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Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles in Babylon

These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ²This was after King Jeconiah, and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem. ³The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said: ⁴Thus says the L ord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. ⁷But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the L ord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. ⁸For thus says the L ord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, ⁹for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the L ord.

¹⁰ For thus says the L ord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. ¹¹For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the L ord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. ¹²Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. ¹³When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, ¹⁴I will let you find me, says the L ord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the L ord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

¹⁵ Because you have said, “The L ord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,”— ¹⁶Thus says the L ord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who live in this city, your kinsfolk who did not go out with you into exile: ¹⁷Thus says the L ord of hosts, I am going to let loose on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like rotten figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. ¹⁸I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of cursing, and horror, and hissing, and a derision among all the nations where I have driven them, ¹⁹because they did not heed my words, says the L ord, when I persistently sent to you my servants the prophets, but they would not listen, says the L ord. ²⁰But now, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon, hear the word of the L ord: ²¹Thus says the L ord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying a lie to you in my name: I am going to deliver them into the hand of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and he shall kill them before your eyes. ²²And on account of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: “The L ord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,” ²³because they have perpetrated outrage in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them; I am the one who knows and bears witness, says the L ord.

The Letter of Shemaiah

²⁴ To Shemaiah of Nehelam you shall say: ²⁵Thus says the L ord of hosts, the God of Israel: In your own name you sent a letter to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests, saying, ²⁶The L ord himself has made you priest instead of the priest Jehoiada, so that there may be officers in the house of the L ord to control any madman who plays the prophet, to put him in the stocks and the collar. ²⁷So now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who plays the prophet for you? ²⁸For he has actually sent to us in Babylon, saying, “It will be a long time; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat what they produce.”

²⁹ The priest Zephaniah read this letter in the hearing of the prophet Jeremiah. ³⁰Then the word of the L ord came to Jeremiah: ³¹Send to all the exiles, saying, Thus says the L ord concerning Shemaiah of Nehelam: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and has led you to trust in a lie, ³²therefore thus says the L ord: I am going to punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his descendants; he shall not have anyone living among this people to see the good that I am going to do to my people, says the L ord, for he has spoken rebellion against the L ord.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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; ²¹⁹²¹⁹ Gataker approves of this and says, evidently referring to Calvin, “So an interpreter of prime note rendereth it.” That כי is sometimes an iliative is generally admitted; and here the connection cannot otherwise be seen. There is a large gap after the 15th verse (Jeremiah 29:15) in the Sept., the verses 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 (Jeremiah 29:16-20), are omitted, but not in the other versions nor in the Targ.; and Blayney has thereby been led to put the 15th verse out of its place and set it between the 20th and the 21st, but without sufficient reason. The connection, as shewn by Calvin, is suitable as the verse now is, and by removing it, the drift of what follows is not so clearly seen.
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 24^th (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 5^th (Jeremiah 29:5) with the 28^th (Jeremiah 29:28). — Ed. 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.”

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 the king who sits on the throne of David, and to all the people who sit in this city, etc

To sit, as I have already said, is to be taken here in two different senses; the king is 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.

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 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, —

²¹⁹ Gataker approves of this and says, evidently referring to Calvin, “So an interpreter of prime note rendereth it.” That כי is sometimes an iliative is generally admitted; and here the connection cannot otherwise be seen. There is a large gap after the 15th verse (Jeremiah 29:15) in the Sept., the verses 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 (Jeremiah 29:16-20), are omitted, but not in the other versions nor in the Targ.; and Blayney has thereby been led to put the 15th verse out of its place and set it between the 20th and the 21st, but without sufficient reason. The connection, as shewn by Calvin, is suitable as the verse now is, and by removing it, the drift of what follows is not so clearly seen. 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.