Atlas Biblica

    Jeremiah · 32 verses

    Jeremiah 29

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    The exiles are told to pray for Babylon’s prosperity, and two lying prophets later furnish the exile’s most appalling curse: roasted in the king’s fire.

    A letter for settling invv. 1–14

    Jeremiah sends a letter from Jerusalem to the survivors carried to Babylon, entrusted to Elasah and Gemariah, whom King Zedekiah has sent to Nebuchadnezzar. The exiles are told to build houses, plant gardens, marry, multiply, and seek Babylon’s prosperity—for their own welfare is tied to the city’s. The promised return is not immediate: Babylon’s seventy years must first be complete. Then the LORD will gather the exiles from every place to which they have been banished and restore them.

    The prophets who will not be remembered fondlyvv. 15–23

    Some of the exiles claim that the LORD has raised up prophets in Babylon. The answer turns instead toward the people who remained in Jerusalem: sword, famine, plague, and the curious image of rotten figs. Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah are prophesying lies, and Nebuchadnezzar will kill them before the exiles’ eyes. Their fate becomes a curse for all the exiles in Babylon, who will wish one another the roasting reserved for these two men. The charge against them includes adultery and lies spoken in the LORD’s name.

    Shemaiah’s letter and the stocksvv. 24–32

    Shemaiah the Nehelamite sends letters in his own name to Jerusalem, to Zephaniah the priest and to the other priests. He tells Zephaniah that the LORD has appointed him chief officer in place of Jehoiada, with responsibility for anyone who acts like a prophet while being judged a madman: stocks and neck irons are suggested, with admirable bureaucratic specificity. Shemaiah wants Jeremiah of Anathoth rebuked for telling the exiles to settle down, but Zephaniah reads the letter to Jeremiah instead. The LORD then declares punishment for Shemaiah and his descendants, who will not see the good brought to the people.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Jer 29:1This is the text of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the others Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

    2. Jer 29:2(This was after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the court officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalsmiths had been exiled from Jerusalem.)

    3. Jer 29:3The letter was entrusted to Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It stated:

    4. Jer 29:4This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles who were carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:

    5. Jer 29:5“Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce.

    6. Jer 29:6Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease.

    7. Jer 29:7Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

    8. Jer 29:8For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Do not be deceived by the prophets and diviners among you, and do not listen to the dreams you elicit from them.

    9. Jer 29:9For they are falsely prophesying to you in My name; I have not sent them, declares the LORD.”

    10. Jer 29:10For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.

    11. Jer 29:11For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.

    12. Jer 29:12Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

    13. Jer 29:13You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

    14. Jer 29:14I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have banished you, declares the LORD. I will restore you to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

    15. Jer 29:15Because you may say, “The LORD has raised up for us prophets in Babylon,”

    16. Jer 29:16this is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile—

    17. Jer 29:17this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will send against them sword and famine and plague, and I will make them like rotten figs, so bad they cannot be eaten.

    18. Jer 29:18I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth—a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among all the nations to which I banish them.

    19. Jer 29:19I will do this because they have not listened to My words, declares the LORD, which I sent to them again and again through My servants the prophets. And neither have you exiles listened, declares the LORD.”

    20. Jer 29:20So hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

    21. Jer 29:21This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you lies in My name: “I will deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes.

    22. Jer 29:22Because of them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’

    23. Jer 29:23For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.”

    24. Jer 29:24You are to tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite that

    25. Jer 29:25this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “In your own name you have sent out letters to all the people of Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests. You said to Zephaniah:

    26. Jer 29:26‘The LORD has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada, to be the chief officer in the house of the LORD, responsible for any madman who acts like a prophet—you must put him in stocks and neck irons.

    27. Jer 29:27So now, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you?

    28. Jer 29:28For he has sent to us in Babylon, claiming: Since the exile will be lengthy, build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat their produce.’”

    29. Jer 29:29(Zephaniah the priest, however, had read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet.)

    30. Jer 29:30Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

    31. Jer 29:31“Send a message telling all the exiles what the LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you—though I did not send him—and has made you trust in a lie,

    32. Jer 29:32this is what the LORD says: ‘I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good that I will bring to My people, declares the LORD, for he has preached rebellion against the LORD.’”

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 370 passages were voted onto 31 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 11Isaiah 55:8–12“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
    • 11Psalms 33:11The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations.
    • 11Micah 4:12But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD or understand His plan, for He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
    • 11Psalms 40:5Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.
    • 11Job 23:13But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.
    • 11Lamentations 3:26It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
    • 11Isaiah 46:10–11I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’
    • 11Ezekiel 34:11–31For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself will search for My flock and seek them out.
    • 11Jeremiah 3:12–19Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever.
    • 11Joel 2:28–32And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
    • 11Hosea 2:14–23“Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly.
    • 13Deuteronomy 4:29–31But if from there you will seek the LORD your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
    • 13Psalms 119:2Blessed are those who keep His testimonies and seek Him with all their heart.
    • 11Zechariah 12:5–10Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts: ‘The people of Jerusalem are my strength, for the LORD of Hosts is their God.’
    • 13Matthew 7:7Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
    • 13Psalms 119:10With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me stray from Your commandments.

    Onward

    Keep reading

    Next chapterJeremiah 3024 verses.Named hereNehelamitesEverything the graph connects to this name.BookJeremiahAll 52 chapters.Every bookThe Bible66 books, 1,189 chapters.