JeremiahChapter 29

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹This is the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem. He sent it to the elders who were still alive among the captives. He also sent it to the priests, the prophets, and all the other people. Nebuchadnezzar had taken them all from Jerusalem to Babylon as captives. ²(This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother had been taken away from Jerusalem. The palace officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalworkers had been taken too.) ³Jeremiah gave the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah. Zedekiah king of Judah was sending these men to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. The letter said: ⁴This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the captives who were taken from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵"Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat the food they grow. ⁶Get married and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons. Give your daughters to be married, so they can have sons and daughters too. Grow in number there. Do not grow fewer. ⁷Work for the good of the city where I have sent you as captives. Pray to the LORD for it. For if it does well, you will do well too." ⁸For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Do not let the prophets and fortune-tellers among you fool you. Do not listen to the dreams you get them to tell you. ⁹They are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them, says the LORD." ¹⁰For this is what the LORD says: "When Babylon's seventy years are over, I will come to you. I will keep my promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD. They are plans for your good and not to harm you. They are plans to give you a future and a hope. ¹²Then you will call on me. You will come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³You will look for me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. ¹⁴I will let you find me, says the LORD. I will bring you back from being captives. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have driven you, says the LORD. I will bring you back to the place I sent you away from." ¹⁵You may say, "The LORD has given us prophets in Babylon." ¹⁶Because you say this, here is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David's throne. He also speaks about all the people still in this city. They are your relatives who did not go with you as captives. ¹⁷This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "I will send the sword, hunger, and plague against them. I will make them like rotten figs, so bad that no one can eat them. ¹⁸I will chase them with the sword, hunger, and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. They will be a curse and an empty ruin. People will make fun of them and insult them in all the nations where I drive them. ¹⁹I will do this because they have not listened to my words, says the LORD. I sent my words to them again and again through my servants the prophets. And you captives have not listened either, says the LORD." ²⁰So hear the word of the LORD, all you captives I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. ²¹This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah. They are telling you lies in my name. "I will hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will kill them while you watch. ²²Because of them, all the captives from Judah in Babylon will use this curse: 'May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab! The king of Babylon burned them in the fire!' ²³For they have done a shameful thing in Israel. They have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives. They have told lies in my name, which I did not command them to do. I am the one who knows. I am a witness, says the LORD." ²⁴Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite ²⁵that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: "You have sent letters in your own name to all the people of Jerusalem. You sent them to Zephaniah the priest, son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests. You said to Zephaniah, ²⁶'The LORD has made you priest in place of Jehoiada. You are to be the chief officer in the house of the LORD. You are in charge of any crazy man who acts like a prophet. You must put him in the stocks and in neck chains. ²⁷So why haven't you scolded Jeremiah from Anathoth? He acts like a prophet among you. ²⁸He has sent a message to us in Babylon. He says that we will be captives for a long time. He says, Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat the food they grow.'" ²⁹(But Zephaniah the priest had read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet.) ³⁰Then the LORD gave Jeremiah this message: ³¹"Send a message to all the captives. Tell them what the LORD says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and because he has made you trust in a lie, ³²So this is what the LORD says: 'I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his children. He will have no one left among these people. He will not see the good things I will do for my people, says the LORD. For he has told people to turn against the LORD.'"