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Texts -- Jeremiah 29:1-25 (NET)

Context
Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles
29:1 The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon. It was addressed to the elders who were left among the exiles, to the priests , to the prophets , and to all the other people who were exiled in Babylon . 29:2 He sent it after King Jeconiah , the queen mother , the palace officials , the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem , the craftsmen , and the metal workers had been exiled from Jerusalem . 29:3 He sent it with Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah . King Zedekiah of Judah had sent these men to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon . The letter said : 29:4 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says to all those he sent into exile to Babylon from Jerusalem , 29:5 ‘Build houses and settle down . Plant gardens and eat what they produce . 29:6 Marry and have sons and daughters . Find wives for your sons and allow your daughters get married so that they too can have sons and daughters . Grow in number ; do not dwindle away . 29:7 Work to see that the city where I sent you as exiles enjoys peace and prosperity . Pray to the Lord for it. For as it prospers you will prosper .’ 29:8 “For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says , ‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream . 29:9 They are prophesying lies to you and claiming my authority to do so. But I did not send them. I, the Lord , affirm it!’ 29:10 “For the Lord says , ‘Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule are over will I again take up consideration for you. Then I will fulfill my gracious promise to you and restore you to your homeland . 29:11 For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord . ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope . 29:12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer , I will hear your prayers. 29:13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, 29:14 I will make myself available to you,’ says the Lord . ‘Then I will reverse your plight and will regather you from all the nations and all the places where I have exiled you,’ says the Lord . ‘I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’ 29:15 “You say , ‘The Lord has raised up prophets of good news for us here in Babylon .’ 29:16 But just listen to what the Lord has to say about the king who occupies David’s throne and all your fellow countrymen who are still living in this city of Jerusalem and were not carried off into exile with you. 29:17 The Lord who rules over all says , ‘I will bring war , starvation , and disease on them. I will treat them like figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten . 29:18 I will chase after them with war , starvation , and disease . I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to them. I will make them examples of those who are cursed , objects of horror , hissing scorn , and ridicule among all the nations where I exile them. 29:19 For they have not paid attention to what I said to them through my servants the prophets whom I sent to them over and over again ,’ says the Lord . ‘And you exiles have not paid any attention to them either,’ says the Lord . 29:20 ‘So pay attention to what I, the Lord , have said, all you exiles whom I have sent to Babylon from Jerusalem .’ 29:21 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all also has something to say about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah , who are prophesying lies to you and claiming my authority to do so. ‘I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and he will execute them before your very eyes . 29:22 And all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use them as examples when they put a curse on anyone. They will say , “May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted to death in the fire !” 29:23 This will happen to them because they have done what is shameful in Israel . They have committed adultery with their neighbors ’ wives and have spoken lies while claiming my authority. They have spoken words that I did not command them to speak. I know what they have done. I have been a witness to it,’ says the Lord .”
A Response to the Letter and a Subsequent Letter
29:24 The Lord told Jeremiah, “Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite 29:25 that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all has a message for him. Tell him, ‘On your own initiative you sent a letter to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah and to all the other priests and to all the people in Jerusalem . In your letter you said to Zephaniah,

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • The emphasis in this brief section is on the faithfulness and power of God in keeping His promise and providing an heir miraculously through Sarah (17:16; 18:14). Note the threefold repetition of "as He had said,""as He had p...
  • In this section God explained that His discipline for disobedience would be to produce repentance and return to Himself by the Israelites.26:34-39 The length of the Babylonian captivity was 70 years because the Israelites fai...
  • When banished to the ends of the earth, the Israelites could repent and return to Yahweh in their hearts purposing to obey Him again (vv. 1-2). In that event God would do several things for them. He would bring them back to t...
  • God's Spirit then clothed Jephthah guaranteeing divine enablement and victory in the approaching encounter with the Ammonite army (v. 29; cf. 3:10; 6:34; 14:6, 19; 1 Sam. 10:10). He travelled through Gilead in the tribal terr...
  • Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther have much in common. Among other things, they all deal with God's dealings with Israel following the captivity. Jeremiah had spoken of these years before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem (Jer. 25...
  • "It is not strange according to the Semitic style to start a book with a waw["And"or "Now"], especially when the author intended to write a continuation of the history of his people. He connects the history which he wants to ...
  • Judah and Benjamin were the only tribes the writer mentioned because these were the tribes that made up the Southern Kingdom that had suffered exile in Babylon. Those who gave to the reconstruction project evidently included ...
  • Several factors resulted in the completion of the temple that the writer brought together in verse 14. The reference to Artaxerxes (v. 14; cf. 4:7-23) does not mean that he had a part in completing the temple. As I pointed ou...
  • Perhaps Haman did not mention the Jews by name since Ahasuerus' predecessors, Cyrus and Darius I (Hystaspes), had issued proclamations favorable to them (Ezra 1:1-4; 6:3-5, 8-12). In any case his failure to mention them by na...
  • The king gave the Jews permission to defend themselves by killing their enemies. Evidently this meant that they not only met attack with resistance but in some cases initiated attack against those who they knew would destroy ...
  • Baxter, J. Sidlow. Explore the Book. 6 vols. London: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott, 1965.Bromiley, Geoffrey W. God and Marriage. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1980.Bullock, C. Hassell. An Introduction to the Poe...
  • This pericope repeats and refocuses the invitation just extended (vv. 1-3). The offer continues to be to come to God, but the focus shifts from receiving satisfaction to resting in faith and from salvation's freeness to its t...
  • Jeremiah's purpose was to call his hearers to repentance in view of God's judgment on Judah, which would come soon from an army from the north (chs. 2-45). Judgment was coming because God's people had forsaken Yahweh and had ...
  • The Book of Jeremiah is not theologically organized in the sense that it develops a certain theological emphasis as it unfolds, as Isaiah does. Rather it presents certain theological truths in greater or lesser degree through...
  • I. Introduction ch. 1A. The introduction of Jeremiah 1:1-3B. The call of Jeremiah 1:4-191. The promise of divine enablement 1:4-102. Two confirming visions 1:11-19II. Prophecies about Judah chs. 2-45A. Warnings of judgment on...
  • 1:4 The prophet now began speaking to his readers and telling them what the Lord had said to him. Throughout this book, an indication that the Lord had told Jeremiah something is often the sign of a new pericope, as here (cf....
  • This scathing exposé of the folly of idolatry resembles several polemics in Isaiah (cf. Isa. 40:18-20; 41:6-7; 44:9-20; 46:5-7). Verses 12-16 appear again in 51:15-19."Why did so easy a target as idolatry need so many at...
  • 14:1 A message came to Jeremiah from Yahweh concerning some droughts (Heb. plural) that overtook Judah.241Droughts were a punishment for covenant violation in Israel (cf. Lev. 26:18-19; Deut. 28:23-24).14:2 Judah was in mourn...
  • This message to the people involved another symbolic act (cf. 13:1-11). This incident may have occurred between 609 and 605 B.C.19:1 Yahweh told Jeremiah to take some of Judah's elders and senior priests and to go and purchas...
  • This passage probably dates from the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 588-586 B.C. (vv. 2, 4; cf. 2 Kings 25). King Zedekiah sought advice from Jeremiah more than once (cf. 37:3-10, 17-21; 38:14-28). This passage consists of ...
  • This section contains two prophecies about this king (vv. 24-27 and 28-30) The historical setting is the three-month reign of eighteen year-old Jehoiachin in 598-597 B.C. (cf. 2 Kings 24:8-17). Coniah was a shortened form of ...
  • This section consists of four parts: a summary of Jeremiah's Temple Sermon (vv. 2-6), the prophet's arrest and trial (vv. 7-16), the elders' plea for his life (vv. 17-19, 24), and the incident involving Uriah and his executio...
  • Jeremiah's symbolic act of wearing a yoke led to another symbolic act, the breaking of that yoke. Jeremiah's act brought a false prophet into direct confrontation with the true prophet.28:1 The following event took place in t...
  • This chapter continues the theme of the previous three, namely, controversies about false prophets. Jeremiah also had problems with the false prophets who were part of the 3,023 exiles who went into captivity in 597 B.C. (52:...
  • 29:1-3 Jeremiah sent a letter to all the Judahites who had gone into exile in Babylon with King Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) in 597 B.C. We do not know the date of its composition, but Jeremiah probably wrote it within a few years o...
  • Jeremiah 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 m...
  • After Zephaniah had read Shemaiah's letter to Jeremiah (v. 29), the Lord moved Jeremiah (v. 30) to write a second letter to the exiles (vv. 31-32).29:29 Zephaniah the priest read Shemaiah's letter to Jeremiah.29:30 Then the L...
  • This section of the Book of Jeremiah is a collection of prophecies that focus on the hope that lay before the Israelites. To this point in the book the emphasis has been mainly on judgment to come, though we have seen occasio...
  • The Book of Consolation contained messages of future hope for Judah (chs. 30-33). Now Jeremiah returned to document her present judgment. Chapters 34-45 continue the theme of judgment on Judah and Jerusalem from chapters 2-29...
  • 35:1 This oracle came to Jeremiah during King Jehoiakim's reign (609-598 B.C.) after the Babylonians had begun to invade Judah (v. 11). Second Kings 24:1-2 reads, "In his [Jehoiakim's] days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came...
  • 35:12-13 After this experience, the Lord instructed Jeremiah to speak to the people of Jerusalem and Judah. He was to ask them if they would not receive instruction from Him.46135:14 The Rechabites had faithfully obeyed their...
  • 37:1 Nebuchadnezzar, sovereign over Judah since Jehoiakim's unsuccessful rebellion against him in 598 B.C., set up Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother, as Judah's king in 597 B.C. (cf. 2 Kings 24:17). Jehoiakim's son, Jehoiachin (C...
  • 38:7-8 A courtier in the palace, Ebed-melech (lit. "servant of the king"), heard about Jeremiah's plight. He happened to be an Ethiopian or Cushite (from modern-day southern Egypt, northeastern Sudan, and northern Ethiopia).4...
  • This chapter belongs after chapter 36 chronologically, either after 36:8 or 36:32. It serves as an appendix to the historical incidents recorded there. Perhaps the writer or final editor placed it here to show that Yahweh exe...
  • The number of exiles who went into captivity was important because it was with this group that the future of Israel lay. Their deportation also validated many of Jeremiah's prophecies that the people would go into captivity i...
  • Aharoni, Yohanan, and Michael Avi-Yonah. The Macmillan Bible Atlas. Revised ed. London: Collier Macmillan Publishers; and New York: Macmillan Publishers Co., 1977.Albright, William Foxwell. The Archaeology of Palestine. Revis...
  • Since Ezekiel began ministering in 593 B.C. when he was 30 years old, he would have been born about 623 B.C and would have grown up in Judah during King Josiah's reforms (622-609 B.C.). The date of Jeremiah's birth was about ...
  • ". . . the focus of chap. 6 is on the individual responsibility of the people and prepares the way for the subsequent spoken messages."1216:1-2 The Lord directed Ezekiel to pronounce an oracle of judgment against "the mountai...
  • 6:10 The new decree did not deter Daniel from continuing to pray for the welfare of the city where God had sent them into exile and for the Jews' return from exile. That this was the subject of his praying, among other things...
  • 9:1 What Daniel did and saw in this chapter dates from 538 B.C., the first year of Darius the Mede's (Cyrus') rule as king over the former Neo-Babylonian Empire (cf. Ezra 1:1).347This means that Belshazzar's feast (ch. 5) occ...
  • 1:1 Yahweh sent a message to Zerubbabel and Joshua through the prophet Haggai, though it went to all the Israelites too (vv. 2, 4). Zerubbabel was the political governor (overseer) of the Persian province of Judah who had led...
  • Chapter 8 not only contains two major messages from the Lord (vv. 1-17, 18-23) but 10 minor messages, "a decalogueof divine words,"155that make up the two major ones. "Thus says the Lord"introduces each of these minor message...
  • Matthew separated the explanation of this parable from its telling in the text (vv. 24-30). He evidently did this to separate more clearly for the reader the parables Jesus spoke to the multitudes from the parables He told Hi...
  • 24:1 The connective "and"(NASB, Gr. kai) ties what follows to Jesus' preceding denunciation of the generation of Jews that rejected Him and the divine judgment that would follow (23:36-39). However the "apocalyptic"or "eschat...
  • This parable stresses the importance of the signs signifying Jesus' return.24:32-33 The lesson (Gr. parabole, lit. parable) of the fig tree is quite simple. As the appearance of tender twigs and leaves on a fig tree indicate ...
  • Jesus introduced this promise with a phrase that underlined its reliability and gave His personal guarantee. Everyone who asks of God will receive from Him, not just the persistent (cf. Matt. 7:7-8). In the context everyone i...
  • Jesus proceeded to expound further on some of the themes that He had introduced in His teaching on the vine and the branches (vv. 1-8). The subject moves generally from the believing disciple's relationship with God to his or...
  • Luke recorded the events of Paul's first missionary journey to document the extension of the church into new territory and to illustrate the principles and methods by which the church grew. He also did so to show God's supern...
  • 6:7 The Lamb broke the fourth seal, and the fourth living creature called the fourth horseman out.6:8 John next saw an ashen (lit. pale green) horse the color of a human corpse. Presumably Antichrist, the cause of this death,...
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