Jeremiah 29
This is a letter - an actual letter, carried by hand from Jerusalem to Babylon - written to people who have already been hauled into exile. The first wave of captives had been taken with King Jeconiah: the queen mother, the court officials, the skilled craftsmen, the whole leadership of a nation, marched off to a foreign land (vv. 1-2). Jerusalem still stood, for now, and false prophets on both sides were promising that the captivity would soon be reversed. Into that false hope Jeremiah sends a word that must have landed like cold water: the exile is real, it is long, and it is the LORD's own doing - I have caused you to be carried away. So do not live as people camped at the door waiting to leave. Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them (v. 5).3
More than that, they are to seek the good of Babylon itself: 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 (v. 7). The enemy city becomes the place they are to pray for and labour for. Then the letter turns from how to live in exile to what God intends beyond it. After seventy years the LORD will visit His people and bring them home (v. 10), and He grounds that promise in the most personal of terms: 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 (v. 11). It is a promise to people in the middle of a long sorrow - a future and a hope that lies on the far side of the discipline, not in place of it.
The way into that future is then made plain, and it is the warmest line in the chapter: And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart (v. 13). God is not hidden from those who want Him wholly. The rest of the letter turns sharp: against the prophets in Babylon who prophesy a lie in the LORD's name (vv. 15-23), and against one Shemaiah, who wrote letters back to Jerusalem urging that Jeremiah be silenced and put in the stocks (vv. 24-32). The chapter holds two things together that we are tempted to split apart: an unflinching honesty about how long and hard the exile will be, and an unshakable confidence that God's deepest intent toward His people is peace.2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Jeremiah 29:1-7Build Ye Houses, and Dwell in Them
1Now 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;) 3By 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, 4Thus 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; 5Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; 6Take 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. 7And 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.
Before a word of instruction comes, the chapter takes pains to fix this in real history: 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 (v. 1). This is not a vision or an oracle delivered in the temple court; it is correspondence, written down and carried the long road to Babylon by two named officials (v. 3). The recipients are the first wave of exiles, taken with King Jeconiah around 597 - the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes… and the carpenters, and the smiths (v. 2). Notice who is on that list: the royal household, yes, but also the skilled tradesmen, the craftsmen a conquering empire most wanted to carry off. These are uprooted people, the cream of a nation, set down in a foreign capital and wondering how long their nightmare will last. The whole letter is addressed to that ache. And it is addressed, the next verse insists, by the God who is over it all - Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel (v. 4). The word that follows will be hard, but it does not come from a distant or indifferent place. It comes from the covenant God, speaking to His covenant people, in the worst chapter of their lives.3
The instruction, when it lands, is the opposite of what desperate exiles want to hear: Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters… that ye may be increased there, and not diminished (vv. 5-6). Every verb assumes time - a great deal of it. You do not build a house you expect to abandon next year. You do not plant a garden unless you mean to be there for the harvest, and the harvest after that. You do not arrange marriages and raise grandchildren as a people merely passing through. The false prophets were promising a swift return, and to such people the natural posture is to live out of a suitcase, to refuse to invest, to treat every day as a delay before the real life that resumes back home. The LORD forbids that. He tells them to put down roots in the very place of their captivity, to let life go on, to be fruitful where they have been planted against their will. Behind the command is a hard mercy: the exile is real, and pretending it is temporary will only hollow out a whole generation. Better to live - truly live - in Babylon than to merely wait in it. The instruction is not resignation; it is a refusal to let grief cancel obedience and ordinary faithfulness.1
Then the letter asks something harder still: 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 (v. 7). Babylon is the enemy. Babylon burned the towns of Judah and dragged these very people from their homes. And the LORD tells His people to seek its peace - to labour for its welfare, to want it to flourish - and even to pray for it. This is a startling turn. The captives are not told to sabotage the city, nor to hold themselves aloof in bitter separation, nor to bide their time plotting revenge. They are told to become a blessing to the place that wronged them, because their own well-being is now bound up with its well-being: in the peace thereof shall ye have peace. A flourishing Babylon means flourishing exiles; a city at war or in famine drags everyone down with it. There is profound wisdom here for any people living far from home in a culture not their own. The way to live faithfully as a minority in someone else's land is not hostility and not assimilation, but to seek the common good while keeping faith with God - praying for the city, working for its peace, and trusting the LORD to keep His own people in the midst of it.
Jeremiah 29:8-14Thoughts of Peace, and Not of Evil
8For 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. 9For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD. 10For 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. 11For 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. 12Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 14And 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.
Before the great promise can be heard rightly, the LORD clears away the lie standing in its place: Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you… For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them (vv. 8-9). There were voices among the exiles telling them what they desperately wanted to believe - that the captivity would soon be over, that the LORD would shortly break Babylon and bring them home. It sounded hopeful. It sounded faithful. And it was a lie. This is one of the hardest lessons of the chapter: not every encouraging word spoken in God's name is from God, and a comforting falsehood can do more damage than an uncomfortable truth. The false prophets were offering a hope that bypassed the discipline - rescue without repentance, return without the seventy years. Jeremiah offers something far costlier and far more real. The point is not that hope is suspect; it is that hope must be tethered to what God has actually said, not to what fearful hearts wish were true. Before the LORD gives His people a promise to cling to, He first tells them which voices to stop listening to.
Then comes the true word, and it is sobering before it is sweet: 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 (v. 10). Seventy years. For most of the people reading this letter, that is the rest of their lives. Many who first heard it would die in Babylon; it would be their children and grandchildren who walked back into the land. This single number is the key that unlocks the whole chapter, and it must not be lost. The promise of restoration is genuine and certain - the LORD will surely visit His people and perform His good word. But it lies on the far side of a long obedience and a long sorrow. The exile is not a brief detour to be waited out; it is a generation-long season the LORD Himself has appointed. This is why He told them to build houses and plant gardens: He was being honest about the length of the road. And it is precisely this honesty that makes the next verse trustworthy. A God who will not flatter His people with a quick fix, who tells them the hard truth about seventy years, is a God whose promise of a good end can actually be believed.3
Now the most beloved verse in the chapter - and one of the most beloved in all of Scripture - arrives in its proper setting: 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 (v. 11). It is worth hearing exactly what is and is not being said. The little word For ties it directly to verse 10: because the LORD intends to bring them home after the seventy years, His people can know that His deepest disposition toward them is good. Even the exile - which He plainly calls His own doing - is not driven by a heart set against them. The discipline is real, but it is not rejection. His thoughts, His settled intentions, are peace - shalom, wholeness - and not of evil. This is the comfort the verse genuinely gives, and it is deep: the God who allows His people to walk through a long darkness has not stopped planning their good, and there is a future on the other side. But notice what the verse does not promise. It is not a guarantee of immediate prosperity, nor a pledge that hardship will be lifted soon, nor a blanket assurance that every plan will go well. It is spoken to people facing seventy years of exile, and its hope reaches them through that exile, not around it. Held this way, the promise is stronger, not weaker. It means God's good intent toward His people holds even when the hard thing does not lift - that He is working toward an expected end, a future and a hope, on a timeline longer than our own.
The promise does not float free of the people's own turning; it draws them into seeking: Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart (vv. 12-13). The exile that stripped them of temple, land, and king would drive them, at last, back to the LORD Himself - and He promises to be found. There is nothing grudging in it. I will hearken unto you; I will be found of you (v. 14). But the seeking He answers is not casual or divided. It is the search of the whole heart - God sought not as one option among many, not as a last resort when other comforts fail, but wanted entirely, pursued with everything. To people who had given their hearts to other gods and lost everything for it, this is the way home: not merely a change of address back to Jerusalem, but a return of the heart to the LORD. And the wonderful thing is the certainty of the outcome. He does not say perhaps you will find me. He says you shall - I will be found of you. The God of the exile is not hiding from those who want Him wholly. He is waiting to be found.
Jeremiah 29:15-23They Prophesy a Lie Unto You in My Name
15Because ye have said, The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon; 16Know 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; 17Thus 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. 18And 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: 19Because 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. 20Hear ye therefore the word of the LORD, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon: 21Thus 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; 22And 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; 23Because 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.
The letter now turns to those still in Jerusalem - the king on David's throne and the people who had not yet been carried away - and the word for them is grim: 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 (v. 17). The image of the figs reaches back to a vision earlier in the book, where the exiles already in Babylon were shown as good figs and those remaining in the land as evil figs too rotten to eat. It overturns what everyone assumed. Surely the people still safe in Jerusalem were the fortunate ones, and the exiles the cursed? The LORD says the opposite. Those who remained, trusting the false prophets and refusing to bend, were ripening for the very judgment the exiles had already passed through. The exiles, for all their loss, were being preserved - disciplined, but kept. It is a sober reminder that outward circumstances are a poor measure of God's favour. The ones who looked spared were under sentence; the ones who looked abandoned held the promise. What mattered was not who suffered the exile but who would hearken to the LORD's word in it.
Now Jeremiah names two of the false prophets directly - Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and… Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name (v. 21) - and pronounces their end. They would be handed to the king of Babylon and put to death, so that their names would become a byword among the captives (v. 22). The charge against them is threefold and devastating: they committed villany in Israel, they committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and they have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them (v. 23). The pairing is no accident. A corrupt message and a corrupt life run together; the men who fabricated comforting lies in God's name were also men who betrayed their neighbours in the dark. And the LORD's closing words on them are quietly terrible: even I know, and am a witness. They had said their lies in His name, presuming on His authority while contradicting His word - and all along He was the one witness they could not deceive or escape. To claim God's name for our own inventions, to dress up what we wish were true as though He had said it, is not a small thing. He knows, and He is a witness, to every word spoken falsely in His name.
Jeremiah 29:24-32He Hath Taught Rebellion Against the LORD
24Thus shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying, 25Thus 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, 26The 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. 27Now therefore why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you? 28For 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. 29And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. 30Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, 31Send 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: 32Therefore 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.
The chapter closes with a revealing little drama. A man named Shemaiah, himself among the exiles, was so enraged by Jeremiah's letter that he wrote letters of his own - back to Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah - demanding to know why the authorities had not silenced this troublemaker: why hast thou not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which maketh himself a prophet to you? (v. 27). Shemaiah even quotes the offending line, almost in disbelief: This captivity is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them (v. 28). That, to him, was intolerable. He wanted Jeremiah put in prison, and in the stocks as a madman (v. 26). It is worth seeing clearly what has happened. The truest word in the chapter - this captivity is long - is the very word that provokes the most fury. Shemaiah does not argue that Jeremiah is wrong; he simply wants him shut up. This is how false hope often defends itself: not by disproving the hard truth but by trying to silence the one who speaks it. And there is something quietly humbling in verse 29 - the priest Zephaniah read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah. The attack against the prophet was read aloud to the prophet himself. He did not have to defend himself; he simply brought it, as ever, before the LORD.
The LORD's answer to Shemaiah is swift and final: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed… neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the LORD; because he hath taught rebellion against the LORD (v. 32). The sentence fits the crime with terrible precision. Shemaiah had set himself against the promise of restoration - mocking the long exile, urging that the true prophet be jailed - and so he is told he will have no part in the restoration when it comes. He shall not behold the good the LORD will do for His people. The man who refused to believe in the future God planned would be shut out of it. And the charge is named plainly: he hath taught rebellion against the LORD. Shemaiah likely thought of himself as defending the faith against a defeatist; in truth, by fighting God's word he was teaching rebellion against God Himself. There is a sobering symmetry across the whole chapter. The good that the exiles will behold - the return, the restored fortunes, the thoughts of peace fulfilled - is exactly the good Shemaiah forfeits by his unbelief. To set yourself against the hard but true word of God is to set yourself outside the very mercy that word was carrying.3
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Jeremiah 29 with Rashi, Radak, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for shalom (vv. 7, 11, the “peace” that means whole well-being), for the phrase acharit ve-tiqvah (v. 11, rendered “an expected end,” literally a future and a hope), and for the verb darash (v. 13, to seek or search out with all the heart).
- Jeremiah 29 ↔ Matthew 7 · Ephesians 2 · 1 Peter 2 · Daniel 9Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Jeremiah 29 to the rest of Scripture - the promise that those who search with all their heart will find (v. 13) read alongside seek, and ye shall find (Matt. 7:7), the God whose thoughts are peace (v. 11) beside the One who is our peace (Eph. 2:14), and the call to seek the welfare of the city of exile (v. 7) beside the church as strangers and pilgrims doing good among the nations (1 Pet. 2:11-12).
- Jeremiah 29 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Jeremiah 29 - the historical setting of the letter and the first deportation under Jeconiah (vv. 1-3), the command to seek the city's welfare in verse 7, the much-quoted “expected end” of verse 11 and its sense of a hopeful future, and the case against the lying prophets in verses 21-23.
Where this echoes in Scripture
Build Ye Houses, and Dwell in Them
- Jeremiah 25:11-12this whole land shall be a desolation... and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.The seventy years assumed by the “build and dwell” of verses 5-6 - the exile is long, not brief.
- Matthew 5:44Love your enemies, bless them that curse you... and pray for them which despitefully use you.The startling command of verse 7 carried further - to seek the good of, and pray for, those who have wronged you.
- 1 Peter 2:11-12as strangers and pilgrims... having your conversation honest among the Gentiles... they may by your good works... glorify God.The exile posture of verse 7 made the shape of the whole church - living well among neighbours not their own.
- 1 Timothy 2:1-2that supplications, prayers, intercessions... be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority.The prayer for the city of verse 7 widened - intercession for the rulers and place where God’s people live.
- Genesis 39:2-5The LORD was with Joseph... and the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake.A man in exile becoming a blessing to the land that held him - the pattern verses 5-7 commend.
Thoughts of Peace, and Not of Evil
- Deuteronomy 4:29thou shalt seek the LORD thy God... if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.The very promise of verse 13, given to Israel before the exile - the LORD found by those who seek wholly.
- Matthew 7:7-8Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find... for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth.The promise of verse 13 on the lips of the Lord - the seeking that is sure to find.
- Ephesians 2:14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition.The peace of verse 11 named in person - the One who is Himself the peace God intends for His people.
- Daniel 9:2-3I Daniel understood by books the number of the years... that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.A reader of this very letter counting the seventy years of verse 10 - and turning to seek God in prayer.
- Romans 8:28all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.The assurance of verse 11 in New Testament key - God’s good intent at work even through hardship.
They Prophesy a Lie Unto You in My Name
- Jeremiah 24:5-7Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah... for their good.The vision behind verse 17 - the exiles the good figs, those who remained the bad, against all expectation.
- Matthew 7:15-16Beware of false prophets... Ye shall know them by their fruits.The danger of verses 21-23 - lying prophets whose corrupt lives betray their false word.
- Jeremiah 23:21I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.The same charge as verse 21 - those who prophesy in the LORD’s name what He never spoke.
- Ezekiel 13:6-9They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD saith: and the LORD hath not sent them.The judgment of verses 21-22 echoed - God’s hand against prophets who speak lies in His name.
- Revelation 3:14These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.The faithful witness set against the false (v. 23) - the One whose every word is true.
He Hath Taught Rebellion Against the LORD
- Numbers 14:22-23all those men... shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers.The pattern of verse 32 - those who rebel against God’s word shut out from the good He promised.
- 2 Chronicles 36:15-16they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words... till there was no remedy.Shemaiah’s sin (vv. 27-32) in a single line - despising and mocking the word God sent.
- 1 Peter 1:10-12the prophets... searching what... the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ.The deeper good of verse 32 - the salvation the prophets reached toward, fulfilled in Christ.
- Hebrews 3:18-19to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.The warning of verse 32 stated plainly - unbelief shutting a person out of God’s promised good.
- Isaiah 55:11so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void.Why silencing Jeremiah was futile (vv. 27-31) - the word God sends accomplishes what He pleases.