Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Jeremiah 29:28
28. Referring to Jeremiah's first letter to Babylon (Jeremiah 29:5). read more
28. Referring to Jeremiah's first letter to Babylon (Jeremiah 29:5). read more
Jeremiah’s letter to Shemaiah in Babylon 29:24-28Jeremiah wrote another letter, this time in response to a letter that the false prophet Shemaiah in Babylon wrote to Zephaniah the priest and the Judahites still in Jerusalem. Jeremiah quoted Shemaiah’s letter, and it fills most of this section (Jeremiah 29:26-28). Shemaiah’s letter was a response to Jeremiah’s first letter to the exiles (Jeremiah 29:1-23). read more
Shemaiah also reproved Zephaniah for not rebuking Jeremiah, because Jeremiah had written the exiles encouraging them to settle down in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:4-7).This pericope does not record what the Lord said would happen to Shemaiah as punishment for what he did; Jeremiah 29:25 has no apodosis. We must assume that divine judgment would come on him. The main reason for this pericope is to expose the wicked advice Shemaiah was giving, not to explain the judgment he would receive. The next... read more
1-14. Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles. Release after seventy years.1. Prophets] The exiles in Babylon had also false prophets, e.g. Ahab and Zedekiah (Jeremiah 29:21), and Shemaiah (of Jeremiah 29:24) among them. But they were on the whole of a better class (see Jeremiah 24:5-7), and the prophet might hope that his words would have more effect. 2. Carpenters] RV ’craftsmen.’4-7. They are not to sit loose to the land of their exile, but to make homes for themselves there. Else they will soon... read more
(28) This captivity is long . . .—As the italics show, there is no word corresponding to “captivity” in the Hebrew, and some commentators render the words, It is far off . . . as though Jeremiah had counted on the distance of Babylon as enabling him to write the letter with impunity, or possibly in all the emphasis of abruptness. “All is a long way off—the end of your exile, your present distance from your native land, and haste, therefore, is but folly.” read more
CHAPTER XCORRESPONDENCE 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... read more
CHAPTER 29 Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles 1. Jeremiah’s letter (Jeremiah 29:1-23 ) 2. Concerning Shemaiah and his false prophecies (Jeremiah 29:24-32 ) Jeremiah 29:1-23 . King Zedekiah sent Elasah and Gemariah on a diplomatic mission to King Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah used the occasion to send a letter by them to the exiles. The letter first of all makes it clear that their stay in Babylon will not be transitory. They are to settle down, build homes, many, rear families, take wives for... read more
MORE MESSAGES FOR ZEDEKIAH In some respects the most important chapter here is the first, which deals with Babylon’s supremacy, and reveals the beginning of “the times of the Gentiles,” or “the fulness of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:25 ). The term refers to the period when Israel, because of her disobedience to God, has forfeited her place of power in the earth and is scattered among the nations. It begins when God transfers this power to the Gentiles as represented by Babylon, and continues... read more
I cannot help admiring the gracious providence of God over the Church, in that the events which took place in one age, so exactly corresponds to what takes place in another: as if to prove to God's faithful ones, that in all ages they must and shall suffer persecution. Reader! do not fail to remark, how the faithful writings of Jeremiah is opposed by the lying writings of Shemaiah and his fellows. And doth not every generation bring forth the same? But oh! behold how the Lord himself... read more
Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 29:1-32
Letters to the captives in Babylon (29:1-32)In 597 BC several thousand of Jerusalem’s most capable people were taken captive to Babylon. Among them were some false prophets who began to predict, as Hananiah had done, that Babylon was about to fall and that the Judean captives were about to return to Jerusalem. Jeremiah, on hearing of this, wrote a letter to the community of captives (29:1-3).The advice Jeremiah gives to the exiles is that they settle down to a more or less permanent way of... read more