CHAPTER 29

(599 B.C.)

JEREMIAHS LETTER TO THE CAPTIVES

¹Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the Prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders which were carried away captives, and to the Priests, and to the Prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon (the problem with the false prophets in Jerusalem was the same among the captives in Babylon. There were false prophets there, as well, proclaiming that the yoke of Babylon would be thrown off, thereby giving the people there a false hope. Ezekiel was the major exception in Babylon. Jeremiah sent a letter to these captives declaring the opposite of what these false prophets were proclaiming. The captivity, Jeremiah said, was going to be long, even 70 years);

²(After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem [Jehoiachin, who was the same king as Jeconiah, only reigned for three months and ten days before he was taken captive along with others; this letter also will be given to him];)

³By 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 (Elasah and Gemariah were the sons of the good men who found the original Scroll of the Pentateuch [II Ki., Chpts. 22-23; II Chron. 34:14]; no doubt, they willingly carried Jeremiahs letter to the captives),

⁴Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, unto all who are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon (intelligence in the Ways and Counsels of God, as revealed in His Word, submission to those Counsels, and a recognition of His just Judgments upon unfaithfulness, together with a blameless life and prayer for the peace of the Earthly government ordained by God, bring a measure of tranquility and prosperity to the obedient, but suffering and punishment to the disobedient);

⁵Build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them (evidently, these unhappy captives had not been doing such, thinking, according to the false prophecies given by the false prophets, that they would be restored any day to Judah. Jeremiahs letter would say the very opposite, and in no uncertain terms);

⁶Take you 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; that you may be increased there, and not diminished. (That you may be increased there, and not diminished, pertains to the fact that the nation is to be kept alive.)

⁷And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall you have peace. (And seek the peace of the city, refers to Babylon and the blessing that Gods People, even though under chastisement, could be to their host city and country. This proclaims the power of Gods People.)

⁸For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, who be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. (Recognition of Gods Judgment upon unfaithfulness was necessary in order to explain why the Divine Promise of Supremacy to the throne of David seemed to be forgotten. The popular preachers of Verses 8 and 9 could point to certain Bible Promises; with a show of spirituality and fidelity, they consoled the people with them. But the true Prophets of Jehovah recognized the temporary forfeiture of these Promises because of sin and they announced the coming Wrath of God; for in the spiritual as in the physical realm, the night precedes the day.)

⁹For they prophesy falsely unto you in My Name: I have not sent them, says, the LORD. (How did the people know what to believe, especially in view of the fact that Ezekiel in Babylonia stood alone, as Jeremiah in Jerusalem stood alone? They were to do as Jesus later said, Check the fruit [Mat. 7:15-20].)

THE PROMISE OF RESTORATION AFTER SEVENTY YEARS

¹⁰For thus says the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform My good Word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. (The seventy years began with the first deportation, which took place in 605 B.C., with the captivity ending in 536 B.C., for a total of 70 years. I will visit you, refers to the Lord paying heed to His People and restoring them to Judah and Jerusalem, which would be done after the seventy-year period of time.)

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Upon obedience to the Lord, with a sincere attempt to follow His Ways and Word, His thoughts toward us are always thoughts of peace, and not of evil.)

¹²Then shall you call upon Me, and you shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. (The Restoration under Cyrus fulfilled the Prophecy of Verses 10 through 14. That Restoration was an earnest of the yet greater one of the future.)

¹³And you shall seek Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart. (This glorious Promise is given to any and to all, and for all time!)

¹⁴And I will be found of you, says the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, says the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. (Verses 13 and 14 are a carte blanche invitation to any and all, irrespective of the need, to come to the Lord for help. And yet, so few take advantage of these great Promises!)

¹⁵Because you have said, The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon (other than Ezekiel in Babylonia, there is no record that there were other true Prophets, which means the ones among the captives who were prophesying peace were not sent by the LORD);

¹⁶Know that thus says the LORD of the king who sits upon the throne of David, and of all the people who dwell in this city, and of your brethren who are not gone forth with you into captivity (with startling clarity, the Holy Spirit will once again proclaim the Truth to those in Judah and Babylon);

¹⁷Thus says the LORD 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 evil. (The Holy Spirit has repeatedly attempted to get the people to submit to the righteous judgment upon them and thus yield to the Babylonian Empire, but to no avail! Had they yielded to the Command of the Lord, they might have been able to stay in their own land, although subservient to Babylon; however, they would not heed the Word of God, even after two deportations, which were a harbinger which was to come. Despite the Word of the Lord, they resisted until Nebuchadnezzar completely destroyed them.)

¹⁸And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the Earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them (These people, the sons of Jacob, were meant by the Lord to be a blessing to the entirety of the world, but instead they were, because of sin, a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach):

¹⁹Because they have not hearkened to My Words, says the LORD, which I sent unto them by My Servants the Prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear, says the LORD. (But you would not hear, says the LORD, pertains to the spiritual insensibility that had resulted from a hardened heart [Heb. 3:13].)

JUDGMENT ON THE FALSE PROPHETS IN BABYLON

²⁰Hear you therefore the Word of the LORD, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon (those in captivity had been hearing false prophets, and now they are admonished to hear you therefore the Word of the LORD. They were to understand that they were in Babylonia because God had sent them there; consequently, neither the disposition of Egypt nor who was ruling in Babylon really mattered. Their situation was unchangeable because the Lord was the Author):

²¹Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in My Name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall kill them before your eyes (this Ahab was not the same as king Ahab who lived many years before Jeremiahs time, nor was this Zedekiah the king of Judah. They both were false prophets. As well, the Holy Spirit through Jeremiah called their names and pronounced doom upon them for their false prophecies. They were to be killed by Nebuchadnezzar. So, this puts to rest the idea that true Prophets should not call the names of those who are false);

²²And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire (Roasted in the fire, seems to imply that these false prophets were cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. The Lord would deliver the three Hebrew Children [Dan., Chpt. 3] but would not deliver these false prophets. As well, this Passage implies that if the people believe the lies of these false prophets, a curse would be upon them);

²³Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours wives, and have spoken lying words in My Name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, says the LORD. (Even I know, and am a witness, says the LORD, is chilling indeed! It refers to the fact that the Lord knows all and sees all, i.e., is a witness.)

²⁴Thus shall you also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying (this man Shemaiah seems to have been the leader of the false prophets in Babylon. Thus, Jeremiah again publicly calls the name of another false prophet),

²⁵Thus speaks the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your name unto all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the Priest, and to all the Priests, saying (the letters of Shemaiah will seek the harm of Jeremiah),

²⁶The LORD has made you Priest in the stead of Jehoiada the Priest, that you should be officers in the House of the LORD, for every man who is mad, and makes himself a Prophet, that you should put him in prison, and in the stocks. (Shemaiah was demanding that the High Priest put Jeremiah in prison and in the stocks. By using the phrase, And makes himself a Prophet, he was claiming that Jeremiah was not truly a Prophet of the Lord. He is calling on Zephaniah to stop this madman, as he refers to Jeremiah!)

²⁷Now therefore why have you not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which makes himself a Prophet to you? (These false prophets were not content to oppose the Lords Message; they also desired to attack the Messenger!)

²⁸For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. (Jeremiah was saying the very opposite of the false prophets. He was saying, the captivity is long, i.e., seventy years, while the false prophets were claiming that it was about over.)

²⁹And Zephaniah the Priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the Prophet. (This man Shemaiah had stated that it was the duty before God for Zephaniah the High Priest to arrest and imprison Jeremiah; that Jeremiah was a madman and a self-ordained Preacher. However, his command that Jeremiah should be shut up in the prison was met by Divine Judgment, which rather shut him and his children out of restored Jerusalem, as we shall soon see!)

³⁰Then came the Word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying (surely these false prophets had learned what had happened to Hananiah the prophet [28:17], Ahab and Zedekiah! Nevertheless, in the face of sure judgment, they persisted!),

³¹Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because that Shemaiah has prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie (this Verse outlines the responsibility of the Preacher of the Gospel to proclaim the Word of God without fear or favor. How many thousands of Preachers presently cause people to trust in a lie and, thereby, cause them to be eternally lost? Judah and Jerusalem would suffer terror at least in part because of these false prophets. Due to the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important and the most serious thing there is, true Preachers must not only preach the Truth, but they also must serve as watchmen and point out error, even calling the names of those who are preaching a false message, exactly as did Jeremiah. To be sure, such will be met by the anger of much of the Church; nevertheless, it must be done!):

³²Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for My People, says the LORD, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD. (To teach rebellion against the LORD is to teach that which is contrary to Gods Word. The Apostle Paul dealt with this in Gal. 1:8-9.

He shall not have a man to dwell among this people, actually referred to a curse placed upon him by the Lord. It meant his posterity would be cut off, which meant that no sons would be born to him; or else, if he already had sons, none would be born to them. Or it could mean that all would be killed!)