Jeremiah 29 explained: A Letter to People Far from Home

Who the letter went to (vv. 1-3)

Around 597 BC Babylon took King Jehoiachin, his mother, the leaders and the skilled workers away from Jerusalem, likely so no one was left to organize a revolt. Jeremiah's letter traveled with officials sent to Babylon by Zedekiah, the king Babylon had put in Jehoiachin's place.

Settle in and seek its good (vv. 4-9)

The exiles are told to build houses, plant gardens, raise families and even pray for Babylon, the city that conquered them, because their own peace was tied to its peace. Prophets among them who promised a quick trip home are called liars, telling people what they wanted to hear.

Seventy years, then home (vv. 10-14)

God promises to bring them back after seventy years, which many scholars take as a round figure for about a lifetime rather than an exact count. The well known promise of good plans and a hopeful future was spoken to the whole exiled community, and most of those first hearers would not live to see the return.

Bad news for Jerusalem (vv. 15-19)

Some exiles trusted prophets in Babylon who said things would soon be fine, but the letter says the king and people still in Jerusalem face war, famine and disease. The image of figs too spoiled to eat recalls an earlier vision in Jeremiah about those left behind, who are said to have ignored the prophets again and again.

Two lying prophets (vv. 20-23)

Two prophets in Babylon, Ahab and a Zedekiah who is not the king, are condemned for speaking lies in God's name and sleeping with other men's wives. The text says the Babylonian king will burn them to death, a punishment known in Babylon, and that their names will become a curse.

Shemaiah's angry letter (vv. 24-32)

Shemaiah, an exile in Babylon, wrote to the priest Zephaniah in Jerusalem, demanding that Jeremiah be locked in the stocks as a madman for telling the exiles to settle down. Zephaniah read the letter to Jeremiah instead, and Jeremiah replied that God had not sent Shemaiah and that his family line would not see the good to come.

Key verse: Jeremiah 29:7

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the promise in verse 11 of good plans and a hopeful future can be applied to individual believers today or belongs mainly to the exiled community it was first spoken to.

Something to think about

When life puts you somewhere you never chose, what would it look like to build a real life there while still hoping for something different?