Jeremiah 29

Seek the Peace of the City

A letter to the exiles in Babylon tells them to build houses, pray for the city that holds them, and wait seventy years, and not to believe the prophets who promise a quick return.

The chapter gives no date. Verse 2 places the letter after the deportation of Jeconiah in 597 B.C. (Bible Dictionary), in the early years of Zedekiah; Jeremiah 28, whose subject is the same, is dated to Zedekiah’s fourth year. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

In 597 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar took King Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), the queen mother, the court, the leading families and the craftsmen of Jerusalem to Babylon (2 Kgs. 24:10–16).

In 597 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar took King Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), the queen mother, the court, the leading families and the craftsmen of Jerusalem to Babylon (2 Kgs. 24:10–16). The letter in this chapter is addressed to those first exiles, and it travels with envoys whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, was sending to Nebuchadnezzar (verse 3).

The exiles were hearing two messages. Their own prophets said the captivity would be short. In Jerusalem, Hananiah was saying the same thing in the temple: the yoke of Babylon was already broken and the vessels would be back in two years (Jer. 28:1–3). Jeremiah says the opposite, and he says it in writing, to people he cannot reach in person.

The chapter has three parts. Verses 1–14 are the letter: settle in, pray for the city, ignore the prophets who promise quick relief, and expect a return after seventy years. Verses 15–23 turn on the exiles' prophets and on those left in Jerusalem. Verses 24–32 record the reaction: Shemaiah, one of the exiles, writes to Jerusalem demanding that Jeremiah be silenced, and Jeremiah is told what to answer. The Church's heading summarizes it: “Jeremiah tells the Jews in Babylon to prepare for seventy years of captivity—Those remaining in Jerusalem will yet be scattered—Shemaiah prophesies falsely and is cursed.”

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 29 answers a question that every people under discipline eventually asks: how do you live while God's judgment is still in force?

Jeremiah 29 answers a question that every people under discipline eventually asks: how do you live while God's judgment is still in force? The letter gives three answers, and each is aimed at a mistake.

Not despair: the exiles are to build, plant, marry, and pray for Babylon's welfare (verses 5–7), because the life God gives them there is real life. Not false hope: any voice that promises a quick return is lying in the Lord's name (verses 8–9, 15, 21–23, 31–32), and the chapter spends more than half its length on those voices. And not a bare resignation: the seventy years have an end, and the Lord's “thoughts of peace” toward them (verse 11) become a promise of return that depends on their seeking Him “with all your heart” (verses 12–14).

The chapter is also a contest between two prophets' words, and it is settled the same way as in chapter 28: whoever the Lord has not sent “caused you to trust in a lie” (verse 31), and the one He has sent is the one whose words are fulfilled.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–3

The letter and its carriers

In plain words

This is the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people Nebuchadnezzar took from Jerusalem to Babylon. It was sent after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen had left Jerusalem. Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah sent to Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, carried it.

1 Now 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;

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;)

Context #

The exiles of 597

The letter goes to the people deported with King Jeconiah, who is the king called Jehoiachin in 2 Kgs. 24:12.

The letter goes to the people deported with King Jeconiah, who is the king called Jehoiachin in 2 Kgs. 24:12. The Church edition's footnote sends the verse to 2 Kgs. 24:15, and the two passages list the same classes: the king and his mother, his officials, the leading men, and the craftsmen and smiths, “ten thousand captives” in all, with only “the poorest sort of the people of the land” left behind (2 Kgs. 24:14). The Bible Dictionary dates this deportation to 597 B.C. and a second to 586.

So the exiles are the nation's leaders. Jeremiah's vision of the figs, given after the same deportation, shows them as the good figs, sent out of Judah “for their good” (Jer. 24:1–2; Jer. 24:5). They are not the rejected ones, and the letter is not a rebuke for their own exile. It is a warning against the prophets who are unsettling them (verses 8–9).

Verse 3 says Zedekiah sent “Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah” to Babylon, and that the letter went with them (verse 3). The text says nothing more about either man or about the embassy's purpose. This Gemariah is not the Gemariah son of Shaphan, the scribe, whose chamber in the temple is named in Jer. 36:10; the fathers differ.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Captivities of the Israelites”, Bible Dictionary. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3 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,

Verses 4–9

Settle in and pray; do not believe the prophets

In plain words

The Lord says to all the exiles whom He sent to Babylon: build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit, marry and have children, and find wives and husbands for your children, so that you increase there instead of dwindling. Work for the good of the city where I sent you, and pray to the Lord for it, because its welfare is yours. Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They prophesy lies in my name; I did not send them.

4 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;

5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;

Context #

Settle in, because it will be long

Jeremiah tells the exiles to make a normal life in Babylon, and the reason is that they will be there a long time.

Jeremiah tells the exiles to make a normal life in Babylon, and the reason is that they will be there a long time. They are to “build houses,” plant gardens, marry, raise children, and find spouses for those children (verses 5–6). Elsewhere in the chapter the plan is summed up by the people who oppose it: “This captivity is long” (verse 28). They were to “be prepared to live there and enjoy Babylon the best they could.”

The instruction is aimed at the hope, raised by the exiles' own prophets (verse 8), that Babylon's rule would not last. Discontent of that kind would defeat the purpose of the chastisement, “the moral advancement of the people,” so Jeremiah counsels the exiles “to yield with submission to the lot God had assigned to them.” The same message is given in Jerusalem, where Jeremiah tells Zedekiah to bring his neck under Babylon's yoke “and live” (Jer. 27:12).

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Jeremiah 29: Jeremiah’s Letter to the Captives, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide (2002), 161–62. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

6 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; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.

7 And 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 ye have peace.

Language #

Peace means welfare, and it is shared

“Peace” here is the Hebrew shalom, which the lexicon glosses as “completeness, soundness, welfare, peace.”

“Peace” here is the Hebrew shalom, which the lexicon glosses as “completeness, soundness, welfare, peace.” It means more than the absence of war: the city's shalom is its general well-being. The exiles are to look for that, and to “pray unto the LORD for it,” in the very city of the people who conquered them.

The reason given is the second half of the verse: “in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” The exiles' good is tied to the good of the place where God has put them. The letter says the exiles are there because the Lord “caused” it (verses 4, 7, 14). Babylon's welfare is “the necessary condition of their own.” Babylon's own reckoning is for the Lord to bring, when the seventy years are over (Jer. 25:12).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.

Context #

The exiles' own prophets

The exiles had prophets of their own, and they were promising a short captivity.

The exiles had prophets of their own, and they were promising a short captivity. The verse does not say what they predicted, but verse 10 answers them, so the content can be read from the reply: “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.”

It is the same message that Jeremiah had been fighting at home. The Church edition's footnote sends verse 8 to Jer. 27:9, where he tells Judah in Jerusalem not to listen to “your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers” who say they will not serve the king of Babylon, and the clash with Hananiah in Jer. 28:1–4 shows what such a prophet said: a break in the yoke within two years. The exiles in Babylon, then, were being offered the same hope as the people at home.

Jeremiah's test, in his answer to Hananiah, is the one Moses gave (Deut. 18:22): the prophet whose words come to pass is the one the Lord has sent. Hananiah died the same year (Jer. 28:16–17).

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

9 For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.

Latter-day Prophets #

False prophets always arise

The false prophets here speak “in my name,” and so are hard to tell from true ones.

The false prophets here speak “in my name,” and so are hard to tell from true ones. Joseph Smith taught in May 1844 that “false prophets always arise to oppose the true prophets, and will deceive almost the very chosen ones,” and the same principle, that “false prophets always arise to oppose true prophets,” is taught from Jeremiah 28–29. That is the situation in Babylon: the exiles' prophets and Jeremiah both claim the name of the Lord, and the exiles must decide between them (verse 15).

The Lord's own statement settles it for the chapter: “I have not sent them” (verse 9), and again of Shemaiah, “I sent him not” (verse 31). The Topical Guide entry the Church edition gives for verse 9 is “False Prophets.”

Sources: Discourse, 12 May 1844, as Reported by Thomas Bullock, The Joseph Smith Papers. Jeremiah 20–29, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Resource Manual. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 10–14

Seventy years, and then a future

In plain words

When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will take notice of you and keep my good promise to bring you back here. I know the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope. You will call on me and pray to me, and I will listen. You will look for me and find me, when you look for me with all your heart. I will let you find me, and I will reverse your captivity and gather you from all the nations and places where I drove you, and bring you back to the place I sent you away from.

10 For thus saith 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.

Context #

Counting the seventy years

The seventy years are tied to Babylon's rule. Jeremiah first announced them in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, “that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon”: “these…

The seventy years are tied to Babylon's rule. Jeremiah first announced them in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, “that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon”: “these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years,” and when they were over the Lord would “punish the king of Babylon” (Jer. 25:1; Jer. 25:11–12). The Church edition's footnote at this verse points back to that passage. Second Chronicles says the survivors served Nebuchadnezzar and his sons “until the reign of the kingdom of Persia… to fulfil threescore and ten years,” and that Cyrus's proclamation in his first year was “that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished” (2 Chr. 36:20–22; Ezra 1:1). Daniel “understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet” (Dan. 9:2).

So the period is measured by Babylon's rule over the nations, not by any one deportation. By the Bible Dictionary's dates the deportations came in 597 and 586, and the captivity “was brought to a close by the decree of Cyrus in 536 B.C.”; from the fall of Jerusalem to that decree is about fifty years. The text does not say from which year the seventy are counted.

Related Scriptures #

Lehi and Jacob on the return

The promise of return at the end of the captivity is one that Book of Mormon prophets repeat.

The promise of return at the end of the captivity is one that Book of Mormon prophets repeat. The Church edition's footnotes on this verse point to Jeremiah's own repetition of it, “I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah” (Jer. 33:14), and to two Book of Mormon passages.

Lehi prophesied, as Nephi records it, that after Jerusalem was destroyed and “many be carried away captive into Babylon, according to the own due time of the Lord, they should return again, yea, even be brought back out of captivity,” and then “possess again the land of their inheritance” (1 Ne. 10:3). His son Jacob says the Lord has shown him the same: those at Jerusalem “have been slain and carried away captive,” “nevertheless… they should return again” (2 Ne. 6:8–9). Nephi dates Lehi's call to “the first year of the reign of Zedekiah” (1 Ne. 1:4), so Lehi was prophesying in Jerusalem while the exiles Jeremiah is writing to were already in Babylon.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

11 For 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.

Context #

A promise to people in the middle of discipline

The verse is addressed to a people suffering the consequence of their covenant-breaking, and its meaning starts there.

The verse is addressed to a people suffering the consequence of their covenant-breaking, and its meaning starts there. It can seem “a strange thing for God to offer to the very people who are in the process of rejecting Him,” but the Lord “invites His people to return to Him and choose righteousness”: the offer is part of His efforts “to correct the path of His children.”

The next two verses make the promise conditional on their response. They will call and pray, they will search “with all your heart,” and then the Lord will hear and be found. Verses 10–14 “foreshadow” the chapters of consolation, 30–33, which speak of return from exile and a new covenant. “Peace” is again shalom (see verse 7): welfare in the full sense, not only quiet.

Sources: What Does Jeremiah 29:11 Mean?, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Learn article. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Language #

“An expected end” means a future and hope

“An expected end” is an older English rendering of the Hebrew 'acharit ve-tiqvah, which the NIV renders “a future and a hope.”

“An expected end” is an older English rendering of the Hebrew 'acharit ve-tiqvah, which the NIV renders “a future and a hope.” The lexicon explains the first word as “a future, i.e. a happy close of life, suggesting sometimes the idea of a posterity, promised to the righteous,” and lists this verse as an example; it reads the pair together as a hendiadys (one idea expressed with two words joined by “and”): “the hoped-for future.”

The same two words, “hope” and “end,” are in Jer. 31:17, the verse the Church edition's footnote gives here: “there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.” In 31:17 the hope is that the children will come back to their own border.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Latter-day Prophets #

Seeking the Lord with the whole heart

The promise of verses 12–13 was already part of Israel's understanding of exile.

The promise of verses 12–13 was already part of Israel's understanding of exile. Moses told Israel that “if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deut. 4:29), and Solomon's temple prayer anticipated Israel in a land of enemies who “return unto thee with all their heart” (1 Kgs. 8:48), which the Church edition gives as a footnote to verse 12. Jeremiah's letter makes the return depend on that seeking: “if they sought the Lord with all their hearts,” the Lord would bring them back to Jerusalem.

The Church edition also links verse 13 to 1 Ne. 1:5, where Lehi in Jerusalem “prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people,” in the same years, and to the risen Savior's words to the Nephites that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness “shall be filled with the Holy Ghost” (3 Ne. 12:6).

In October 2024 Bishop L. Todd Budge of the Presiding Bishopric closed a conference address on slowing down and returning to the Lord with the words of verse 13, with the testimony that “as we return often to the Lord with full purpose of heart, we will in quietness and confidence come to know Him and feel His infinite covenantal love for us.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeremiah 29: Jeremiah’s Letter to the Captives, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide (2002), 161–62. L. Todd Budge, “Seek Him with All Your Heart”, general conference, Oct. 2024.

14 And I will be found of you, saith 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, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

Related Scriptures #

A gathering wider than Babylon

The words go beyond the exile in Babylon. The exiles were in one country, yet the Lord speaks of gathering them “from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you.”

The words go beyond the exile in Babylon. The exiles were in one country, yet the Lord speaks of gathering them “from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you.” The Bible Dictionary says that after Cyrus's decree “only part of the people availed themselves of this permission; the rest remained behind and formed the dispersion.” The Church edition's topical guide entry for this verse is “Israel, Gathering of.”

The larger gathering is still ahead. Jeremiah “saw that scattered Israel would one day be gathered, that Judah would return to the lands of her inheritance, and that eventually all Israel would become great.” He gives the same promise in Jer. 32:37, “I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them,” and that promise of “a full return of all of the Lord's people” is “yet to be fully realized in the dispensation of the fulness of times” (see 3 Ne. 20:29–46 and 3 Ne. 21). Cyrus's decree fulfilled “the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah” (Ezra 1:1); the language of verse 14 reaches past it.

Sources: “Captivities of the Israelites”, Bible Dictionary. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeremiah 20–29, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Resource Manual. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 15–19

The exiles' prophets and those left in Jerusalem

In plain words

You say, “The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon.” But this is what the Lord says about the king on David's throne and all the people still in this city, your relatives who did not go into exile: I will send sword, famine, and plague, and make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten. I will pursue them and scatter them among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, a horror, a hissing, and a reproach among every nation where I drive them, because they would not listen to my words, which I sent again and again by my servants the prophets. And you also would not listen.

15 Because ye have said, The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon;

16 Know that thus saith the LORD of the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwelleth in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;

Context #

Why the letter turns to Jerusalem

The letter turns suddenly from the exiles to those who stayed in Jerusalem, and one reading is that the false prophets' hope depended on Jerusalem still standing.

The letter turns suddenly from the exiles to those who stayed in Jerusalem, and one reading is that the false prophets' hope depended on Jerusalem still standing. So long as a king of David's line sat in Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah stood, the exiles could believe that their captivity was a setback soon repaired, and the announcement that the city would fall was meant “to overthrow the foundations on which the false prophets of the exile stood.” On that reading the join between verses 15 and 16 is abrupt only because the link is unstated: verse 15 quotes the exiles, “The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon,” and verse 16 answers, “Know that thus saith the LORD.”

17 Thus saith 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.

Imagery #

The bad figs from chapter 24

“Vile figs” are the bad basket of Jeremiah's earlier vision. The Church edition's footnote gives “bad” for “evil,” and verse 17 repeats the figs that “cannot be eaten, they are so…

“Vile figs” are the bad basket of Jeremiah's earlier vision. The Church edition's footnote gives “bad” for “evil,” and verse 17 repeats the figs that “cannot be eaten, they are so evil” (Jer. 24:8). In the vision, shown after Jeconiah's deportation, two baskets sat before the temple, one of “very good figs” and one of figs “which could not be eaten, they were so bad” (Jer. 24:1–2). The good were the exiles. The bad, in the Lord's explanation, were “Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land” (Jer. 24:8).

The difference is submission: those who submitted to Babylon were carried away “for their good,” and “Zedekiah and others, however, refused to submit.” The letter therefore tells the exiles that the people they long to rejoin are the ones whose future is dark. Verse 18 gives the fate of those in Jerusalem as scattering “to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a reproach.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

18 And 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:

19 Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD.

Verses 20–23

Ahab and Zedekiah, prophets in Babylon

In plain words

Hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles. About Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who prophesy lies to you in my name: I am handing them over to Nebuchadnezzar, and he will kill them in front of you. The exiles will use their fate as a curse, saying, “May the Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire.” They have done an outrage in Israel: they committed adultery with their neighbors' wives and spoke lies in my name that I never commanded. I know, and I am the witness.

20 Hear ye therefore the word of the LORD, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon:

21 Thus saith 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 Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;

Context #

Two prophets who were burned

Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah are prophets among the exiles, and nothing else is known of them.

Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah are prophets among the exiles, and nothing else is known of them. They share names with kings, but verse 3 calls the king “Zedekiah king of Judah” and these men have other fathers. (The king of Babylon here, “Nebuchadrezzar,” is the “Nebuchadnezzar” of verse 1.) Their fate is carried into a curse the exiles will use on each other: “The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire” (verse 22).

Burning was apparently a Babylonian punishment: Nebuchadnezzar threatened a “burning fiery furnace” for those who would not worship his image (Dan. 3:6). One reading also hears a wordplay in the father's name: “roasted” is said “probably with allusion to the name Kolaiah,” since the Hebrew verb qalah means to roast. Verse 23 names two charges: “villany in Israel” (the Church edition's footnote gives the Hebrew as “vile deeds”), which it spells out as adultery with their neighbors' wives, and speaking “lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them.” The Lord stands behind the charge as the “witness” (verse 23).

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

22 And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;

23 Because 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, saith the LORD.

Verses 24–32

Shemaiah the Nehelamite

In plain words

Say this also to Shemaiah the Nehelamite. You sent letters in your own name to all the people in Jerusalem and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah and the other priests, saying that the Lord made Zephaniah priest in place of Jehoiada to be in charge in the Lord's house, to put every madman who acts like a prophet in the stocks and neck-irons. Why then have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who is acting as a prophet to you? He even wrote to us in Babylon, “It will be a long time; build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit.” Zephaniah the priest read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet, and the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: send word to all the exiles that Shemaiah has prophesied to you without being sent and made you trust a lie. The Lord will punish Shemaiah and his descendants. None of his line will be left among this people, and he will not see the good the Lord will do for His people, because he preached rebellion against the Lord.

24 Thus shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,

25 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

26 The LORD hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.

Context #

Shemaiah wants Jeremiah in the stocks

Shemaiah, writing from Babylon, tells the priests in Jerusalem that Jeremiah should be treated as a madman.

Shemaiah, writing from Babylon, tells the priests in Jerusalem that Jeremiah should be treated as a madman. His letter is addressed to Zephaniah, probably the “second priest” of 2 Kgs. 25:18, whom Zedekiah sends to Jeremiah to ask for his prayers (Jer. 21:1; Jer. 37:3). One reading takes him to have charge of the temple's order and police. The stocks Shemaiah names are no idle threat: the priest Pashur, “chief governor in the house of the Lord,” had already struck Jeremiah and put him in them (Jer. 20:1–2).

The word “mad” is the one Jehu's fellow officers use of him: “wherefore came this mad fellow to thee?” (2 Kgs. 9:11). One reading is that the word is used of the “apparently deranged behaviour of the man on whom the Spirit of God has laid hold.” Shemaiah's argument is that Jeremiah's letter to Babylon, “This captivity is long,” proves his guilt. Jeremiah's reply (verses 30–32) is that the letter is the Lord's word.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

27 Now therefore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you?

28 For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

29 And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.

30 Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,

31 Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:

32 Therefore thus saith 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, saith the LORD; because he hath taught rebellion against the LORD.

Context #

Shemaiah's judgment

Shemaiah's punishment is that his line will end and that he will not see the promised return.

Shemaiah's punishment is that his line will end and that he will not see the promised return. “Seed” is his descendants, so he loses both his line and any share in “the good” the Lord will do for His people.

The reason, “because he hath taught rebellion against the LORD,” is word for word the charge against Hananiah (Jer. 28:16), who died within the year (Jer. 28:17). The Church edition's footnote at verse 31 sends the reader to Jer. 28:15, where Jeremiah tells Hananiah “thou makest this people to trust in a lie,” the phrase also used of Shemaiah.

Zephaniah read Shemaiah's letter to Jeremiah himself (verse 29). The text does not say why, and one reading, from Zephaniah's later requests for Jeremiah's prayers, is that he was friendly to Jeremiah and wanted him to know.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 29

The chapter is about a God who is found by those who seek Him. “I will be found of you” (verse 14) follows the invitation to call, pray, and search with all the heart, and the Church edition ties verse 13 to the Savior's own words to the Nephites, the blessing on those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (3 Ne. 12:6). The return from Babylon is not the end of the promise: Jacob, taught the same return, sees that the Holy One of Israel would “manifest himself unto them in the flesh” (2 Ne. 6:9).

Worth exploring next

The good figs and the bad. Read Jer. 24:1–10 beside verses 16–19, then Jer. 28, where the same dispute is settled in the temple.
Exile as a place to seek the Lord. Read Deut. 4:26–31, 1 Kgs. 8:46–50, and 1 Ne. 1:5.
The return and the Messiah. Read 1 Ne. 10:3 and 2 Ne. 6:8–9 with Jer. 31:17.
The seventy years. Read Jer. 25:11–12, 2 Chr. 36:20–23, and Dan. 9:2.
The fuller promise. Read Jer. 32:36–41 with 3 Ne. 20:29–46.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

1 Ne. 10:3 — Lehi's prophecy that the Jews would be carried captive to Babylon and return in the Lord's own time; the Church edition links it to verse 10.
2 Ne. 6:8–9 — Jacob says the Lord has shown him that those at Jerusalem would be carried captive and would return, and that the Holy One of Israel would then manifest Himself in the flesh; linked from verse 10.
1 Ne. 1:5 — Lehi prays “with all his heart” in Jerusalem; linked from verse 13.
3 Ne. 12:6 — The risen Savior's promise to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; linked from verse 13.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Captivities of the Israelites”, Bible Dictionary. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
New International Version, Biblica, 2011; on BibleGateway.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Jeremiah 29: Jeremiah’s Letter to the Captives, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide (2002), 161–62.
Jeremiah 20–29, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Resource Manual.
Discourse, 12 May 1844, as Reported by Thomas Bullock, The Joseph Smith Papers.
What Does Jeremiah 29:11 Mean?, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Learn article.
L. Todd Budge, “Seek Him with All Your Heart”, general conference, Oct. 2024.

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