False Prophet Because Of His Declarations That Deliverance Would Be Delayed, And What Resulted From It (Jeremiah 29:24-32).This may be a postscript to the letter described above (in which case Jeremiah must have written previously), or more likely an indication of a later letter sent to Babylon once Shemaiah had written in response to this letter. It is interesting for a number of reasons:· Firstly it indicates that regular correspondence took place between Jerusalem and Babylon with a view to affecting affairs in both places.· Secondly it indicates that a prophet among the community in Babylon seriously expected to be able to affect affairs in Jerusalem, even to the extent of writing in his own name and rebuking a major figure in the Temple.· Thirdly it suggests the almost full unanimity between the prophets within Babylon itself. As we know Ezekiel was ministering away from Babylon and was clearly out of tune with the other prophets in the capital, his continual message being that Jerusalem must be destroyed.· Fourthly it brings out what authority the prophets saw themselves as having, and, at least in Shemaiah’s case, that he saw himself as a genuine prophet with prophetic authority from YHWH. Nor does Shemaiah appear to have seen himself as a minor functionary, but as a major player who had a right to be listened to at the highest level (almost on a par with Jeremiah himself).Jeremiah 29:24“And concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying,”We know nothing further about Shemaiah other than what we learn here, nor do we know what the fact that he was a Nehemalite specifically indicated. The old idea that it signified ‘dreamer’ is now rejected because of its ending which probably indicates that he was from Nehemal, an unknown town or clan in Judah.PULPIT, "Jeremiah 29:24-32A threatening oracle against the false prophet Shemaiah. Great excitement had been caused among the so-called prophets in Babylon by the emphatic language of Jeremiah. Accordingly one of them, named Shemaiah, wrote letters to the Jews at home, and especially to a high official called Zephaniah (see on verse 26) to put a stop to Jeremiah's bold agitation. Zephaniah, however, was not the man for whom

106

Shemaiah took him, and read the letter to the intended victim. Upon this, Jeremiah received a special revelation, announcing dire punishment to Shemaiah and his family (according to the principle of the Divine government described in Exodus 20:5).Jeremiah 29:24To Shemaiah; or, of, concerning (as the same preposition is rendered in Jeremiah 29:16, Jeremiah 29:21, Jeremiah 29:31). The oracle itself speaks of Shemaiah in the third person (Jeremiah 29:31, Jeremiah 29:32). The Authorized Version, however, can be defended by its accordance with Jeremiah 29:25. The Nehelamite. This is evidently a patronymic, but whether of the family or the locality of the bearer cannot be decided. The analogy of "Jeremiah of Anathoth" (verse 27), however, favors the view that it is local.

25 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You sent letters in your own name to all the people in Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the other priests. You said to Zephaniah,

GILL, "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying,.... See Gill on Jer_29:4; because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem; not in the name of the captives, whom he consulted not; nor with Ezekiel the prophet of the Lord, who was of the captivity; but in his own name, taking upon him to direct and order what should be done in Jerusalem. These letters were sent, very probably, by the hands of the king's messengers, when they returned, whose names are mentioned, Jer_29:3; some of them were sent to the people, to set them against the prophet of the Lord, Jeremiah, that they might not give any heed and credit to him; and others to the priests, as follows:

107

and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest; not the high, priest, but his sagan or deputy; the second priest, as he is called, Jer_52:24; for Seraiah was high priest, unless he was now become high priest in his room. This Maaseiah was either his immediate parent, or else the head of that course to which Zephaniah belonged, as a common priest, which was the twenty fourth in order, 1Ch_24:18; saying: as follows:CALVIN, "He afterwards mentioned the priest and all the priests The word priest, in the singular number, meant the high-priest: then the priests were not only those descended from Aaron, but all the Levites. There was the high-priest, and then the descendants of Aaron were the chief, and, as it were, the colleagues of the high priest; but the Levites were an inferior order, though here by the priests he means also the Levites. PETT, "Jeremiah 29:25“Thus speaks YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying,”Jeremiah’s words are scathing. Shemaiah would almost certainly have written in the Name of YHWH, but Jeremiah writes off his claims and makes clear to all that really he had ‘written in his own name’. In other words that he was not a genuine prophet of YHWH. Shemaiah, however, had such a high opinion of himself and his own authority that he had written to all the people of Jerusalem, Zephaniah, possibly as acting High Priest, (‘the Priest’ usually means the High Priest, but Zephaniah was the second priest) and the whole priesthood. Fortunately his opinion of himself does not appear to have been shared by Zephaniah.It would appear that at this stage Zephaniah was standing in for the then High Priest Jehoiada, who may have been rendered unsuitable for some reason. Zephaniah was strictly the second priest, and was so at the time of the fall of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 52:24; 2 Kings 25:18; compare Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 37:3), and possibly responsible for the oversight of prophets.

26 ‘The Lord has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada to be in charge of the house of the Lord; you should put any maniac who acts like a 108

prophet into the stocks and neck-irons.

BARNES, "Jer_29:26Officers - Deputy high priests who had the oversight of the temple.Mad - See 2Ki_9:11 note. Many of the symbolic actions of the prophets, such as that of Jeremiah going about with a yoke on his neck, would be mocked at by the irreverent as passing the line between prophecy and madness.Prisons - Rather, the stocks Jer_20:2.The stocks - Rather, collar.CLARKE, "For every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet -

Mad, משגע meshugga, in ecstatic rapture; such as appeared in the prophets, whether true or false, when under the influence, the one of God, the other of a demon. See 2Ki_9:11; Hos_9:7.

GILL, "The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest,.... The same with Seraiah, who might have more names than one, and Jehoiada be one of them, who either was removed, or carried captive; and this Zephaniah, his sagan of deputy, succeeded him. Some think he refers to the famous Jehoiada in the times of Joash, a great reformer; and that this man was another such an one for his zeal, or at least ought to be, which he would have him exert against Jeremiah; but the former seems most probable: that ye should be officers in the house of the Lord; or "visitors", or "overseers" (i) there; that is, Zephaniah, and the rest of the priests; or that he should see to it, that there were proper officers set there, to take care of it, and suffer none to come in and prophesy there, to the hurt of the people, as he would insinuate: for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet; or, "against every man" (k); to prevent all enthusiastic persons, and such as are troubled with a frenzy in their brain, and set up themselves for prophets, from speaking in the name of the Lord; so the true prophets of old, and the apostles of Christ, and faithful ministers of the word, have always been represented as beside themselves, and as taking upon them an office that did not belong to them; and therefore should be restrained and persecuted by the higher powers: that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks; the former of these words, according to the Hebrew, signifies an engine or instrument, in which the neck was put, like our pillory; and the latter an iron instrument for the hands, a manacle, or handcuff, as Kimchi; see Jer_20:2; though this rather better agrees with the pillory, being a strait narrow place, in which the hands, feet, and neck, were put (l).

109

CALVIN, "Here follows the subject of the letter, Jehovah hath made thee a priest, etc. Here the impostor Shemaiah accuses the high-priest of ingratitude, because he had been chosen in the place of another. For it is probable that Jehoiada was still living, but that he had been led away into Chaldea with the other exiles. As then so high a dignity had, beyond hope, and before the time, come to the high-priest, the false prophet reproves him, because he did not rightly acknowledge this favor of God, as though he had said, that he was rendering an unworthy reward to God, who had raised him to that high station: God, he said, hath made thee a priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest Thus the ministers of Satan transform themselves into angels of light; and yet they cannot so dexterously imitate God’s servants, but that their deceit makes itself presently known; for craftiness is very different from a right and prudent counsel. God endues his servants with counsel and wisdom; but Satan, with craft and guile. Though, then, at the first view, some artifice appears in this letter of the false prophet, yet we may gather from its contents, that he falsely pretended the name of God, that he falsely alleged that the chief priest was chosen in the place of Jehoiada. That ye should be, he says: at first he addresses the high-priest, but now he includes also others, that ye should be the keepers, or the rulers of the house of God (223) For though the chief power was in the high-priest, yet as he could not alone undertake everything, it was necessary for him to have others connected with him. This is the reason why Shemaiah not only says that the high-priest was a ruler in the Temple of God, but after having placed him in the highest honor, mentions also others.He says against every man that is mad; so משגע, meshego, is rendered by Jerome, and I think not unsuitably; for the word means properly one that is insane: but this was applied to false teachers, because they boasted that they were under a divine impulse, when they spoke their own thoughts. This appears evident from the ninth chapter of Hosea, where it is said that the people would at length acknowledge that the prophets, who had flattered them, were insane, and that the men of the Spirit were mad. The Prophet conceded to them both names, that they were prophets and men of the Spirit, that is, spiritual; but he proved that they had only the names and not the reality: for prophets were called spiritual men, because God inspired them with his Spirit; but the ungodly, when they wished to revile the true prophets, called them mad. So did they speak who were with Jehu, when a prophet came to anoint him, “What means this mad fellow?” this word משגע, meshego, is what they used; and they called him in contempt mad, who had yet spoken by the secret impulse of the Spirit. (2 Kings 9:11.) So, in like manner, do the ungodly rave in contempt of God against everything found in Scripture. (224)But as it has been already stated, it was necessary to distinguish between the true servants of God and those only in name; for many boasted that they were called by God, and yet were impostors. God then called these mad and insane; but what did the ungodly do? they transferred the reproach to the lawful servants of God. So, in this place, Shemaiah says, that Jeremiah was mad, who falsely pretended the name of God, and prophesied falsely.

110

He adds, That thou shouldest put him in prison, or cast him into prison or the stocks, as some render the word. Then he says, in manacles, that is, thou shouldest bind him, until his impiety be known, so that thou mayest detain him in prison. (225) It is, indeed, probable that the chief priests had assumed this power during the disordered state of things. This proceeding no doubt resulted from a good principle; for God ever designed that his Church should be well governed: he therefore commanded in his Law, that when any dispute or question arose, the chief priest was to be the judge, (Deuteronomy 17:8;) but when mention is here made of prison and of manacles, it: was an act, no doubt, beyond the Law. It is therefore probable that it was added to the Law of God when the state of things was in disorder and confusion among the Jews. And whence was the origin of the evil? from the ignorance and sloth of the priests. They ought to have been the messengers of the God of hosts, the interpreters of the Law, the truth ought to have been sought from their mouth; but they were dumb dogs, nay, they had so degenerated, that nothing priestly was found in them; they had forgotten the Law, there was no religion in them. As then they had neglected their office, it was necessary to choose other prophets: and as we have said elsewhere, it was as it were accidental that God raised up prophets from the common people. There was, indeed, a necessity of having prophets always in the ancient Church; but God would have taken them from the Levites, except that he designed to expose them to reproach before the whole people, when he made prophets even of herdsmen, as in the case of Amos.As then the priests suffered the prophetic office to be transferred to the common people, a new way was devised, that it might, not be any loss to them, as under the Papacy; for we know that bishops are for no other reason made rulers in the Church, but that there might be pastors and teachers. For of what use could these asses be, whom we know to be for the most part destitute of any learning? What could these men do, who are profane, and given up to their own pleasures and enjoyments? In short, what could gamesters and panders do? for such are almost all the Papal bishops. It was therefore necessary to give up their office to brawling monks, “You shall teach, for we resign to you the pulpits.” But, at the same time, they retained the power of judgment in their own hands: when any controversy arose, neither the noisy brawlers nor the dumb beasts could of themselves decide anything; for ignorance prevented the latter, and power was wanting to the former. How, then, did the bishops formerly condemn heretics? and how do they condemn them still? Why, thus: When one was a Carmelite, they called in the Franciscans; and when one was an Augustinian, the Dominicans were summoned. For, as I have said, these mute animals had no knowledge nor wisdom. And yet a certain dignity was maintained by the bishops or their vicars, when they pronounced sentence in condemning heretics. And such was probably the case among the ancient people; for those who pretended to be prophets were summoned, and that by the authority of the high-priest, under the pretext of law, but not without some corruption added to it; for God had not given fetters and manacles to the priests, that they might thus restrain those who might create disturbance and corrupt the pure truth. But what remains I shall defer to the next Lecture.

111

It is somewhat singular that all the ancient versions, as well as the Targum, give “overseers,” or officers, in the singular number; the Vulg. is, “That thou mightest be a commander... over every one;” the Sept., “That thou mightest be an umpire;” the Syr., “That thou mightest be a censor.” But there are no MSS. in favor of such a reading. — Ed.The next word is in Hithpael, “self-prophesying,” or prophesying of himself, not made a prophet by God; imperfectly rendered, “prophesying,” by the Sept., Vulg., and Syr. It may be rendered “pretending to be a prophet.” — Ed. COKE, "Jeremiah 29:26. The Lord hath made thee priest— Shemaiah directs the words of his letter to Zephaniah, as being סגן segan, or next in order to the high priest; and tells him that God had appointed him to supply the place of the high priest, who was probably absent at that time. His name was either Azariah or Seraiah his son, but called Jehoiada from the remarkable zeal and courage of that pontiff. The Roman law condemned those to be scourged who pretended to be prophets, and boasted of inspiration, Qui se Deo plenos simularent; upon which principle they frequently scourged and punished the first Christians. See Calmet and Paulin. lib. 5: tit. 21: De Vaticinio.REFLECTIONS.—1st, We have here the letter of Jeremiah to the captives in Babylon, written by divine authority. It is directed to the prophets, priests, and people carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar, after Jeconiah had surrendered himself, whose case seemed most peculiarly miserable; and perhaps they envied their brethren who were left; though their own lot, if they knew how to improve it, was far more desirable. The letter was sent by Zedekiah's messengers, who went with the tribute, or to cultivate the friendship of the king of Babylon; and the contents of it were designed to encourage their hopes in God; to comfort them under their afflictions; to exhort them patiently to wait God's appointed time, and to prevent their being deluded by false prophets to expect a deliverance sooner than the expiration of the seventy years.1. He addresses them in God's name, and by his authority, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, able to save to the uttermost, and the God of Israel, who still acknowledged his relation to them, and had not cast them from his regard, though he had cast them out of their land: thus, though perplexed, they must not be in despair. I have caused you to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon, God's hand was in it; without which no human power could have prevailed against them. Note; The consideration from whose hand all our sufferings come, should silence every murmuring thought.2. He encourages them to sit down content in their present state, to wait patiently God's time of deliverance; and in the meanwhile settle themselves as comfortably as might be; to build and plant, and marry, that they might not be diminished either in wealth or numbers, when they should return again unto their own land; and

112

intimates, that God would give them a peaceable abode, and comfortable enjoyment of their possessions, even in the land of their captivity. Note; Wherever we are cast by God's providence, or into whatever state of affliction, it is our wisdom, not only to submit, but make the best of our situation, and live in hopes of better days.3. He exhorts them to be peaceable under the government of the king of Babylon, though a heathen, and an enemy to God; to shew all good fidelity; and, so far from plotting against the state in order to recover their liberty, to seek the prosperity of the country in which they were captives, and pray to God to preserve and increase it, for in the peace thereof should they have peace. It was their interest to do so; seeing that in every calamity of that land they would be involved, and in the prosperity of it find their advantage. Note; If we must submit to the power of oppressors, and pray for the peace of the land of our captivity, how much more are we bound to be loyal subjects under the mildest government, and in this our land of liberty to seek and pray for the peace thereof!2nd, To engage them to patient waiting upon God,1. He warns them to pay no regard to the false prophets, who promised them a speedy return to their own land, and thereby discouraged them from settling in Babylon. Their dreams were the fancies of their own imagination, and never to be encouraged or listened to; since, though they used the name of God, they lied, and never had a revelation from him. Note; When people love to be deceived, they will readily find flatterers to their ruin.2. He assures them, that, though their prophets were false, God's promises would be found true, and accomplished in due season. When the seventy years were ended, his purposes concerning them were all gracious, yea, even their captivity was designed for their good, chap. Jeremiah 24:5 and the expected end should assuredly come; only let them with patience wait for it, and in earnest prayer and supplication seek the fulfilment of the divine promises; searching after God with all their heart, in fervency and simplicity, and then he will assuredly be found of them in mercy, and turn their captivity into a blessed restoration unto their own land. Note; (1.) They who trust in the promises of God shall never be disappointed. (2.) God's promises should excite, not supersede, our prayers. (3.) They who search for God with all their heart are sure to find him near to hear and answer them.3rdly, Though there were some gracious souls among the captives, yet were there many who paid no regard to the words of Jeremiah, but hearkened to the false prophets, and received them as sent from God; and boasted that they needed not look to Judaea for advice, when they had prophets of their own in Babylon, on whom they might depend. To these therefore the prophet addresses himself.1. He warns them of the falsehood of the declarations of their prophets. They flattered the people with a speedy return to Judea; whereas, so far from it, the residue of those who were left in Jerusalem were doomed to the most grievous

113

devastations by famine, pestilence, and the sword; and the few who survived should be scattered into all kingdoms! and made the objects of derision, scorn, and detestation in every place, like vile figs unfit to be eaten, and cast as refuse on the dunghill; and this because of their impenitence and rejection of the repeated and earnest warnings which God, by his prophets, had vouchsafed them, as had been threatened before, chap. 24: Note; (1.) They who flatter sinners with hopes contrary to God's word are infallibly false prophets. (2.) When men make themselves vile by their sins, God, in just judgment, will make them viler in their sufferings.2. He denounces judgment on two of the false prophets, Ahab and Zedekiah; whose abominable lives, as well as atrocious lies, called for vengeance. They were horrible adulterers, and yet dared to take God's name in their lips, and pretend that he had sent them, when they knew that he never commanded them, and, under the cloak of profound hypocrisy, practised every villainy. But, though men might not discover their wickedness, God saw, and will recompense them according to their deeds. Detected, probably, in some seditious practices, the king of Babylon would seize them, and burn them alive before the eyes of the people for a terror to others: a catastrophe so dreadful, that when any would with the heaviest curse on their enemies, they should not be able to conceive a worse imprecation, than the Lord make thee like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire. Note; (1.) They who live in the practice of lewdness and adultery, and the like villainy themselves, must needs belie their pretentious to a mission from God, and will have no boldness to rebuke the like practices in others. (2.) Secretly as men's sins may be committed, the day is near when no darkness or shadow of death shall hide the workers of iniquity. (3.) Though wicked prophets and wicked men may escape the judgments of God in this life, there is a fire kindled for them where they must burn eternally, and none shall quench it.4thly, Whatever effect Jeremiah's letter had upon the people, we are not to wonder if the false prophets, whose sins he so faithfully rebuked, were exasperated. We have,1. The endeavours used by one of them to get Jeremiah severely punished. His name is Shemaiah the Nehelamite, or the dreamer; one of those lying prophets who deceived the people, and who, in revenge for the reproofs contained in Jeremiah's letter, by the return of the messengers probably who had brought it, he writes in his own name, without consulting his brethren, to the people in general, and to Zephaniah in particular, who seems to have been in some chief station in the temple, well knowing that the church rulers bore no good will to the reforming prophets. He suggests to him the necessity of exerting the authority with which he was invested: The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest. Either he would insinuate, that he was, in zeal for God's glory, such another; or rather Jehoiada might be another name of Seraiah the high-priest, whose segan or deputy he might be, or in some other chief office in the temple, see chap. Jeremiah 52:24. He therefore, with the priests his brethren, should take cognizance of every enthusiastic fellow, that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet. Such ill names do God's faithful

114

ministers often bear, and to such insolent reproaches are they exposed, as if intruders into the sacred service, disturbed in mind, or under diabolical possession: That thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks; both to expose and punish such delinquents, of which number he affirms Jeremiah to be, and blames Zephaniah for not proceeding against him as a false prophet; the proof of which he supposes would be no longer doubted, when he repeated but one line of Jeremiah's letter, that this captivity is long, and that, instead of hoping for a speedy restoration, the captives should settle themselves peaceably in Babylon. Note; (1.) They who will be faithful to men's souls, must expect often to be treated as deceivers or madmen. (2.) Church power has been often employed in tormenting her best friends. (3.) The accusations generally brought against the ministers of zeal are by their adversaries looked upon as carrying evidence incontestable of their enthusiasm and delusion; yet when their words and preaching are calmly considered and examined, they contain nothing but the true sayings of God.2. Shemaiah's doom is read. Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah; either privately, out of kindness, to warn him of his enemies (for when known they are more easily guarded against); or, to acquaint him with the charge, before he proceeded to judgment upon the case. And God gives Jeremiah an answer, which he is commanded to send to all those of the captivity, that they might be warned against the impostor, and mark his punishment for daring to pretend a divine mission, and teaching rebellion against the Lord, by dissuading the people from paying regard to his prophets. Shemaiah shall not only perish himself, but his family be utterly cut off, his name be buried in oblivion, and none of his race ever see or taste of the goodness that God hath still in store for his people. Note; None perish under such aggravated guilt as those false teachers, at whose hands God will require the souls which they have deceived and flattered to their ruin. PETT, "Jeremiah 29:26-28“YHWH has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in the house of YHWH, for every man who is mad, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles, now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you, forasmuch as he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, ‘It is long, Build yourselves houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit from them’?”“YHWH has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest .” This may simply mean ‘appointed as second priest with specific responsibility for prophets’, but if so, in view of the wide nature of those addressed, why would Shemaiah have omitted also addressing the High Priest? Thus Zephaniah may actually have been temporarily standing in for the High Priest, possibly for political reasons, or because Jehoiada had for some reason been rendered incapable of acting, with Seraiah, the later High Priest (Jeremiah 52:24), not yet of age.Shemaiah’s point was that it was Zephaniah’s responsibility to control the prophets

115

and that he should therefore be acting against false prophets (depicted as ‘mad’ on the grounds that only a madman would ‘make himself a prophet’. Thereby, without realising it, he was condemning himself). He should have been putting such madmen in the stocks and in shackles (the treatment for mad people). Why then had he not disciplined Jeremiah who had clearly ‘made himself a prophet’, as was evident from the fact that he disagreed with all the prophets of YHWH in Babylon? YHWH could not speak in two voices at once. His complaint was that Jeremiah had sent a letter to Babylon (presumably the letter described above) telling the exiles that their exile would last for a long time, and that they should therefore build permanent houses, dwell in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit (Jeremiah 29:5). In other words he was denying that the prophecies of the prophets in Babylon were true.PULPIT, "Jeremiah 29:26In the stead of Jehoiada the priest. Some (Grotius, Hitzig, Graf) think that this Jehoiada was the famous high priest of that name, who is said to have "appointed officers over the house of the Lord" (2 Kings 11:18; 2 Chronicles 23:18). It is true that Zephaniah was not literally the successor of Jehoiada, but he was so in the same metaphorical sense in which the scribes are said by our Lord to "sit in Moses' seat" (Matthew 23:2). It is safer, however, to suppose that another Jehoiada is meant, of whom we have no further information. It is not said that either Jehoiada or Zephaniah was high priest, and as the special object of the elevation of the latter is said to be the supervision of the temple police, it is more probable that Jehoiada and he were successively "second priests," or, to use a phrase which seems to be synonymous, "deputy governors in the house of the Lord" (Jeremiah 20:1). The passage may thus without violence be harmonized with Jeremiah 52:24; 2 Kings 25:18, where Seraiah is called "the chief priest" and Zephaniah "the second priest." It is possible that Jehoiada 'had been favorable to the better class of prophets. In this case there will be a delicate hint to Zephaniah that God had his own purpose in promoting him to honor, viz. that unruly prophets like Jeremiah might be held in with a tighter hand (Ewald). That ye should be officers; rather, that there should be officers. Zephaniah himself was an "officer" or "deputy" (see above); but he was also "chief in the house of the Lord," and had the appointment of inferior "officers," whose duty it was to preserve order in the temple. To understand the following words, we must remember that the outer court of the temple was a favorite place for prophetic teaching (comp. Jeremiah 7:2; Jeremiah 26:2). For every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet; i.e. to keep an eye upon "madmen" and prophetizers. The term "mad" is used in a disparaging sense (as 2 Kings 9:11; comp. Hosea 9:7), with regard to the apparently senseless behavior of those who were overpowered by the spirit of prophecy. In earlier times, no doubt, the phenomena of prophecy were more violently opposed to everyday life than in Jeremiah's time; but such symbolic acts as appearing in public with a yoke upon his neck would at least excuse the application of the epithet even to Jeremiah. It is more than probable, however, that it was not so much the abnormal actions as the contents of Jeremiah's prophecies which stirred up such vehement opposition; observe how in the next verse only the sound of these descriptive nouns is retained

116

("which maketh himself a prophet"). It was the making prophecy a reality which disturbed the men of routine, and Shemaiah well knew this when he made this appeal to Zephaniah. There was no harm in being nominally a "prophet," but to "make," or rather, "show one's self as a prophet," to be an energetic prophet, a prophetizer,—this was wormwood to those who cried, "Peace, peace," when there was no peace. In prison, and in the stocks; rather, in the stocks (see on Jeremiah 20:2) and in the collar. The meaning seems to be that Jeremiah was subjected to both forms of punishment at once.

27 So why have you not reprimanded Jeremiah from Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you?

GILL, "Now therefore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth,.... Not by words only, but by actions; by beating and scourging, by pillory or imprisonment, and so restraining him from prophesying to the people: which maketh himself a prophet unto you? takes upon him such an office, though not sent of the Lord, as he would insinuate: this shows the haughtiness and insolence of the false prophets in Babylon, to assume such authority to themselves, to dictate to the high priest, as Kimchi takes him to be, or however the second priest, what he should do, and to rebuke him for not doing his office.

28 He has sent this message to us in Babylon: It will be a long time. Therefore build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.’”

117

BARNES, "Jer_29:28This captivity is long - Rather, It is long. God’s anger, their punishment, the exile, the time necessary for their repentance - all is long to men who will never live to see their country again.

GILL, "For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying,.... That is, Jeremiah the prophet; and this was the reason, because his mouth was not stopped, and he restrained from prophesying; so that Shemaiah lays all the blame on Zephaniah, and his brethren the priests; who, had they done their duty, would have prevented Jeremiah's letter to the captives, as he suggests; the purport of which was, this captivity is long; so Kimchi, Abarbinel, and Ben Melech, supply it; or, "it is long" (m); it will be a long time before the captives shall return to their own land; and therefore they should not think of it, or provide for it; but, on the contrary, for their continuance in Babylon; giving the following advice: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; referring to Jeremiah's letter; See Gill on Jer_29:5.

CALVIN, "The crime ascribed to Jeremiah was, — that he rendered the captives indifferent, so that they cast off every hope of deliverance, and disregarded their own country. But the design of Jeremiah was far different; it was, that the people might not by too much haste anticipate the promises of God, and that he might also extend their hope to the end, prefixed. As there are two causal particles here found,

כן-כי על , ki ol-ken, some give this rendering, “For for this cause,” that is, because he claimed the name of a Prophet. The simpler meaning however is, that he gives a reason why Shemaiah blamed the neglect of the priest, even because he (Jeremiah) had habituated the captives to bear their exiles. But he reproached the holy man, as though he had made them indifferent through long delay. Jeremiah had indeed said that the time would be long; but this particular phrase, It is long, means a different thing, as though Jeremiah wished to bury in oblivion the hope of a return, because it would have been foolish to languish so long.

29 Zephaniah the priest, however, read the letter to Jeremiah the prophet. 118

GILL, "And Zephaniah the priest read this letter,.... Of Shemaiah's to him, and the other priests: in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet: whether out of good will, to let him know who were his enemies abroad; or out of ill will, to stir up the people against him; or in pretence of proceeding equitably with him; not taking him up, and punishing him before he brought the accusation and charge against him; and acquainted him who were his accusers, and what evidence there was, and heard what he had to say in his own defence whether one or the other is uncertain; however, by this means Jeremiah came to the knowledge of Shemaiah's letter.CALVIN, "It follows, And Zephaniah had read, etc The past perfect tense is more suitable here, for the verse ought to be put in a parenthesis. The Prophet obviates a doubt which might have been entertained. He then shews how the prophecy was made known to him; he was one of the hearers when the letter was read. And it is probable that the priest called Jeremiah on purpose, that he might be proved guilty by his own accuser. However this may have been, he wished to expose the holy man to the hatred of the people, or rather to their fury. The constancy of Jeremiah was worthy of greater praise, while he boldly reproved the arrogance of them all, who had nothing else in view but to suppress God’s truth by force and tyranny. COFFMAN, ""And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying, Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith Jehovah concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he hath caused you to trust in a lie, therefore, thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed; he shall not have a son to dwell among his people, neither shall he behold the good that I will do unto my people, saith Jehovah, because he hath spoken rebellion against Jehovah."This paragraph might well indeed have been included as a fitting introduction to this whole chapter. The chronological sequence of events in Jeremiah is very difficult to know with any certainty."Zephaniah ... read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah ..." (Jeremiah 29:29). Evidently the deputy High Priest honored and trusted Jeremiah as the true prophet of God; and instead of placing Jeremiah in the stocks and shackles as Shemaiah had requested, he informed the prophet of all that was going on. Note that God here commanded Jeremiah to write not merely Shemaiah but, "to all of them of the captivity," (Jeremiah 29:31). Thus the words to Shemaiah were to be included in the letter to all the captives, as it appears in this chapter.PETT, "Jeremiah 29:29

119

‘And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.’Shemaiah had rather overestimated his own authority, for Zephaniah does not appear to have taken his letter too seriously. He appears to have been on reasonable terms with Jeremiah (Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 37:3) and thus showed him the letter. Had the intent not been good we would have expected that he would be rebuked by YHWH along with Shemaiah. He may have intended Jeremiah to take warning from it, or may simply have done it out of interest, and so that Jeremiah might be aware of the opposition. But there is no suggestion that he followed up on the letter or had any vindictive idea in mind.

30 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:

GILL, "When came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah,.... After he had heard the letter read: saying; as follows:

31 “Send this message to all the exiles: ‘This is what the Lord says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and has persuaded you to trust in lies,

GILL, "Send to all them of the captivity,.... Another letter; not to Shemaiah, but to the people, that they might all know that he was a false prophet; and how his lies were resented by the Lord; and what punishment should be inflicted on him and his, on

120

account of them: saying, thus saith the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; the letter, though written by the prophet, must be sent in the name of the Lord, declaring what he would do with the person mentioned, and the reason of it; which follows: because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie; that they should in a very little time return from their captivity to Jerusalem.CALVIN, "Jeremiah distinctly declares that this impostor would not escape unpunished, because he had dared falsely to pretend the name of God, and avowedly opposed Jeremiah. Here, then, the Prophet makes no long discourse, but on the contrary simply declares by the power of the Spirit what would take place. He speaks in God’s name, for he had been sent as a herald to proclaim this judgment. This, then, is the reason why he is so brief; for there was to be no dispute, though the impostor on the other hand was carrying himself very high, and hesitated not to overthrow the revealed truth of God, which had been confirmed by many witnesses.The sum of what is stated is, that Shemaiah would not see the favor of God, and that none of his seed would remain alive. It was a curse under the Law, as it is well known, that one should have no seed left. (Deuteronomy 28:18.) Jeremiah then denounces on Shemaiah this punishment, that no one of his seed would remain alive, but that he would die childless; and then he excludes him from the enjoyment of the benefit which the Lord had determined to bestow on his people. He wished to return after two years to his own country; Jeremiah commanded the people patiently to endure their exile to the end of seventy years, which was the time of their deliverance. As, then, Shemaiah despised the lawful time, he was deprived of the favor of seeing that event.Added then is the reason; first, because he had abused the name of God; he prophesied and I had not sent him, said the Lord; the second reason was, that he deceived the people with a vain hope; falsehood of itself is worthy of a heavy punishment; but when it was pernicious to God’s people, it became still more heinous, and therefore worthy of a twofold punishment.Now we see that Jeremiah esteemed as nothing that he was condemned by Shemaiah; for he retained his own dignity; though the impostor attempted to subvert his authority, yet the Prophet speaks as though he was wholly unstained and not hurt nor affected by any calumny. The same magnanimity of mind is what all faithful teachers ought to possess, so as to look down, as from on high, on all deceivers, and their chatterings, and curses, and to go on in their course, however insolently the despisers of God may rise up against them, and tear and overwhelm them with reproaches. Let then all those who seek to serve God and his Church

121

follow this example of the Prophet, so that they may not be discouraged in their minds when they find that they have to contend with dishonest men.But Jeremiah is bidden to write to all the captives, for Shemaiah was not worthy of being reproved; but God had a regard for the public safety of the exiles, and reminded them of what would take place. It is indeed probable that this prophecy was without any fruit, until it was known by the event itself that Jeremiah had not without reason thus prophesied. Until, then, Shemaiah died, and died without any to succeed him, the people disregarded what had been predicted; but at length they were constrained to acknowledge that Jeremiah had not spoken his own thought, but had been furnished with a message from God; for God really fulfilled what he had predicted by the mouth of his Prophet.The two reasons follow, why God resolved to punish Shemaiah: the first is, that he had seized on the prophetic office without a call; and hence we conclude, according to what has already appeared, that this office which had been instituted by God, was perverted, when any one intruded into it without a commission. Let us then know that no one ought to be deemed a legitimate teacher, except he can really shew that he has been called from above. I have in several places stated that two things belonged to a call; the inward call was the chief thing when the state of the Church was in disorder, that is, when the priests neglected the duty of teaching, and wholly departed from what their office required. When, therefore, the Church became disordered, God applied an extraordinary remedy by raising up prophets. But when the Church is rightly and regularly formed, no one can boast that he is a pastor or a minister, except he is also called by the suffrages of men. But as I have spoken on this subject more at large on the twenty-third chapter, I only slightly refer to it now.As to the present passage in which God condemns Shemaiah for having thrust in himself without being called, what is meant is, that he brought forward his own dreams, having been furnished with no commission; for the prophetic office was then special. Then Shemaiah is here rejected as an impostor, because he had only brought forward prophecies suggested by his own brains, which yet he falsely pretended to have been from God; and it was a most atrocious crime, as it was a sacrilege to abuse, as Shemaiah did, the name of God. But the atrocity of his sin the Prophet still further sets forth, by saying that his prophecies were pernicious and fatal to the people. We hence conclude how solicitous God was for the safety of his people, in thus avenging the falsehoods which were calculated to lead them to ruin; and Jeremiah shews that Shemaiah’s teaching was ruinous, because he inebriated the people with false confidence; he made you, he says, to trust in falsehood; for he promised them a quick return, when it was God’s will, that the Jews should patiently bear their exile till the end of the seventy years. PETT, "Jeremiah 29:30-32‘Then came the word of YHWH to Jeremiah, saying, “Send to all those of the captivity, saying, Thus says YHWH concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because

122

Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I did not send him, and he has caused you to trust in a lie, therefore thus says YHWH, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed. He will not have a man to dwell among this people, nor will he behold the good that I will do to my people, the word of YHWH, because he has spoken rebellion against YHWH.”YHWH provided Jeremiah with a reply to Shemaiah’s letter which was to be addressed to all the exiles who were apparently living together in a community. It informed the community that Shemaiah was a false prophet. Although he had prophesied he had not been sent by YHWH, and he had made them trust in a lie. Therefore YHWH would punish both him and his family. Any men in his close family would die, no more sons would be born to him, and he himself would not survive until the restoration. Thus basically his name would be blotted out of Israel. And this was on the sure prophetic word of YHWH. And the reason was because of his rebellion against YHWH. Thus while not suffering to the same extent as the previous two prophets, and as Hananiah in Jerusalem, he was to suffer in the long run.

32 this is what the Lord says: I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good things I will do for my people, declares the Lord, because he has preached rebellion against me.’”

CLARKE, "I will punish Shemaiah -1. He shall have no posterity to succeed him.2. His family, i.e., relations, etc., shall not be found among those whom I shall bring back from captivity.

123

3. Nor shall he himself see the good that I shall do for my people.And all this shall come upon him and his because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord. He excited the people to reject Jeremiah, and to receive the lying words of the false prophets; and these led them to rebel.

GILL, "Therefore thus saith the Lord,.... Because he prophesied without being sent of God, and prophesied lies, by which the people were deceived: behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed; not him only, but his posterity also: thus God sometimes visits the sins of parents on their children, they being, as it were, a part of themselves, and oftentimes partners with them in their iniquities: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; either at Babylon, or at Jerusalem, whither he had promised a speedy return: neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the Lord; by returning them, after seventy years captivity, to their own land, and to the enjoyment of all their privileges, civil and religious: because he hath taught rebellion against the Lord; or, "a departure (n) from him"; taught men to revolt from him, and not give heed to his prophets; to disbelieve what he said by them, concerning their continuance in Babylon; which is called a rebellion against him; and being so heinous a crime, deserved the punishment denounced on him and his; rebels and their offspring are punished among men. CALVIN, "But we may deduce from this passage a useful doctrine, — that nothing is more pestiferous in a Church than for men to be led away by a false confidence or trust. For it is the foundation of all true religion to depend on the mouth or word of God; and it is also the foundation of our salvation. As, then, the salvation of men as well as true religion is founded on faith and the obedience of faith; so also when we are drawn away to some false trust, the whole of true religion falls to the ground, and at the same time every hope of salvation vanishes. This ought to be carefully observed, so that we may learn to embrace that doctrine which teaches us to trust in no other than in the only true God, and reject all those inventions which may lead us away from him, even in the least degree, so that we may not look around us nor be carried here and there.For this reason, as I have said, the Prophet declares that Shemaiah would die childless, and be precluded from enjoying the favor which God had resolved and even promised to bestow on his people. And all this, as I have reminded you, was said for the sake of the people; for this prophecy did no good to Shemaiah nor to his posterity; but his punishment ought to have benefited the miserable exiles so as to lead them to repentance, however late it may have been. This is the import of the passage.

124