29:1–3 These verses introduce what follows as the contents of a “letter” (or “book” in Hb.; v. 1) to the people of Judah taken by Babylon into exile. This episode in 598 BC was the second of three forced deportations of Judah to Babylon. The first was nearly a decade earlier, during the third year of King Jehoiakim (605 BC; Dan. 1:1), while the last was in 587 BC, when King Nebuchadnezzar’s armies breached the walls of Jerusalem and took much of the population captive (Jer. 39:8–9; 52:14–15). Coming between the first and final exiles, Jeremiah 29 is directed toward Yahweh’s people who are split between two locales, Judah and Babylon.

The writer to the exiles is the prophet Jeremiah, who remains in Jerusalem to speak Yahweh’s message that Babylon is his instrument of discipline (e.g., chs. 27; 32; 37). The timing of the letter (29:2) is sometime after 598 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar took Judah’s royal court, leaders, and artisans to Babylon while appointing Zedekiah, an uncle of Jeconiah, to reign in his place as puppet king. No particular year of Zedekiah’s reign is mentioned as the setting for chapter 29, but this chapter’s events likely reflect a time at which Jeremiah was not yet under house arrest for proclaiming that Jerusalem would soon fall to Babylon (cf. chs. 32; 37). The prophet will soon be in trouble for the counterintuitive message that Yahweh’s presence is with Nebuchadnezzar and those he took to Babylon but is against King Zedekiah and his nobles in Jerusalem (chs. 37–38).

With the benefit of this hindsight, it is ironic that Jeremiah’s letter is among the diplomatic correspondence to Nebuchadnezzar carried by two messengers from Zedekiah (29:3). Elasah the son of Shaphan is from a family of scribes (2 Kings 22:3, 12), while Gemariah the son of Hilkiah is from a family of priests (2 Chron. 34:9, 14).

29:4–7 Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles falls into two parts, a commission to assure the distraught (Jer. 29:4–14) followed by a warning to the deceived (vv. 15–23). The commission is Yahweh’s directive to put down roots by building homes, planting gardens, and engaging in the normal activities of marriage and childbearing (vv. 4–5). These rhythms of life serve as a stark contrast to life in Jerusalem, a place under judgment, in which everything normal must soon come to an end (cf. 15:9; 16:3–4). What is more, Yahweh’s commands for the exiles to “multiply there, and do not decrease” (29:6) recall the creation mandate (Gen. 1:28) and related Abrahamic promises underlying the storyline of the entire Bible (Gen. 9:1; 17:2; 22:17; Ex. 1:12; Deut. 8:1; Neh. 9:23; Matt. 1:1; Gal. 3:8). The exiles of 598 BC may be refugees licking their wounds in Babylon, but Yahweh offers the assurance that their survival and flourishing are part of the fulfillment of Israel’s original mission to be fruitful, multiply, and become a blessing to the whole world.

The next two commands continue this missional theme by directing the exiles to an outward focus despite the inclination toward inward thinking that their circumstances would naturally present. Babylon will not only be an incubator to preserve them alive (i.e., vv. 5–6). It will also be a mission field for them through the twin activities of pursuing its “welfare, peace, well-being” (Hb. shalom) and praying for their captors (v. 7). While this suggestive reference to pursuing the shalom of the city has often been taken as biblical support for a variety of Christian ministries (on which cf. the Response section), it is crucial to explore the pairing of shalom and intercession in the book of Jeremiah before considering matters of contemporary application. Most importantly, it was the false prophets of Jerusalem who laid claim to its external “peace” (i.e., safety) using slogans such as “Peace, peace” or “perfect peace” (6:14; 8:11; cf. Isa. 26:3) even though the city’s people lacked internal “peace” (i.e., justice, right relationships).89

The false prophets evidently believed that their invocations of shalom could guarantee Jerusalem’s security (cf. 14:13; 15:5). In response, Yahweh prohibited Jeremiah from praying similarly for Jerusalem’s shalom (14:11). The withdrawal of intercession by Yahweh’s true prophet means that “I [Yahweh] have taken away my peace [shalom] from this people” (16:5). This will undercut the false prophets and hand over Jerusalem to destruction. Yahweh’s chosen place of shalom has therefore moved from corrupt Jerusalem to pagan Babylon, but the exiles must first restore shalom among themselves before working and praying for the shalom of Babylon. In summary, the biblical pursuit of shalom emphasizes the priority of repentance and prayer among God’s own people over activism and ministry directed toward others (without excluding the latter, of course).

29:8–9 These verses warn that the absence of true shalom is a temptation just as much for a people under judgment in Babylon as for those in Jerusalem. Already among the exiles, false prophets and similar quacks misuse Yahweh’s name to purvey quick-fix delusions and “dreams” (v. 8), much like their counterparts in Jerusalem (cf. 14:11–12; 23:17, 25). Other passages in Jeremiah mention how false prophets in both places promise that Yahweh’s deliverance will come shortly, whether through Babylon’s defeat (a prophecy made to the inhabitants of Jerusalem) or through the exile’s restoration from Babylon (a prophecy made to the exiles). For such wishful thinkers among Yahweh’s people, the fact nevertheless remains that “it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord” (29:9). Only the prophet Jeremiah is the authorized messenger Yahweh has “sent” (1:7) to proclaim that judgment must come before deliverance (1:10).

29:10–14 The theme of deliverance comes to the fore with Yahweh’s promise of a future after judgment. Yahweh will be true to his word: exile will last seventy years, followed by Judah’s return to the land (v. 10; cf. 25:11–12). This new beginning reflects Yahweh’s “plans for welfare [shalom] and not for evil” toward his people, an offer best understood in this context as “a future and a hope” (v. 11) that will be fulfilled when a chastened people repent, pray, and obey Yahweh (vv. 12–13). Those who exhibit a sincere desire to do these things will certainly find Yahweh and experience a full restoration from exile (v. 14) that goes beyond mere return to the land (cf. v. 10). Physical “return” to the land and the spiritual element of “repentance” are closely joined throughout the book of Jeremiah (e.g., 3:1–4:4).

To summarize Jeremiah 29 in terms of causal relationships, Yahweh’s seemingly unconditional promise of a preliminary return from exile (v. 10) must be accompanied by Judah’s fulfilling Yahweh’s condition of obedience (vv. 12–13). This spiritual breakthrough will in turn lead Yahweh to complete the restoration already begun (v. 14). Whether in Jeremiah’s time or ours, the tendency to neglect the conditional dimension of obedience in verses 10–14 has had dire consequences. The common understanding of verse 11 as God’s unconditional promise of guidance “for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” will require further attention in the Response section.

29:15–19 The warning section of the letter to the exiles begins here. Already in the commission section of the letter (vv. 1–14) Yahweh has mentioned in passing the dangers of heeding the false prophets (cf. vv. 8–9). Now he confronts the vulnerability of the exiles in quoting the lies they have come to believe: “The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon” (v. 15). This statement reflects the exiles’ esteem for false prophets in Babylon who promise that a return to Judah is forthcoming (cf. v. 28). False prophets such as Hananiah in Jerusalem found a similarly eager audience for their message that Yahweh would soon undo the effects of Nebuchadnezzar’s 598 BC deportation (cf. 28:1–4). In either place, prophets who ministered in Yahweh’s name were expected to predict that a chosen people would soon be rescued from their oppressor, as when Israel experienced the exodus from Egypt (cf. 21:2).

In 29:16–19 Yahweh nonetheless refutes the enticing notion that salvific history will repeat itself. Speaking to the exiles in Babylon, Yahweh warns that the Davidic king and inhabitants of Jerusalem (v. 16) are no longer the privileged people that covenant promises might suggest. The exiles must not be deceived into thinking that the covenants given to king and people in Jerusalem (e.g., 2 Sam. 7:13, 16; 1 Kings 8:13; 9:3) somehow guarantee the invulnerability of their land. Against the misconception that Jerusalem and its temple are forever safe (cf. Jer. 7:4, 10), Yahweh asserts that judgment is coming shortly via the threefold weapons of “sword, famine, and pestilence” so that a besieged people will wither there “like vile figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten” (29:17). This declaration by Yahweh overturns two misconceptions about a formerly chosen city: (1) the false prophets’ prediction that “sword and famine” could never befall Jerusalem (5:12; 14:15) and (2) the understandable but erroneous idea that those who remain in Jerusalem after Nebuchadnezzar’s deportation of 598 BC are “good figs” for being in a sacred place, while the exiles in Babylon are “bad figs” for being under judgment in a foreign land (24:1–10).

Former and present citizens of Jerusalem must know that Yahweh is expelling his people from the city by the hand of Babylon, whether already in Nebuchadnezzar’s 598 BC deportation or soon in Jerusalem’s 587 destruction (which is yet future in this passage). The exiles of the latter deportation will be publicly shamed as a “horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them” (29:18; cf. 15:4; 25:9; 44:22)—an ugly reversal of the formerly honored status of Zion/Jerusalem as the “joy of all the earth” (Ps. 48:2; cf. Lam. 2:15). This verdict, though tragic, is necessary because Israel and Judah have for centuries persistently refused to heed the message of Yahweh’s prophets (Jer. 29:19). Jeremiah, as the last of these prophets in Jerusalem, has faced the greatest opposition of all from Yahweh’s people (cf. 1:19; 11:21–12:4; 15:17–18).

29:20–23 The letter to the exiles proceeds to name two of the false prophets in Babylon whose message has opposed that of Jeremiah, Yahweh’s true prophet. Their names are Ahab and Zedekiah, but their respective patronyms of “the son of Kolaiah” and “the son of Maaseiah” (v. 21) indicate that they have no relation to their namesakes who ruled over the northern and the southern kingdoms of Israel, respectively. Nothing else is known about them except their claim to prophesy in Yahweh’s name, a sin for which they will be personally handed over to Nebuchadnezzar (v. 21). The fate of Ahab and Zedekiah—being burnt alive by the Babylonian king—will become a proverbial curse formula among the exiles (v. 22). Such a harsh demise is due to the severity of their sacrilege in combining sexual immorality with their lying words in Yahweh’s name (v. 23). To such leaders who abuse their authority Yahweh solemnly warns: “I am the one who knows, and I am witness, declares the Lord” (v. 23).

29:24–32 The final section of the chapter is an appendix to the earlier original letter to the exiles (vv. 1–23). A certain priest among the exiles named Shemaiah (v. 24) has sent letters to the people and religious establishment in Jerusalem (v. 25) that seek to validate himself as Yahweh’s priest to oversee the temple and priests there (v. 26). Such claims are delusional for a priest in Babylon to be making about Jerusalem, and Yahweh responds by mocking the emptiness of Shemaiah’s power play: “Now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who is prophesying to you?” (v. 27). In reality, Shemaiah’s correspondence fails to address the provocative substance of Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles: “Your exile will be long; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce” (v. 28; cf. v. 5). It is likely that Shemaiah is seeking to use Jeremiah’s prediction of a seventy-year stay in Babylon in order to turn the leaders in Jerusalem against him.

This interpretation is borne out by the actions of a priest named Zephaniah (not the prophet who ministered in Josiah’s day; cf. Zeph. 1:1), who brings Shemaiah’s message to Jeremiah (Jer. 29:29). At this moment Yahweh’s word comes to Jeremiah with a response to Shemaiah (v. 30), though its significance is undoubtedly for the entire group in Jerusalem that has received Shemaiah’s subversive letters (cf. v. 25). Yahweh addresses the exiles among whom Shemaiah ministers by exposing him as a usurper of Yahweh’s prophetic word and a liar (v. 31). Both Shemaiah and his household will suffer the punishment of not living to see the “good that [Yahweh] will do to [his] people” (v. 32). This pregnant phrase refers to a future restoration from exile (cf. 32:42) and thus offers a bridge to Jeremiah’s message that follows in the “Book of Consolation” (chs. 30–33).