And these are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon
Jeremiah 29 opens with a postal address: a prophet still in Jerusalem writing to countrymen already deported to Babylon. Does God still have anything to say to people He has just judged?
This was not private mail. Later exiles read and studied the letter as part of written prophecy.
Daniel, in his exile in Babylon, was a student of Scripture. Jeremiah's prophecies went from Judah to the Jewish people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried captive to Babylon (Jer. 29:1). The word of the LORD in these "books" or rolls was there to instruct them. It told them about the chastisement that had come upon them, and how long their captivity under it would last.
The letter travelled by ordinary state business. Zedekiah, the king still ruling in Jerusalem, was sending men to Babylon.
King Zedekiah sent Elasah and Gemariah on a diplomatic mission to King Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah used the occasion to send a letter by them to the exiles. The letter first of all makes it clear that their stay in Babylon will not be temporary.
Behind the human courier stood a divine decision.
It was no accidental slip of Jeconiah and the people. No power of the king of Babylon accounted for the degradation of the Jews. The LORD of hosts had caused them to be carried away to the city of the conqueror. And it was He who now spoke to them by Jeremiah. How gracious of Him to notice them after all their guilt! How gracious to link His name with theirs in their fallen condition!
The letter answered something already spreading among the exiles.
Many false prophets had appeared among the captives, and they seem to have prompted the letter. They encouraged the rebellious and disobedient spirit that was widespread among the exiles. They gave false prophecies, led the people away, and stirred up the deceptive hope of an early return from the captivity.
The elders, priests, prophets and people addressed here were already in Babylon. They were not the rejected part of the nation.
Jeremiah 24 shows, by the sign of two baskets of figs, that a remnant will be preserved, while the rest, as bad figs, are rejected. Even in the land of the Chaldeans the eyes of the LORD are upon them for good. They would be restored, too, and settled in the land of Israel. But better than the best of the land, they would know the LORD. And better than returning to the place, they would return to Him. As He says: "I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart" (Jer. 24:7).
Verse 1 names the people the letter was written for. Their new position under a foreign king came with a command.
In Jeremiah 29 the prophet sent a letter to the remaining elders who had been carried away captive to Babylon in the time of Jeconiah, king of Judah (2 Kings 24:12-16). The word of the LORD of hosts commanded them to submit fully to Nebuchadnezzar. They were not only not to rebel; they were to obey. They were no longer Jews under the direct government of God in their own land. They were to recognise the authority of the Gentile king whom God had now set over them because of their sins.
Kelly draws out what faith does when God's hand is heavy.
The part of faith, when God sends a chastening, is to bow to it, not to fight against it. Suppose the Lord acts because of a wrong on our part. Faith in Him does not make light of the wrong, and it does not make light of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
The chapter does not stop at submission. Darby traces the movement.
Having insisted on the people's submission to the judgment, God reveals His own thoughts of grace. This submission was necessary because of Israel's sin. God must maintain His own character, and not identify Himself with the ways of a rebellious people. But He must also show Himself as He is in His grace. The judgment carried out, and Israel in ruins, made the truth and beauty of God's grace stand out even more.
- Caused — the deportation was not Babylon's achievement. God caused it. So He, not Nebuchadnezzar, sets the terms of life in exile.
- Carried — a routine royal errand carried the word of God. He reaches His people through ordinary channels.
- Contested — false prophets among the captives were promising a quick return. The letter set the true length of the discipline.
- Chosen — the deported people were the good figs. God watched over them for good, and they would return to Him with their whole heart.
- Comforted — submission comes first, then grace. The ruin makes God's own thoughts stand out all the more.
(after that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, had departed from Jerusalem);
Jeremiah 29:2 is a date-stamp inside a letter. Before giving Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Babylon, the text names who had already left Jerusalem: the king, his mother, the court officials and the skilled workers. That list fixes the date of the letter. It also shows how broken the nation was that received it.
The king named here appears in Scripture under three different names. His reign lasted three months. What followed was prison, and then, decades later, unexpected kindness.
Son and successor of Jehoiakim king of Judah… He reigned only three months. Then Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, and the great captivity of Judah was complete. Jehoiachin was carried to Babylon and kept in prison for thirty-six years. When Evil-merodach came to the throne, he released Jehoiachin from prison and raised him above the other captive kings. Jehoiachin ate bread before the king all the days of his life… He is called Jeconiah… He is also called Coniah.
The "eunuchs" listed beside him were not minor servants but a recognised class in royal courts.
They often became men of influence in the eastern courts, and had care of the harems; and where there were several there was one called their "prince." Jer. 29:2; Dan. 1:3-18; Acts 8:27.
The verse names the queen mother beside the king. That is no small detail. Jeremiah had already said she would go with him.
He was carried captive to Babylon, along with his mother, just as Jeremiah had prophesied: "As I live, says Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would still pull you from there. I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life… even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country, where you were not born. There you shall die."
Older translations call the craftsmen and metal workers "carpenters and smiths." Nebuchadnezzar took them for a reason.
Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive all the captains and mighty men of valour, numbering 10,000, and all the craftsmen and smiths, one thousand. Only the poorest of the people remained, for Nebuchadnezzar wanted to make sure that Jerusalem would never be able to rise to prominence again.
The verse reads like a political summary — a conquering king, a defeated court. One writer looks past that surface to the hand behind it. He also finds grace here: God still speaks to the people He has disciplined.
It was no accidental slip of Jeconiah and the people; it was no power of the king of Babylon which accounted for the degradation of the Jews. Jehovah of hosts had caused them to be carried away to the city of the conqueror; and He it was that now spoke to them by Jeremiah. How gracious to notice them like this after all their guilt, and to link His name with theirs in their fallen estate!
Those left behind in Jerusalem looked like the favoured ones. God's verdict in Jeremiah's vision of the two baskets of figs runs the other way.
What men saw was exactly the opposite of what God reveals to Jeremiah. To the world the good figs were the people remaining at Jerusalem under Zedekiah; to God's heart they were those carried away from Judah. Their goodness rested on this: they had submitted to God's judgment on their iniquity… Once God had carried out the sentence, He could look down with favour on those who had borne it.
That raises a practical question: how were they to live in a place they never chose? One of the exiles himself is the answer.
God's mind for them then was that they should be happy and pursue what was good in peace. It is no less His mind for us now. This does not mean that they, or we, are to become like Babylon. We see in Daniel, who was one of those at Babylon, the kind of behaviour that pleased God. He said "No" to the king's food, yet he sought the good of those around him, according to the Word of the Lord.
- Cause — The exile was not Babylon's achievement. God sent them there, and God was the one now speaking to them.
- Cast — Jeconiah is Jehoiachin, also called Coniah. He had three months on the throne, thirty-six years in prison, and then a place above the other captive kings.
- Cost — The queen mother went with him, just as Jeremiah had said. Nebuchadnezzar also took the craftsmen and smiths, so Jerusalem could never rise again.
- Contrast — God called the exiles His good figs, because they had bowed to His judgment. Those still comfortable in Jerusalem were the bad figs.
- Calling — God's mind for them was to be happy and to pursue what was good. Daniel showed how: he said no to the king's food, yet he sought the good of those around him.
by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkijah (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon, unto Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), saying,
Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles in Babylon. This verse tells us how it reached them. King Zedekiah was sending two men to Nebuchadnezzar on state business, and they became the postmen of a message from God.
The first man, Elasah, came from a family that had served the king:
He was the son of Azaliah, and perhaps the father of Ahikam, Gemariah, Elasah, and Jaazaniah. He was scribe or secretary to King Josiah. He presented to the king the book of the law that had been found in the temple.
Foreign envoys were visiting Zedekiah at this time. Jeremiah used the king's own errand to Babylon:
Ambassadors from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon came to Jerusalem to see Zedekiah (Jer. 27). They were probably planning a joint revolt. At the same time Zedekiah sent a message to Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon (Jer. 29:3). The prophet Jeremiah used this opportunity to send a message from God to the exiles in Babylon.
The king sent the men, but he did not send the message. The letter told the exiles who had really moved them to Babylon:
So the prophet sends his letter to the captives with the messengers Zedekiah sent to Nebuchadnezzar. The low state of the Jews was not an accidental slip by Jeconiah and the people. Nor was it the power of the king of Babylon. The Lord of hosts had them carried away to the city of the conqueror. And it was He who now spoke to them through Jeremiah. How gracious of Him to notice them after all their guilt, and to link His name with theirs in their fallen state!
Their situation had changed, and they needed to know how to live in it:
The captives were in a new political relationship. They needed special direction from God. The Jewish spirit would certainly have deeply resented the idea of a Gentile ruling over them. If God had not made His mind known, they would always have been plotting in Babylon to end this miserable captivity. But the part of faith, when God sends a chastening, is to bow to it, not to fight against it.
God still ordered things for their good in the very place He would later tell them to leave:
In the first part of the letter, notice how God orders matters for the good of His people. He does this even while they are captives in Babylon. That is the place which is to become most offensive to Him, and from which He afterwards calls them to flee. This is an important principle for believers today... We are to pursue what is good, while avoiding what is evil.
Other voices had reached the exiles first with a comforting lie:
Many false prophets seem to have prompted the letter. They had appeared among the captives, and they encouraged the rebellious and disobedient spirit that ruled among the exiles. They prophesied lies, led the people away, and stirred up the false hope of an early return from captivity.
- Carried by name. Elasah and Gemariah are named because God's word travelled in their hands. Elasah's father was Shaphan, the scribe who handed King Josiah the book of the law.
- Carried by politics. Talk of revolt surrounded Zedekiah's embassy. Jeremiah used that same errand to send God's message to Babylon.
- Carried by God. The letter said the Lord, not Nebuchadnezzar, had sent the people into exile. And He was still speaking to them there.
- Carried against lies. False prophets among the exiles promised a quick return. The letter came to end that false hope.
- Carried into daily life. Faith bows to God's chastening instead of fighting it. In Babylon they were to pursue what is good and avoid what is evil.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon
Jeremiah's letter to the exiles does not open with sympathy. It opens with a claim. The God who speaks is the One who put them where they are. Everything that follows in the chapter rests on that one line. It turns a national disaster into God's own appointment.
The verse names two things at once. It gives God's full title, and it makes the exile God's own act. Older translations read "whom I have caused to be carried away captive." The ESV reads "whom I have sent into exile." Either way, Babylon's army was not the real cause.
This was no accidental slip by Jeconiah and the people. It was no power of the king of Babylon that explained how low the Jews had fallen. The LORD of hosts was the One who had them carried away to the city of their conqueror. And it was He who now spoke to them through Jeremiah. How gracious of Him to notice them after all their guilt, and to tie His name to theirs in their fallen condition!
That is the weight of the title "the God of Israel." He keeps the name while His people sit in a foreign capital under judgment.
God writes to people whose whole world had changed. They no longer lived under His direct rule in their own land. A foreign king now stood over them.
In Jeremiah 29, the prophet sent a letter to the elders who were left, the ones carried away captive to Babylon in the time of Jeconiah the king of Judah (2 Kings 24:12-16). The word of the LORD of hosts commanded them to submit fully to Nebuchadnezzar. They were not only to avoid rebelling; they were to obey. They were no longer Jews living under God's direct government in their own land. They were to recognise the authority of the foreign king whom God had now set over them because of their sins.
God had to tell them how to take this, because their own instincts ran the other way.
The captives were in a new political situation. They needed special direction from God, because the Jewish spirit would surely have resented the idea of a foreign ruler over them. Without a word from God, they would have spent their time in Babylon plotting how to end this miserable captivity. But when God sends chastening, faith bows to it instead of fighting it. If the Lord acts because of a wrong on our part, faith does not make light of the wrong or of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening humbly and confesses the wrong.
Because God had placed them there, they were free to settle and live well.
There was to be nothing gloomy in the way they lived. They were to take all their circumstances from God. They were to trust the Lord with joy, and to do it as captives of Nebuchadnezzar. More than that, they were even to seek the good and peace of Babylon.
Seeking a city's good is not the same as taking on its ways. One writer points to a man who did both at once:
God's mind for them then was that they should be happy and quietly pursue what was good. It is no less His mind for us now. This does not mean that they, or we, are to become like Babylon. In Daniel, who was one of those in Babylon, we see the behaviour that pleased God. He said "No" to the king's food, yet he sought the good of those around him, in line with the Word of the Lord.
The letter does not end with the command to settle down.
At the end, having insisted that the people submit to the judgment, God reveals His own thoughts of grace. This submission was necessary because of Israel's sin. God must keep His own character, and not identify Himself with the ways of a rebellious people. But He must also show Himself as He is in His grace. The carrying out of the judgment, and Israel's ruined condition, made the truth and beauty of God's grace stand out even more.
- Sent, not seized. Nebuchadnezzar's power did not explain the exile. The LORD of hosts had them carried away, and He speaks to them there.
- Named, not disowned. He still calls Himself the God of Israel — linking His name with theirs while they sit in disgrace.
- Bow, don't battle. Faith's part under God's chastening is to accept it meekly and confess the wrong, not to plot a way out of it.
- Build, don't brood. Nothing gloomy in their living: they were to take every circumstance from God's hand, trust Him with joy, and even seek Babylon's good.
- Submission first, then grace. Only after they bow to the judgment does God unfold His thoughts of grace. Their ruin makes that grace shine brighter.
Build houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
Jeremiah writes a letter to the Jews taken from Jerusalem to Babylon, and his first instruction is not resistance but a building project. Two questions sit behind it: who put them there, and how long would they stay?
The order to build assumes a settled address, and the letter names the One who arranged it.
This was no accidental slip by Jeconiah and the people. No power of the king of Babylon explains why the Jews were brought so low. The LORD of hosts had caused them to be carried away to the city of the conqueror. And it was He who now spoke to them through Jeremiah. How gracious of Him to notice them after all their guilt, and to link His name with theirs in their fallen state!
So a house in Babylon is not surrender to Nebuchadnezzar. It is agreement with God about where He has put them.
Houses and orchards take years. Trees planted for fruit say that no one is going home next spring. But a quick return was just what the popular prophets promised:
Hananiah was one of the many false prophets plaguing the people of God at the time. He "took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and broke it." Then he said in front of all the people: "This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon off the neck of all the nations within two full years." Jeremiah did not take it upon himself to answer this lie. We simply read: "and the prophet Jeremiah went his way." But God spoke... The false prophet was judged for his opposition. He "died in the same year in the seventh month."
Another writer finds the same denial back in Jerusalem. Leaders there answered Jeremiah's call to build in exile by building at home instead.
God points these men out to Ezekiel. They replace Jeremiah's call to the captives to build houses in the place of their captivity, which was to be long (Jer. 29:5), with building in Jerusalem. Judgment is not near, they say.
Building was not resignation. The exile had a stated limit, and the same letter named God's plan for them.
They had to accept the judgment. They also had to bear it patiently, right to the end of the seventy years the Lord had assigned to it... At the appointed time there was to be a restoration. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:11).
Captives might have thought sadness was the only reverent response. The command to eat the fruit of their own gardens says otherwise.
There was to be nothing morbid in their habits. They were to take all the circumstances from God. They were happily to trust in the Lord, but to do so as captives to Nebuchadnezzar. Indeed, they were even to seek the good and peace of Babylon.
Settling in a place is not the same as approving of it.
It is instructive to notice how God orders things for the good of His people, even when they are captives in Babylon. That is the place that is to become most hateful to Him, and the place He afterwards calls them to flee... We are to pursue what is good, while avoiding what is evil.
The same writer points to one man in Babylon who shows what this looks like:
To be happy, and to be peacefully pursuing what was good, was God's mind for them then: it is no less His mind for us now. This does not mean that either they or we are to become Babylonish. We see in Daniel, who was one of those at Babylon, the sort of behaviour that pleased God. He said "No" to the king's food, yet he sought the good of those around him, according to the Word of the Lord.
Those who refused the yoke did not escape it.
If we run away from discipline, the problem that caused it will catch up with us (and the outcome is likely to be even worse). If these people had stayed in Jerusalem and accepted the Babylonian yoke, they could have lived quietly in their own country. But having fled to Egypt, they were still within Nebuchadnezzar's reach and would die.
- Sent — the exile was God's doing, not Babylon's strength. Even in their fallen state, God links His name with theirs.
- Settle — houses and fruit trees are slow. The command to build exposed the prophets who promised a return within two years.
- Serve — settling meant seeking the good and peace of the city where God had placed them.
- Separate — they were to live well in Babylon without becoming Babylonish. Daniel sought the good of those around him and still said "No" to the king's food.
- Sure end — the seventy years had a limit. God's plan for them was welfare, a future and a hope. Those who ran from His discipline met it anyway.
Take 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; and multiply there, and be not diminished.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray unto Jehovah for it for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Jeremiah wrote to people already deported to Babylon, telling them that their stay would be long. They must even pray for the city that held them captive — but why pray for the place of your punishment?
The verse traces the exile back to God Himself, not to Babylon's army. The writers quoted below used an older translation, which reads "peace" where the ESV has "welfare."
The downfall of the Jews was not an accidental slip by King Jeconiah and the people, and it was not the power of the king of Babylon either. The Lord of hosts had caused them to be carried away to the city of the conqueror, and He was the One who now spoke to them through Jeremiah. How gracious of Him to notice them after all their guilt, and to link His name with theirs in their fallen state! It was worse than useless to hope for a quick return to Palestine. No plots and no resolutions would help. The Lord's word was that they should settle down in the land of their captivity. They were to build and plant, to marry and give in marriage, and so grow in number instead of shrinking. They were also to seek the peace of the city where they lived, and to do this heartily as to the Lord, and not to please men.
The command to seek the city's peace comes attached to houses, gardens, marriages and children. Refusing that ordinary life might look spiritual. In fact it shows a heart that has not bowed to God.
Souls that are not really bowing to God are always gloomy. They murmur in their affliction and avoid the common duties of life. Godly people do not shut their eyes to what is painful, nor are they unfeeling in their adversity. There would be no piety in ignoring the truth of things. They feel the affliction, yet they seek grace from God to take the hardship from His hand with all patience.
Both sides of this prayer look unpromising.
The people who were told to pray were a failing people. The city they were told to pray for was a doomed city. Still, they were to pray. We might think it hardly decent for such people to pray for others, and quite useless to pray for such a city. But no! The Lord fully recognises the shame of His people, and that His hand was upon them in judgment. He says, "I have caused you to be carried away captive." Yet He goes on, "Pray to the Lord for the city," for His mercy is very great.
Seeking a city's welfare is not the same as adopting its character. One of the exiles shows how both fit together in one life.
To be happy, and to be peacefully pursuing what was good, was God's mind for them then; it is no less His mind for us now. This does not mean that either they or we are to become Babylonish. We see in Daniel, who was one of those at Babylon, the sort of behaviour that pleased God. He said "No" to the king's food, yet he sought the good of those around him, according to the word of the Lord. We do well to grasp this principle and have grace to put it into practice.
One writer carries Jeremiah's letter over to Christians today. The peace we ask for the world comes back to God's own people.
God's mind is clearly that His people should lead a quiet life while passing through this hostile world. They are not to assert themselves as if they were citizens of this world. They are to live in a calm that keeps out of the world's disputes, in a piety that recognises God in every circumstance of life, and in practical seriousness before others. Long ago the prophet Jeremiah sent a letter to God's captive people in Babylon. He urged them to seek the peace of the city that held them in bondage, by praying to the Lord for it. As the prophet says, "in its peace you shall have peace." In the same spirit we are to seek the peace of the world, so that God's people may have peace.
Another writer draws the parallel while marking the difference in situation.
It is true that Christians in this land are not captives to a foreign power. But a new element has come into our lives, making us strangers and pilgrims even in our own country... Meanwhile we are in a world of unrest and sorrow.
Seeking Babylon's peace was not a surrender of hope. The exile had a fixed end, set by God.
Just as it was necessary to accept the judgment, so it was necessary to bear it patiently until the end of the seventy years assigned to it by the Lord... At the appointed time there was to be a restoration.
- Sent, not stranded — the exile came from God's own hand. Babylon was to be accepted, not escaped by scheming.
- Settle — build, plant, marry. Avoiding ordinary duties in hard times marks a heart that murmurs instead of bowing to God.
- Seek — pursue the good of the place you did not choose, as Daniel did, without taking on its character.
- Pray — a failing people may still pray for a doomed city. God's mercy is greater than the shame He fully sees.
- Share the peace — the peace you ask for others comes back to you. Christians pass through this world, and still pray for it.
For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel Let not your prophets that are in your midst, nor your diviners deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams, which ye like to dream.
God's letter to the exiles in Babylon told them to settle down, build, plant and pray for the city that had captured them. Then it warned them about voices offering something easier. Verse 8 raises a question that never dates: when a message carries God's name, can you trust it?
The verse opens with a title: the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel. One writer shows what that name meant for people living in defeat.
It was no power of the king of Babylon that explained the downfall of the Jews. Jehovah of hosts had caused them to be carried away to the city of the conqueror, and He was the one now speaking to them through Jeremiah. How gracious of Him to notice them after all their guilt, and to link His name with theirs in their fallen state!
The warning only makes sense next to the instruction it protects. The exiles wanted a short stay; God told them to unpack.
It was worse than vain to hope for an immediate return to Palestine: no conspiracies, no resolutions would help. Jehovah's word was that they should settle down in the land of their captivity. They were to build and plant, to marry and give in marriage, and so grow in number instead of shrinking. They were also to seek the peace of the city where they lived as strangers. They were to do this wholeheartedly, as from the Lord, and not to please men. In its peace their peace would be found. Certainly the ways of the Lord are wise and good, wholesome and building up. Oh that His people had listened to Him, and Israel had walked in His ways! Long ago Israel would have none of Him. In the same way, the captive Jews were now in danger of falling prey to the deceivers who grew fat on the folly and sin they helped along.
The verse names "your prophets and your diviners who are among you." They were not foreign voices; they were fellow exiles.
The false prophets had predicted a speedy return. Some of these false prophets had gone with them to Babylon and were present in the prison camp on the banks of the river Chebar. We read in Ezekiel 11:3 that they ridiculed the divine command and gave wicked counsel. They felt themselves secure.
God's word to the exiles was to settle in the city and pray for it. One writer points out how carefully they had to guard that word:
They were to be careful not to let anyone deceive them about this word, even if it were a prophet who came and spoke to them in the Lord's Name (vv. 8-9).
The verse mentions dreams the people themselves cause to be dreamed — the audience has a hand in producing the message it hears. Writers trace this warning forward into the New Testament; one notes among the links between Jeremiah and the Gospels:
References are found... in Mark 13:5 to Jeremiah 29:8.
Commenting on that warning of Jesus, another writer explains the pull that false prophecy always has:
What prophecy reveals runs against everything men would naturally expect. False prophets are attractive because they always predict things that fit men's desires and seem completely reasonable. We must stay on watch, for false prophets fill pulpits across the Christian world today.
Against the flattering forecasts, God gives a hard number: seventy years. The measure itself is mercy.
Jehovah Himself measured the stay of seventy years in Babylon. It was long enough to do His chastening. It was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
Refusing the false word is only half the answer; the other half is finding the true one and acting on it. One man in Babylon did exactly that with this very passage.
Verses 10 to 14, however, show the limits of this abnormal state of things. After seventy years it would be God's mind that they should return to Jerusalem. This shows how important it is to make sure of the mind of God for us at this moment. Daniel gathered God's mind about this return from these very verses, and it set him praying with his whole heart (see Daniel 9:1-4).
- Settle — God told the exiles to build, plant and seek the welfare of the city. Hoping for a quick escape was worse than useless.
- Beware — the danger came from inside. Deceivers among the exiles mocked God's command and felt safe doing it.
- Test — the Lord's Name on a message proves nothing. Even a prophet who used it could be a deceiver.
- Discern — a false word attracts because it predicts what people already want. It sounds completely reasonable.
- Pray — the true word gave seventy years: long enough to chasten, short enough to show mercy. Daniel read these very verses, learned God's mind, and prayed with his whole heart.
For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name I have not sent them, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah wrote to the exiles in Babylon and told them to settle down. They were to build, marry and pray for the city that held them captive. The same letter warned them about men who were saying something very different in God's name. Verse 9 gives the reason to refuse those messages: God never sent the men who carried them.
The letter's instructions were kind and practical. But rival voices were already at work among the exiles.
Surely the ways of the Lord are wise and good, wholesome and building up. If only His people had listened to Him, and Israel had walked in His ways! Long ago Israel would have nothing to do with Him. In the same way, the captive Jews were now in danger of falling prey to deceivers who grew fat on the folly and sin they helped along.
The problem here is not simply error. These men put the Lord's name on their own words. That imitation is what makes them dangerous.
They were and are Satan's counterfeits of the prophets of God, and their purpose is, on the principle of imitation, to neutralise the word of God.
Three men opposed Jeremiah to his face: Hananiah, Ahab and Zedekiah. The same writer notes that the danger did not end there. In the church, believers are to test the spirits, "for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
There is a pattern to what unsent prophets say. Jeremiah himself would have been glad if Hananiah's promise of a quick release had been true. But Judah had not repented.
It is always a mark of false prophecies that in a day of evil they promised prosperity. When the people of God have departed from Him, false prophets prophesy smooth things. They have their glowing dreams of progress and of the spread of the Lord's work and blessing. The coming of great things and pleasant things is their unchanging testimony. A true prophet, on the other hand, in the day of evil warns of the coming of the Lord to judge the ungodly.
God gave a number the exiles would never have chosen for themselves. The length of it was deliberate.
Jehovah Himself measured out the stay of seventy years in Babylon. It was long enough to do His chastening work. It was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
Speaking falsely in the Lord's name was rebellion against God Himself. And the reckoning did not stop with the speakers.
The letter was sent to encourage them to rest quietly under the yoke, for this was God's mind for them. Those who spoke otherwise in the Name of the Lord would be punished, for it was rebellion against Him. … Severe judgment was to come upon them, and upon all such, and likewise upon those who heeded them.
Refusing these voices was not passive. It protected a way of living God had just laid out for them in exile.
It is instructive to notice the way God orders matters for the good of His people, even when they are captives in Babylon. The Lord through Jeremiah tells them to build houses, plant gardens, eat the fruit, take wives, and have sons and daughters, so that they may increase. They are also to "seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare." And they were to be careful not to let anyone deceive them about this, even if it were a prophet who came and spoke to them in the Lord's Name.
Vine says the principle still holds: "We are to pursue what is good, while avoiding what is evil." He points to Daniel, one of the captives in Babylon, who said no to the king's food yet sought the good of those around him.
- Commission. The test is not skill or confidence but sending. God's verdict on these men is that He did not send them. To use His name without that is a counterfeit built to neutralise His word.
- Content. The unsent have a familiar sound: smooth words, prosperity in a day of evil, glowing dreams of progress. A true messenger warns instead.
- Crowd. Deceivers grow fat on the folly and sin they themselves encourage, and those who listen to them share their judgment.
- Clock. God's own word gave seventy years. That was long enough for His chastening, short enough to prove His tender mercy.
- Course. Safety lay in building, planting and praying for the city. It lay in letting no one deceive them, even someone using the Lord's Name.
For thus saith Jehovah When seventy years shall be accomplished for Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in bringing you back to this place.
Jeremiah writes to Jews already deported to Babylon. Other voices promised them a quick trip home; God gives them a date instead — seventy years, and then He would come for them. So what were His people to do with the years in between?
False prophets were feeding the exiles a comfortable lie. This promise struck straight at it.
Many false prophets had appeared among the captives, and they seem to have prompted Jeremiah's letter. They encouraged the rebellious and disobedient spirit that was common among the exiles. They prophesied falsely, led the people away, and awakened the deceptive hope of an early return from the captivity... To dispel this false hope Jeremiah had sent them the message.
God fixed the length, and He fixed it for two reasons at once.
The stay of seventy years in Babylon was measured by the Lord. It was long enough to complete His chastening; it was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
The number itself has a history behind it. The law required the land to rest one year in every seven, and that rest had been ignored.
There is no record of the Sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee ever being kept. Leviticus 26:34-35 predicts what would happen if the Israelites did not let the land keep the sabbaths... Jeremiah 25:11-12, Jeremiah 29:10 and Daniel 9:2 all give the actual desolation as seventy years. And as the land was to have rested one year in every seven, it follows that the seventy answer to 70 × 7 = 490 years.
The date was not the only thing God fixed in advance.
First, then, Cyrus is named long years before he was born into this world. Later, while Jeremiah announces the coming captivity of the people, he also proclaims the exact length of their exile.
Three men served that one return in three different ways.
Daniel himself did not return, though his face was constantly turned towards Jerusalem. God used him for it in prayer, as He used Cyrus in providence and Jeremiah in prophecy. Behind it all was God Himself, working in purpose and in power.
The return was set for later. The years before it still had to be lived.
They had to accept the judgment. They also had to bear it patiently to the end of the seventy years the Lord had assigned to it. So Jeremiah wrote to those taken captive under king Jeconiah: "Build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit"... At the appointed time there was to be a restoration.
Kelly points to the frame of mind it called for.
There was to be nothing morbid in their habits. They were to receive all their circumstances from God. They were happily to trust in the Lord, but to do so as captives of Nebuchadnezzar.
Generations later Daniel learned that the exile was nearly over. He learned it by reading, not by a vision.
God could easily have told Daniel directly that the long captivity of His people was nearly over. He could have used a vision, a dream, or an angel. But this is not His way... His saints or servants can learn His will by careful study of His Word and by communion with Himself. When they can, they need not and should not expect Him to make His mind known by some shorter or easier way.
What he received in answer went further than what he asked for.
It is very important to see that God's revealed purpose goes far beyond the prophet's prayer... In his prayers Daniel asked for one thing: that God would keep the promise made through Jeremiah... But in the message sent through Gabriel, God shows him that He had still larger thoughts of blessing for His people.
- Measured — God set the seventy years, not Babylon. Long enough to complete His chastening, short enough to prove His mercy.
- Counted — seventy years matched the sabbath rests the land never got. Even the length of the discipline fit the debt.
- Promised — "I will visit you" bound God to act. He had named Cyrus, the king He used in that return, long before the man was born.
- Lived — until the date came they were to build and plant in Babylon. They were to take their circumstances from God and trust Him there.
- Prayed — Daniel found this promise by reading Scripture, and it set him praying. God's answer went far beyond the return he asked for.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you in your latter end a hope.
Jeremiah sent this promise in a letter from Jerusalem to the Jews deported to Babylon, while false prophets promised them a quick return home. The verse answers the deepest question of any exile: does God still care about people He is punishing, and what is His real aim behind their trouble?
The exile was not bad luck, and Babylon's king was not the real power behind it. God Himself had ordered it — and that is exactly why hope was possible. William Kelly draws out the wonder of the letter itself:
It wasn't luck for Jeconiah (the young king taken captive to Babylon) and the people, and it wasn't Babylon's king who brought the Jews low — it was the Lord of hosts. He had caused them to be carried away to the conqueror's city, and He was the one who now spoke to them through Jeremiah. How gracious of Him to notice them after all their guilt, and to link His name with theirs in their fallen state!
God Himself fixed the length of the exile — seventy years, a real judgment with a measured end. Kelly explains the balance in that number:
The stay of seventy years in Babylon was measured by the Lord. It was long enough to accomplish His chastening; it was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
One writer contrasts violent upheaval with God's true nature. Judgment is real, but it never shows God's heart:
Rending, upheaving, and devouring can never show what God is really like; they can never express the thoughts of His heart. Judgment He must perform, though it is His strange work; yet behind it all He says, "I know the plans I have for you … plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." The end, which is always before God, is the blessing of His people in peace and love — the expression of His own nature.
A group of Jews did return after the seventy years. Yet Arno Gaebelein notes that the promise reaches further than that first homecoming:
How gracious and merciful He is towards His own! In His own time all His gracious purposes will be fully accomplished in that nation, as they were partially accomplished in the return of a remnant after the exile. Verse 14 speaks of the larger return, "gathered out from all the nations."
What God said to captives in Babylon shows how He deals with His people in every age. Greg Quail makes the connection:
He may allow circumstances for us like Israel's captivity in Babylon. To outward appearance all may be in turmoil. But He is the God of peace, and has thoughts of peace toward us, and has planned for us a "future and a hope."
J Wilson Smith turns the verse into rest for a tired believer:
This Scripture is a fine pillow of down for a weary head, and every one of us may lay our heads on that divine pillow in the middle of conflict and distress. There is no treasure-store for God's people like the thoughts of God. God always has an end in view in His dealings with His children: He wants to give us a "future and a hope."
He also shows what that "end" looks like in a single life:
It is like a refiner of silver, who stirs the molten metal up to a certain point — the point at which he can see the clear reflection of himself in the metal. Then he says: that is enough! In the same way, when the child of God is brought to the point where he can say, "Your will be done," that is the reflection of His image.
W. T. P. Wolston presses the verse to its furthest point — God's thoughts of peace led Him to give His Son ("only begotten" means God's one-of-a-kind Son):
God has so thought of us that He has sent His only begotten Son into the world to die for us, for "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
God's thoughts run ahead of His people — from the trouble, through the trouble, to the end:
- Measured. The seventy years were set by God, not chance: long enough to correct, short enough to prove His tender mercy.
- Revealed. Judgment is God's "strange work"; His nature is peace, and the end He always has in view is the blessing of His people.
- Promised. The promise was partly fulfilled when a remnant returned after the exile; verse 14 points to a larger gathering still to come.
- Personal. The same God of peace plans a "future and a hope" for believers in their own "Babylons" — a pillow of down for a weary head, a Refiner watching for His own reflection.
- Proven. God's thoughts of peace went all the way to giving His Son to die, "that he might bring us to God."
And ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you;
These words reach Jews already deported to Babylon, whose exile is real and measured but not the end of God's dealings with them. God promises to hear them when they call — so why does He tie His settled purpose to their asking?
The promise stands at the end of a fixed period, and that length was no accident:
The stay of seventy years in Babylon was measured by the Lord. It was long enough to complete His discipline; it was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and leave room for a greater display of Himself.
So the invitation to pray is not a vague offer. It sits inside a timetable God set.
The promise of seventy years did its work through three very different people:
It was clearly this word that years later set Daniel praying... So for the fulfilment of this promise Jeremiah was used in prophecy; Daniel in prayer; and Cyrus, a man who did not know the Lord, in providence.
Prayer did not replace God's plan, and it did not force it. It was the channel God had named in advance. The one who believed the written word was the one who prayed.
Daniel shows what praying "according to this promise" looks like in practice. He came to God with Scripture in his hand and sin on his conscience:
He had learned "from books" how long this desolation was to continue... Still, he set his face to seek by prayer and pleading, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes, and so he cried to the Lord his God. He wants light, but he begins by confession. He goes down. He hides nothing. He had learned that to the God he was dealing with, "all things were naked and open." Above all else, this God looks for openness, truth, and sincerity in those who pray to Him.
Knowing the promise did not make him casual about it. It made him honest.
The verse leads straight into the condition attached to finding God. The object of the search is a Person, not information:
Notice that they seek "Him"; they seek to please Him, to be more like Him. This is not a merely "intellectual" activity, but it is a question of the whole heart being engaged. My heart yearning after Him day by day, all day long. "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart" is the wonderful promise.
Commentators read the promise as reaching beyond the return from Babylon. Israel's story began with God seeking them; their future turns on them seeking Him, the way Ruth seeks out Boaz in the Old Testament story:
Long ago He had sought them; He found them in a desert land... But in the last days the Lord must be sought, as Ruth now seeks Boaz, and as He testifies through His prophets. "I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me" (Hosea 5:15). "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you"... And again, "This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock" (Ezekiel 36:37).
One writer aims the verse at people who assume God has written them off:
He did not know what the Christian knows, nor that God says, "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you." God has so thought of us that He has sent His only Son into the world to die for us. For "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
- Measured — God set the seventy years: long enough to correct His people, short enough to prove His mercy.
- Written — the promise was in a book before it was in anyone's mouth; Daniel found it by reading, and it set him praying.
- Honest — he came with confession and hid nothing, because the God who promises is the God from whom nothing is hidden.
- Whole — the finding is tied to seeking Him with the whole heart, a Person sought, not a subject studied.
- Faithful — the God who kept His word to the exiles sent His Son to die for us and bring us to Himself.
and ye shall seek me and find me, for ye shall search for me with all your heart,
Jeremiah wrote this in a letter to Jews already carried off to Babylon, who wanted their exile over fast. God ties the promise to one condition — the whole heart — and the chapter keeps asking what He means by the trouble He has sent.
One writer says how faith should meet a discipline like the exile:
When God sends discipline, faith bows to it instead of fighting it. If the Lord acts because we have done wrong, faith does not treat the wrong lightly, and it does not treat the discipline lightly either. Faith accepts the discipline humbly and admits the wrong.
Two verses earlier God tells them what His thoughts toward them are. One writer sets those thoughts behind the judgment itself:
God must carry out judgment, though such work is not what He delights in. Behind it all He says, "I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:11). The end, which is always before God, is the blessing of His people in peace and love, the expression of His own nature.
God had made this promise long before Jeremiah. One writer points out what God did not make the condition:
God's faithfulness is in full action, just as He promised in Leviticus, in Deuteronomy, and in His answer to Solomon's prayer. He had promised that if enemies carried them into captivity and they turned to Him there with all their heart, He would bring them back. He never said, if they kept the law to the letter, for they could not have done that.
The object of the search is God Himself — "you will seek me" — and that shapes what the searching looks like:
Notice that they seek "Him"; they seek to please Him, to be more like Him. This is not just an "intellectual" activity. It engages the whole heart. My heart yearning after Him day by day, all day long.
The reverse of the whole heart is the divided one, and that division has a practical cost in prayer:
Why is it that our prayers are not answered? James gives us two reasons. One is double-mindedness — that is, the mind half on one thing and half on another. If my mind is half on the world and half on Christ, I may pray every day of my life and get no answer to my prayers. When I seek the Lord, let it be as Chronicles puts it: "They sought Him with their whole desire, and He was found by them." God answers that kind of prayer.
One writer takes an earlier case of people who sought God and found Him, and draws the rule from it:
"He was found by them." Even in the darkest moments of human history, He has never hidden Himself from those who seek Him. To find the Lord! What a treasure! Why should they not rejoice! What rest when He is found!
The return of a remnant after the exile answered part of this. The next verse reaches further, to a gathering out of all the nations:
He promises an answer to their cry, and if they seek Him, He will be found. How gracious and merciful He is toward His own! In His own time He will carry out all His gracious purposes for that nation. The return of a remnant after the exile carried out part of them. Verse 14 speaks of the larger return, "gathered out from all the nations."
- All the trouble — the exile was discipline from God's hand. Faith bows to it instead of fighting it, and admits the wrong.
- All the intent — behind the judgment stand thoughts of peace. God always aims at the blessing of His people, because that expresses what He is.
- All the heart — the condition is not flawless law-keeping but undivided desire. A mind half on the world and half on Christ can pray for years and get nothing.
- All of Him — the search is for a Person to please and be like, not a subject to master. He has never hidden Himself from anyone who searches that way.
- All the nations — the return of a remnant answered this in part. Verse 14 reaches to a wider gathering still to come.
and I will be found of you, saith Jehovah. And I will turn your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith Jehovah; and I will bring you again into the place whence I have caused you to be carried away captive.
God sends this promise to people already living as captives in Babylon. He binds Himself here with three pledges — to be found, to restore their fortunes, to gather them back — and readers have long asked how far that gathering reaches.
The seventy years were not an accident of Babylonian politics. One writer sets the length of the exile between two purposes of God:
The LORD measured the stay of seventy years in Babylon. It was long enough to complete His discipline. It was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
The promise did not cover everyone in Babylon. The same chapter splits the exiles into two groups:
Jeremiah 29 declares God's blessing on those who accepted the humbling that came from His hand under the rule of Babylon; they would find peace there. God had not sent the prophets who said otherwise, and they had to be judged for their rebellion against the Lord.
"I will be found by you" was not offered to a nation that had earned it. God set the terms long before Jeremiah, and one writer points out what He did not make the condition:
God's faithfulness is fully at work, exactly as He promised in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and in His answer to Solomon's prayer. He had promised that if they were carried off into captivity, and then turned to Him with all their heart while among their enemies, He would bring them back. He never said, "if they keep the law to the letter," because that would not have been possible for them.
Count how much of this verse God takes on Himself. One writer treats those two words as the mark of the whole passage, and sees them pointing past the exile:
After placing the nation under Nebuchadnezzar's yoke, the LORD promises Israel the blessings of Jeremiah 29:10-14. These verses express the LORD's will about the restoration from captivity in Babylon. But they also hint at something far beyond this — verse 11 speaks of "your latter end," which the ESV renders "a future and a hope" — and the following chapters unfold it. It comes out in these words: "I will".
The exiles did come home from Babylon, and that was a real fulfilment. But commentators do not think the words stop there:
This promised return from captivity was certainly fulfilled in part when the people came back under Cyrus, the king of Persia. The terms of the prophecy go beyond that, but there was a real fulfilment at that time.
Some readers hold that wide language — "all the nations," "all the places" — up against the modern movement of Jewish people back to their land:
Whatever our attitude to the Jew may be, we cannot withhold our admiration when we see their strong national feeling. It has drawn them back to the land of their forefathers in their hundreds of thousands, from every part of the globe where they have lived as scattered strangers for many centuries. Bible students see this remarkable movement as an early sign pointing to the fulfilment of their Old Testament prophecy.
Daniel, one of the exiles, read these very lines and prayed over them. One writer draws the lesson, and adds a sobering detail:
Daniel clearly gathered God's mind about this return from these very verses, and it set him praying with his whole heart (see Daniel 9:1-4)… But note that Daniel himself did not return, though his face was always turned toward Jerusalem. God used him for this in prayer, as He used Cyrus in providence and Jeremiah in prophecy, while God Himself stood behind it all, working in purpose and in power.
What does searching with the whole heart look like? One writer answers that they are after a Person, not information:
Notice that they seek "Him"; they seek to please Him, to be more like Him. This is not just an "intellectual" activity. It is a question of the whole heart being engaged. My heart yearning after Him day by day, all day long.
- Measured — God set the seventy years. They were long enough to complete His discipline, short enough to prove His tender mercy.
- Promised — the verse runs on God's own "I will." The restoration expresses His will, not the exiles' record.
- Conditioned — He never required flawless law-keeping. He asked them to turn to Him with all their heart while still among their enemies. Those who bowed to the humbling found peace; the prophets who said otherwise faced judgment.
- Widened — the return under Cyrus fulfilled the words in part. The terms reach beyond it, to a gathering from all nations.
- Answered — Daniel read this promise and prayed. God worked through a praying man, a prophet and a Persian king. He Himself stood behind it all.
If ye say, Jehovah hath raised us up prophets in Babylon;
Jeremiah's letter told the exiles to settle down in Babylon and wait out seventy years. Verse 15 quotes their reply: they had prophets of their own, and the rest of the chapter answers that claim.
The exiles pointed to preachers among them as proof that God was speaking in Babylon. But how much was that boast worth?
Had they boasted of those the Lord had raised up in Babylon to prophesy? Sadly, the true prophet was the least heeded, because he gave no advice to rebel. He did not despise the word of the Lord that came through Jeremiah. Instead he gave himself to prayer and confession as the time of deliverance drew near.
A crowd of prophets is not by itself a sign of God's favour.
When God raised up prophets in Israel's history, Satan at once confused things by raising up many false ones. In the days of Ahab there were 850 false to one true!
The counterfeit sells because it says what people want, in the words people trust.
It was more popular to prophesy smooth things and deceptions. Nothing is so dear to the human heart as having God's approval on its own desires. So people loved prophets who said, "Thus says the Lord," when the Lord had not spoken. We should not suppose that these prophets were always inventing lies. Instead, they corrupted the word of God and made it suit man's taste. They had to imitate the real prophets in many of their expressions. Yet in the end they only produced their own empty speculations.
Who were these prophets, and what were they promising?
The false prophets had predicted a speedy return. Some of these false prophets had gone with them to Babylon. They were in the prison camp on the banks of the river Chebar… Once again the seventy years come up, and what is to take place after they end… Two of the false prophets are mentioned by name, Ahab and Zedekiah (not the king). Besides being false prophets, they were adulterers. King Nebuchadnezzar roasted them in the fire.
God's answer turns to Jerusalem itself, and to the king still on its throne.
Then the Lord speaks about those Jews still remaining in Jerusalem under Zedekiah… This is not a promise of the return from Babylon under a son of David. The son of David was to suffer chastisement still more. There had been already a son of David carried into captivity. Another son of David was still reigning in Jerusalem. The pestilence and the sword were certain to fall on him.
The letter also settled who would answer for the lie.
Jeremiah sent the letter to encourage them to rest quietly under the yoke. This was God's mind for them. Those who spoke otherwise in the Name of the Lord would be punished, for it was rebellion against Him… Severe judgment was to come on them, on all such people, and on those who listened to them (vv. 15-19).
So what should the exiles do with their captivity?
Without a word from God, they would have kept plotting in Babylon to put an end to this miserable captivity. But when God sends a chastening, the part of faith is to bow to it, not to fight it. Suppose the Lord does something because of a wrong on our part. Faith in Him does not make light of the wrong, or of the chastening. It accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
Bowing to God's hand did not mean a joyless life.
To be happy, and to be peacefully pursuing what was good, was God's mind for them then: it is no less His mind for us now. This does not mean that either they or ourselves are to become Babylonish.
- The claim — The exiles boasted of prophets God had given them in Babylon. The true prophet among them was the one they heeded least.
- The counterfeit — Wherever God raises up true prophets, false ones appear in numbers. They copy the real words. They say "Thus says the Lord" when He has not spoken, and shape His word to man's taste.
- The content — They were popular because they promised a quick return. God had fixed seventy years.
- The consequence — Judgment falls on the deceivers, and on those who chose to believe them. The Jerusalem they hoped to hurry back to still faced the sword and the pestilence.
- The corrective — Faith bows to the chastening instead of plotting against it. It lives well and peacefully where God has placed it, without becoming like Babylon.
yea, thus saith Jehovah concerning the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and concerning all the people that dwell in this city, your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;
This verse comes from Jeremiah's letter to the Jews already carried off to Babylon. The tone now turns: God speaks about the king left in Jerusalem and the relatives who stayed behind, and what He says is not comfort but sentence.
The exiles had been listening to voices promising a quick return. One commentator sets the scene by noting who was actually being ignored:
Had they boasted of those the Lord had raised up in Babylon to prophesy? Sadly, the true prophet was the one least listened to. He was no adviser of rebellion. He did not despise the word of the Lord that came through Jeremiah. Instead, he gave himself to prayer and confession as the time of deliverance drew near.
The phrase "the king who sits on the throne of David" might sound like a promise. It is not:
Then the Lord speaks about the Jews still living in Jerusalem under Zedekiah. He says He will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence on them. This is not a promise of a return from Babylon under a son of David. The son of David still had more chastening to suffer. There had already been a son of David carried into captivity. There was another son of David still reigning in Jerusalem, and the pestilence and the sword would fall on him.
By ordinary reckoning, the ones who stayed home had come off best. God's verdict runs the other way:
How could this be? Surely, one might have thought, those who remain in Jerusalem are the better Jews and those in Babylon are the bad ones. Why does God say the opposite? Because those who wanted to stay in Jerusalem were refusing to accept God's discipline. They thought they could evade it, either by staying in Jerusalem to fight or by fleeing to Egypt. Remember that since the first deportation in 606 BC, God had handed government in the world over to Nebuchadnezzar. The only right thing to do was to accept that fact and confess the sins that had led to it.
The first deportation, under Jehoiachin, had passed them by, and that escape left them sure of themselves:
The "bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten," were the ones God Himself could do nothing with. They had not gone through the first judgment under Jehoiachin, so a second judgment had to come, and this time it was final. Though God declared that everything was lost, they, trusting in themselves, were boasting that they were the representatives of the people of God.
The title in this verse carries more weight than the man holding it:
While David's throne stood, it was still "the throne of the LORD," no matter how weak and worthless the men who sat on it were. The last king, Zedekiah, brought on the ruin by his treachery. Nebuchadnezzar "made him swear by God" (2 Chron. 36:13), but he "despised the oath by breaking the covenant" (Ezek. 17:17-18). Nothing was sacred in his eyes.
If neither the city nor the throne could protect anyone, the dividing line was something else — whether a person accepted God's hand:
The Lord meant their exile to be for their eventual good. This is a very important point. In a day of ruin faith always recognises the chastening of God and bows to it. Unbelief always resists, and counts it patriotism or perhaps religion to oppose. For this reason the men of Judah thought Jeremiah was a very false Jew. He always advised them to submit to the king of Babylon. They considered themselves much better Jews, because they were willing to fight him.
- Warning. The exiles boasted of prophets of their own in Babylon, while the true prophet was the one nobody wanted to hear.
- Reversal. Those who never went into exile looked like the lucky ones. They were the bad figs: they refused God's discipline instead of escaping it.
- Sentence. God sends sword, famine and pestilence on the city that seemed safe, and on the king still seated on David's throne.
- Throne. Even a weak king sat on what was still God's throne, so Zedekiah's broken oath brought ruin on it.
- Faith. Faith recognises God's chastening and bows to it; unbelief resists and calls the resistance loyalty.
thus saith Jehovah of hosts Behold, I will send against them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like the vile figs, that cannot be eaten for badness.
Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Babylon has just promised them a future — and then the tone changes. Verse 17 turns to the people still living in Jerusalem, and warns that they, not the captives, will face sword, famine and pestilence.
The threat answers a boast. The exiles had been saying that the Lord raised up prophets for them in Babylon. Commentators point out the irony: the one true prophet was the one nobody listened to.
Had they boasted of those the Lord had raised up in Babylon to prophesy? Sadly, the true prophet was the one least listened to. That was because he did not advise rebellion. He did not despise the word of Jehovah that came through Jeremiah. Instead he gave himself to prayer and confession as the time of deliverance drew near.
The picture comes from an earlier vision of two baskets of fruit, one very good and one so spoiled it was useless.
The "bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten" were fruit God Himself could do nothing with. They were those who had not gone through the first judgment under Jehoiachin. So they had to go through a second judgment, and this time a final one. God declared that everything was lost. Yet they trusted in themselves and boasted that they were the representatives of the people of God.
Their own escape from the earlier deportation had become their evidence of favour.
A large portion remained and were not taken away, and these attributed their escape from exile to some goodness in them.
The verdict looks backwards. God counted those left in the city worse than those already carried away. The difference was not where they lived, but how they answered His discipline.
How could this be? Surely, one might have thought, those who remain in Jerusalem are the better Jews and those in Babylon are the bad ones. Why does God say the opposite? Because those who wanted to stay in Jerusalem were refusing to accept God's discipline. They thought they could evade it, either by staying in Jerusalem to fight or by fleeing to Egypt.
Behind the refusal lies a settled danger. People count on God's favour while ignoring what He says.
It is an appalling state of self-deception when men presume on God's favour to His people, despite their indifference to His will and His glory. They insist on the faithfulness of God at the expense of His character. Under cover of His name, His law and His land, they let off those whom Satan has turned into His worst enemies.
Judgment came on those who fought the discipline. The same letter shows the other response.
The part of faith, when God sends a chastening, is to bow to it, not to fight against it. If the Lord sends something because of a wrong on our part, faith in Him does not make light of the matter or of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
Another writer applies the same attitude to readers now, not only to the exiles then.
God's mind for them then was that they should be happy and quietly pursue what was good. It is no less His mind for us now. This does not mean that either they or we are to become like Babylon. We see in Daniel, who was one of those at Babylon, the sort of behaviour that pleased God. He said "No" to the king's food, yet he sought the good of those around him, according to the word of the Lord.
- Boast — The exiles claimed God had given them prophets in Babylon. The true prophet was the one they ignored, because he did not call for rebellion.
- Refusal — The warning falls on people who count on God's favour while ignoring His will and His glory.
- Reversal — The people left in Jerusalem looked like the better Jews. They treated their escape from exile as proof of it. God calls them the rotten fruit instead.
- Ruin — Figs too spoiled to eat are fruit God Himself can do nothing with. Those who dodged the first judgment met a second, and this time a final one.
- Bowing — The same letter shows the other way. Bow to the chastening, confess the wrong, and seek the good of the place God has put you. That was Daniel's course.
And I will pursue them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will give them over to be driven hither and thither into all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an execration, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I will drive them
Jeremiah wrote a letter to the people already carried off to Babylon. It comforts the captives, but it also warns those still left in Jerusalem. Sword, famine and plague will chase them, and their name will become a byword wherever God scatters them. Why did the ones who stayed home fare worse than the ones taken away?
This threat falls on those left behind in the land, not on the exiles. What separated the two groups? How each one answered God's chastening. One writer explains the difference by God's picture of the good figs and the bad figs.
Faith always bows to God's will. If faith tells me to resist, I resist. If faith tells me to yield, I am bound to do it. Jeremiah did not resist, but yielded. The bad figs resisted. Rather than yield, they fell back on Egypt. They tried to match the strength of the king of Babylon with political power and military aid. The Lord tells them that the good figs were those who had submitted, and who went into captivity in Babylon in the days of Jeconiah.
This threat sits in the middle of a letter about false prophets. The letter told the captives to settle down under Babylon's rule. Some men claimed to speak for God and said the opposite. The judgment falls on them, and on the people who believed them.
Jeremiah sent the letter to encourage them to rest quietly under the yoke. This was God's mind for them. Those who spoke otherwise in the Name of the Lord would face punishment, because it was rebellion against Him... Severe judgment was to come upon them, and upon all such, and likewise upon those who listened to them (vv. 15-19).
These three are not random misfortunes. The Bible names them together again and again. It traces them to God's own hand — the same hand that drives the people out.
This is often mentioned along with the sword and the famine as punishment from God upon His rebellious people. Scripture presents it as coming straight from God Himself. When David had numbered the people, the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, and 70,000 men died. 2 Samuel 24:15-16.
To become "a curse" is more than to suffer a curse. It means other people put your name into their curses. You become the standing example of what nobody wants to be. Later in this same letter God names two of the lying prophets and shows exactly how that works.
Public examples were needed in certain cases to warn and impress a stubborn people. They believed man as easily as they refused to believe God... "and because of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: 'The LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire.'"
The same words fell on Jerusalem itself — on its leaders and its people. One writer points out how exactly it happened.
So Jerusalem, its princes and its people would become "a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse." And His word came true with startling exactness.
This threat is not the whole story. God's view of the people already taken to Babylon was very different.
Even in the land of the Chaldeans the eyes of the Lord are on them for good. They should be restored again, too, and settled in the land of Israel. But better than the best of the land, they should know the Lord. And better than returning to the place, they should return to Him. As He says: "I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart" (Jeremiah 24:7).
- Bow, and live. Faith yields to God's chastening instead of fighting it. God called the ones who submitted and went to Babylon good figs. Those who resisted and looked to Egypt stayed — and fell.
- Believe lies, share their sentence. The judgment lands on the false prophets and on the people who believed them.
- God's own hand. Scripture names sword, famine and pestilence together again and again. They are God's punishment on a rebellious people, not bad luck.
- A name men curse by. Becoming "a curse" means people curse by your name — as they did with Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire.
- Exactness, then mercy. God's word came true with startling exactness. Yet His eyes were on the exiles for good. He promised them a heart to know Him and a whole-hearted return.
because they have not hearkened to my words, saith Jehovah, wherewith I sent unto them my servants the prophets, rising early and sending; but ye have not hearkened, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in Babylon explains why the disaster came. God had spoken again and again through His prophets, and the people would not listen.
The verses just before this one announce sword, famine and plague. One writer shows who they fall on — the people still living in Jerusalem, not the exiles reading the letter:
Then the LORD speaks about those Jews still living in Jerusalem under Zedekiah. He names the king on the throne of David, the people of that city, and the relatives who did not go into captivity. On them He will send the sword, the famine and the pestilence. This is not a promise of the return from Babylon under a son of David. The son of David was to suffer still more chastening.
Where the ESV says "persistently sent," older translations say "rising up early and sending." The picture is of someone getting up at dawn to speak. One writer counted how often Jeremiah repeats it:
In His zeal for their good He speaks of "rising up early" to speak to them, time after time — eleven times at least! How this speaks of the Lord's intense love for them! No wonder He wept over Jerusalem! They have "forsaken Me!" they have "forgotten Me!" they have "turned their backs unto Me!" He says again and again. This shows how He felt their treatment and the bitter suffering they were bringing upon themselves.
God's servants the prophets did not come to announce a fixed sentence. They came so the sentence need never fall:
How tireless the patience of the Lord is. He guarantees that He will turn from the evil He could not but threaten, if only they would listen and turn from their evil doings. But if they kept on rejecting His prophets, let them prepare for the worst. He had sent those prophets, "rising up early and sending them," as He says.
They did listen — but to other messengers. Some prophets among them promised a quick trip home:
The false prophets had predicted a speedy return. Some of these false prophets had gone with them to Babylon. … But those who kept on in disobedience, and listened to the false prophets, will suffer the fate that was predicted. For them there will be no deliverance.
The same letter also sets a limit to the exile. The number seventy carries its own message:
The LORD measured the stay of seventy years in Babylon. It was long enough to carry out His chastening. It was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
God's patience is not endless. One writer traces how it ran out, and turns the warning on our own day:
In infinite patience the Lord still waited for the return of His people. Judgment is His strange work, but He delights in mercy. He had compassion on them, so He sent them messengers who urged them and brought God's messages. But they mocked the messengers, despised God's gracious offers and misused His prophets, till there was no remedy. An awful statement… This age too rejects God's best. It is approaching a day when there will be no remedy and the judgment will fall.
- Sent — "Rising up early and sending" is Jeremiah's picture of God speaking again and again. Commentators read it as a mark of His intense love.
- Spurned — The prophets came with a condition, not a countdown. God would turn from the threatened evil if the people turned from their evil doings. Refusing the message made it final.
- Swapped — They did hear voices — the ones promising a quick return. Preferring a comfortable prophet to a true one is what sealed the fate announced here.
- Struck — The sword, famine and plague fall on those still in Jerusalem under Zedekiah, not on the exiles who received the letter. Even the throne of David faced further chastening.
- Spared — Even in judgment the measure is mercy. Seventy years was long enough to chasten, short enough to prove God's tenderness. But patience has an end: there came a point where there was no remedy, and that warning stands for readers now.
But ye, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon, hear the word of Jehovah.
Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the Jews already carried off to Babylon. Here he calls every one of them to listen. Two things stand out. God calls their removal His own act. And He sends them a word to hear, because other voices were already claiming to speak for Him.
God says He sent them away. He does not say Babylon took them. The exiles could blame Jeconiah's blunder, or Babylon's army. Commentators press hard against both.
It was no accidental slip of Jeconiah and the people. The king of Babylon's power did not explain why the Jews were brought so low. The Lord of hosts had them carried away to the conqueror's city. And He was the One who now spoke to them through Jeremiah. How gracious of Him to take notice of them after all their guilt, and to link His name with theirs in their fallen condition!
Two softer words are missing from the way Scripture's men of God speak about discipline.
These men of God never soften their strong statements about God's dealings in discipline. They do not even say that God has "allowed" His people to be scattered, or "permitted" them to be driven away. They say plainly that God Himself drove the people away and brought the disaster.
Everyone must hear, not only those directly concerned. The exiles were proving far too easy to fool.
Particular cases needed public examples, to warn and impress a stubborn people. They were as ready to believe man as they were unwilling to believe God.
Judgment follows for the men who said the opposite in God's name.
Jeremiah sent the letter to encourage them to rest peacefully under the yoke. This was God's mind concerning them. Those who spoke otherwise in the Lord's Name would be punished, for it was rebellion against Him. Ahab and Zedekiah are singled out (vv. 20-23), and also Shemaiah (vv. 24-32).
If God sent them there, plotting a way out fights God, not Babylon. The exiles needed this spelled out. Everything in them recoiled from a foreign ruler.
The captives were in a new political situation. They needed special direction from God. The Jewish spirit would surely have resented a Gentile ruling over them. If God had not made His mind known, they would always have been plotting in Babylon to end this miserable captivity. But when God sends a chastening, the part of faith is to bow to it, not to fight against it. Suppose the Lord does something because of a wrong on our part. Faith in Him does not make light of the thing, or of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
The same God who sent them had already fixed how long they would stay.
The Lord Himself measured the stay of seventy years in Babylon. It was long enough to complete His chastening. It was short enough to prove His tender mercy, and to leave room for a greater display of Himself.
Settling in Babylon did not mean becoming like Babylon. One of the exiles shows what that looked like day by day.
To be happy, and to be peacefully pursuing what was good, was God's mind for them then; it is no less His mind for us now. This does not mean that they, or we, are to become Babylonish. We see in Daniel, who was one of those at Babylon, the kind of behaviour that pleased God. He said "No" to the king's food, yet he sought the good of those around him, according to the Word of the Lord. We do well to grasp this principle and have grace to put it into practice.
- Sent. The exile was not Babylon's victory or a political accident — God says He sent them, and writers here refuse to soften that to "allowed" or "permitted."
- Spoken to. The same God who sent them still speaks to them. He linked His name with theirs in their fallen condition instead of dropping them.
- Summoned. Every exile had to hear. A stubborn people, quick to believe man and slow to believe God, needed public examples.
- Submitted. Faith's response to a chastening is to bow and confess the wrong, not to plot an escape from it.
- Settled. Seventy years was long enough to do its work, and short enough to prove His mercy. So they were to seek the good of the city without becoming like it. Daniel shows how.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy falsehood unto you in my name Behold, I will give them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall smite them before your eyes.
This verse names two men: Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah. They spoke lies in God's name, so He will hand them to Nebuchadnezzar — which raises the question of why God names them in public, and what their crime really was.
These two were prophets among the captives in Babylon. They promised the exiles a quick way home.
The false prophets had predicted a quick return. Some of them had gone with the captives to Babylon and were in the prison camp on the banks of the river Chebar. We read in Ezekiel 11:3 that they mocked God's command and gave wicked advice. They felt safe... Two of the false prophets are named, Ahab and Zedekiah (not the king). As well as being false prophets, they were adulterers and sexually immoral men. King Nebuchadnezzar roasted them in the fire.
The Zedekiah here is not the king of Judah who had the same name.
Their message sounded loyal and hopeful. God calls it a lie. Jeremiah had told the exiles to settle in Babylon and pray for the city's peace. These men said the opposite.
Jeremiah called the Jews in Jerusalem to submit to the king of Babylon. He told the captives to build houses, plant gardens and raise families in their exile, and to pray for the peace of the city, until the seventy years were finished and a remnant returned to Jerusalem. The false prophets promised pleasant things both at home and abroad. In every way they stirred up rebellion under the cover of patriotism, claiming the Lord's name while they urged the people not to bow under His humbling hand.
The captivity was God's discipline, and the right response was to bow under it.
When God sends discipline, the part of faith is to bow to it, not to fight it. If the Lord acts because of a wrong on our part, faith in Him does not make light of the wrong or of the discipline. Faith accepts the discipline meekly and confesses the wrong.
The verse does not just say they lied. It says they used God's name to cover their own message.
To prophesy out of your own heart is to make God's judgment certain. However gracious and merciful He is, He must be jealous for His majesty and His truth, which such a prophet completely misrepresents and profanes.
The men who stirred up revolt against Babylon are handed over to Babylon's king. God could have dealt with them out of sight. Instead He names them, and their end comes "before your eyes."
In special cases public examples were needed, to warn and impress a stubborn people who believed men as readily as they disbelieved God.
And the warning did not stop with the two prophets. It reached the people who listened to them.
The letter was sent to encourage them to rest quietly under the yoke, for this was God's mind for them. Those who said otherwise in the Name of the Lord would be punished, because it was rebellion against Him... Ahab and Zedekiah were not only busy as lying prophets; they also did wicked things in Israel... Severe judgment was to come on them, on all like them, and equally on those who listened to them.
False teaching and corrupt living went together in these two men. That pairing is not unique to this chapter.
Long ago God raised up, for an evil day, prophets who were as marked out for truth as for holy living. Satan was quick to supply prophets who were as shameless in their lies as in their selfish and corrupt ways. The Old Testament shows this all too plainly. Here the apostle foretells that it would be no better, and even more guilty, where the grace of the gospel was more open to abuse than the law had been.
- Named. God gives both men's names and their fathers' names. He does not hide them, because "public examples were needed" for a people who believed men more readily than God.
- Comfortable. Their lie was easy to like: a quick return home and no long exile. They "promised pleasant things," dressing rebellion up as love for the nation.
- Borrowed. Their core offence was borrowing God's name for their own message. He is "jealous for His majesty and His truth."
- Corrupt. False teaching and corrupt living travelled together. They were lying prophets and adulterers. Satan supplies prophets "as shameless in their lies as in their selfish and corrupt ways."
- Shared. Judgment fell on the speakers and equally "on those who listened to them." A comfortable lie condemns the hearer who wanted it.
And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah that are in Babylon, saying, Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
Jeremiah wrote to the Jews already deported to Babylon. He told them to settle there for seventy years. Two men in the camp were telling them the opposite. This verse records God's word about those two men. Their names would end up inside a curse that the other exiles spoke over each other.
These two were not kings. They were men among the exiles who claimed to speak for God. The record of their end covers both their message and their private lives.
The false prophets had predicted a speedy return... Those who kept on in disobedience and listened to the false prophets will suffer the fate that was foretold. There will be no deliverance for them. Two of the false prophets are mentioned by name, Ahab and Zedekiah (not the king). Besides being false prophets, they were adulterers and men of loose living. King Nebuchadnezzar roasted them in the fire (22–23).
God did not deal with these men out of sight. He said the king of Babylon would kill them in front of the exiles. The reason lies in what those exiles were like.
In special cases, public examples served to warn and impress a stubborn people. They were as ready to believe man as they were unwilling to believe God.
The exile was God's discipline. To promise a quick end to it was to invite the people to fight what God had sent.
The part of faith, when God sends a chastening, is to bow to it, not to fight against it. Suppose the Lord does something because of a wrong on our part. Faith in Him does not make light of the wrong, or make light of the chastening. Faith accepts the chastening with meekness and confesses the wrong.
These men promised a quick end to the captivity. God handed them over to the king of Babylon. Scripture calls that king God's servant.
Nebuchadnezzar, whom the Lord calls "My Servant," is spoken of about forty times. He is raised up to carry out His judgment on Israel, and on other nations too. The Lord says, "I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant... and all the nations shall serve him." Dominion is given to him by God; it is taken away from Israel.
The charge against these two men has two halves. One is what they said in God's name. The other is how they lived. One writer traces the pattern back to its source.
If God of old raised up prophets for the evil day, men as marked for the truth as for holiness of life, Satan was not slow to supply prophets of his own. They were as shameless in their lies as in their selfish and corrupt ways. The Old Testament shows this again and again.
The punishment did not stop at death. Their names went on living — as the wording people reached for when they wanted to wish evil on someone. That is what Scripture elsewhere calls the fate of a wicked man's name.
"The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot" (Proverbs 10:7). So Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Daniel, Paul, Peter, John and many others are still honoured in the hearts of multitudes, age after age. The names of many godless opponents of the truth of God are forgotten like rotted rubbish. Or if some names, such as Ahab, Jezebel and Athaliah, are remembered, they only stir up disgust and horror.
None of this happened behind God's back.
God is not mocked. A curse without cause does not land. But those who are themselves miserable, and who are given over to a spirit of hostility and slander against God's servants who stay in the truth, will reap from the flesh the corruption they sow.
- The lie — Zedekiah and Ahab promised the exiles a quick end to the captivity. God had just announced seventy years through Jeremiah.
- The rebellion — their message asked the people to fight God's chastening. Faith bows to it and confesses the wrong.
- The life — the charge was not doctrine only. They were adulterers too, and false teaching and corrupt living keep company.
- The witness — the king of Babylon was God's own instrument, called "My Servant." He executed them in front of the people God meant to warn.
- The name — the wicked man's name rots, and here it rotted into a curse formula on the lips of the very people he had deceived.
because they have committed infamy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and have spoken words of falsehood in my name, which I had not commanded them and I [am] he that knoweth, and [am] witness, saith Jehovah.
Two men had been telling the exiles in Babylon what God never said. Their lives contradicted their message, and the verse closes not with Jeremiah's accusation but with God's own claim to have seen it all.
The verse looks back at Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, named in the two verses before it. They belonged to the group promising the captives a quick return home. Their record was not only false speech.
The false prophets had predicted a speedy return. Some of these false prophets had gone with them to Babylon... But those who kept on in disobedience, who listened to the false prophets, will suffer the fate that was foretold; for them there will be no deliverance. Two of the false prophets are named, Ahab and Zedekiah (not the king). Besides being false prophets, they were adulterers and sexually immoral men. King Nebuchadnezzar roasted them in the fire (22-23).
One writer explains why God dealt with these two men so publicly.
Public examples were needed in certain cases. They warned and impressed a stubborn people. These people believed man readily, yet would not believe God.
The verse links what the men said with how they lived. One writer sets both against the purpose of Jeremiah's letter to the exiles.
The letter was sent to encourage them to rest quietly under Babylon's yoke, for this was God's mind for them. Those who spoke otherwise in the Name of the Lord would be punished, for it was rebellion against Him. Ahab and Zedekiah are singled out in verses 20-23. These two were not only active as lying prophets; they also did outrageous wickedness in Israel.
This pairing was not unique to them. The same writer describes the false prophets of Jeremiah's day as a group.
They were marked by adultery, lying, profanity, false dreams, frivolity, and indecency. They had sunk so low that they were "like Sodom" (Jer. 23:14).
The heaviest part of the charge is that they spoke in His name what He had never given them. One writer, commenting on the same offence elsewhere, says why God cannot overlook it.
To be a prophet out of your own heart is to make judgment from God certain. However gracious and merciful He is, He must be jealous for His majesty and His truth. This way of prophesying utterly misrepresents and profanes them.
The verse ends with God taking two roles at once: He knows, and He testifies. The adultery was private; the false prophecy was public. Both stood in the same light. One writer states the principle behind this.
Man can keep nothing secret, though it may seem so, and can hide nothing. All must be in the light. God must have the upper hand, and light will prevail. We must also give an account of ourselves to God. And we are not to fear the secret schemes of men, but to fear God and bear witness according to the light given to us.
The same pairing appears again later. One writer, commenting on false teachers in the New Testament, says the charge of adultery reaches beyond physical acts.
The adultery charged against them may not be literal in every case. But in its spiritual meaning it certainly applies to all false teachers. They all either teach or approve an unholy alliance with the world.
- Name misused. Ahab and Zedekiah promised the captives a quick return home and spoke lies in God's name. The name they borrowed became the ground of their judgment.
- Name and life. The charge is double: false words and a corrupt life. Writers find the same pairing across the false prophets of Jeremiah's day — adultery, lying, profanity and indecency together.
- Name profaned. Prophesying out of your own heart makes judgment certain. God must be jealous for His majesty and His truth when men misrepresent them.
- Name witnessed. Nothing was hidden. Man can hide nothing; all comes into the light. Here God says that He both knows and testifies.
- Name warned. Their fate became a public example. A people quick to believe men and slow to believe God needed it. The same warning reaches every teacher who approves an unholy alliance with the world.