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.