Jeremiah 29:11

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had deported King Jehoiachin, along with priests, prophets and many of Judah’s leading citizens, in 597 BC. Ezekiel was among them. Jerusalem was still standing when Jeremiah wrote, with a king on David’s throne, as Jeremiah 29:16 shows, and the city and its temple would be destroyed in 586 BC. The letter begins at Jeremiah 29:1, and before this passage it tells the exiles to build houses, plant gardens, marry, have children, and “seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace” (Jeremiah 29:5–7). Those instructions only make sense if the stay will be long.

The exiles had lost their land and their temple, and many of them wondered whether God had abandoned them or whether their sin had ended his covenant with them. People in that state long to hear that the trouble will soon be over, and there were men among them ready to say so. Babylon also had its own long practice of divination and the reading of dreams. Into that confusion the LORD speaks plainly about the false voices, about the length of the exile, and about what he intends for his people.

The warning opens with “thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel”. Yᵉhôvâh is God’s covenant name, which the KJV writes as “the LORD”, the name of the self-existent and eternal God. “Of hosts” translates tsâbâʼ, armies, and names him as ruler over every army in heaven and on earth, so the exiles’ circumstances in Babylon are in his hands. “The God of Israel” (Yisrâʼêl) reminds them that he is still their God there. The words that follow carry his authority, and that sets this letter apart from every message going round the exiles’ settlements.

The LORD names three sources of deception. The first is “your prophets”, from nâbîyʼ, the ordinary word for a prophet or inspired man. These men belonged to Israel and spoke as though they had God’s word. The second is “your diviners”, from qâçam, people who sought hidden knowledge through omens, astrology and similar arts. Israel’s law had already forbidden divination along with every other occult practice (Deuteronomy 18:10–12). In Babylon such things were everywhere, and some of the diviners may have been Babylonians, while others may have been Israelites who took up the practice. Both groups were “in the midst of you”, qereb, the inner part. The danger came from inside the community, from people the exiles knew and trusted, and that made it harder to see. The verb for deceive, nâshâʼ, means to lead astray, whether by deluding the mind or seducing the will.

The rest of the book shows what these prophets were saying. In Jerusalem, Hananiah had stood in the temple and announced that within two years the LORD would break the yoke of the king of Babylon and bring the captives home (Jeremiah 28:1–4). In Babylon itself Jeremiah names two prophets, Ahab the son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesied lies and lived immoral lives (Jeremiah 29:21–23). A swift return was the popular hope, and they told the people what they wanted to hear. Had the exiles believed them, they would have refused to settle and to seek the peace of Babylon as God commanded, and they would have set themselves against the very plan by which he meant to bring them home.

Verse 10 is God’s answer to the false prophets: “after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you”. The verb mâlêʼ, accomplished, means to fill or to be full. The seventy years are a fixed measure that has to be filled up before God acts, and “at Babylon” keeps the exiles’ feet where they actually are. Jeremiah had announced this number earlier, when he said that the nations “shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jeremiah 25:11–12).

“I will visit you” uses pâqad, a word for purposeful attention. It can mean a visit in judgment, but beside “perform my good word” it means that God will remember his people, turn to them in favour and act for them. “My good word” joins ṭôwb, good in the widest sense, covering favour, beauty, prosperity and welfare, with dâbâr, a word, matter or thing, the kind of word that becomes a reality. God will “perform” it, from qûwm, to raise up or establish, so that what he has said stands and comes to pass. Isaiah says the same of everything God speaks: “it shall not return unto me void” (Isaiah 55:11). The good word has a definite content, “in causing you to return to this place”, the land of Judah and Jerusalem from which they were taken and which was their inheritance.

Verse 11 gives the reason behind everything else in the letter, and it is among the most loved verses in the Bible: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”

“Thoughts” is machăshâbâh, from the root châshab, which means to weave or devise. The noun can mean a plan, a purpose or an invention, and elsewhere it is used for malicious plots as well as for good counsel. God repeats it, “the thoughts that I think”, and the repetition shows that these plans are deliberate and settled. The LORD knows them fully because they are his own, and they stand against the guesses of the people and the dreams of the false prophets. “Saith the LORD” here is nᵉʼum Yᵉhôvâh, a solemn formula marking a declaration of the LORD. The psalmist says the same of his purposes: “The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:11). They are also far above ours: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8–9).

The thoughts are of shâlôwm, the word often written shalom. Its root means to be complete or sound, and it covers welfare, safety, health, friendship and wholeness of every kind, for the people as a whole and for each of them. It is the same word as in verse 7, where the exiles are told to seek the peace of Babylon, because in its peace they will have peace. The opposite God names is raʻ, evil, which here means calamity, harm and disaster, the trouble that falls on people. God’s purpose for his people, even in exile and through it, is their good.

“An expected end” joins two words. ʼachărîyth is the last part of something, and so the future or the outcome. tiqvâh is hope or expectation, and its root picture is a cord, something a person holds on to. The same pair appears in “there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:17) and in “surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cut off” (Proverbs 23:18). Some translations render the phrase “a future and a hope”. God promised the exiles an outcome they could look forward to and lean their weight on.

The prophets return often to this hope. Isaiah hears God promise to gather his people from the east and the west and the ends of the earth (Isaiah 43:1–7), and Ezekiel hears him promise to bring them home and give them a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:24–28).

“Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.” The “then” ties verse 12 to what comes before it. Because God’s thoughts are of peace and his good word will be performed, his people will turn to him. “Call”, qârâʼ, means to call out to, to address by name or to summon, and in prayer it is the cry of someone who calls on God’s name and depends on him. “Pray”, pâlal, at root means to judge, and in the form used here, the form it regularly takes for prayer, it means to intercede and make supplication. Between them stands “go”, hâlak, which adds purpose and movement, a deliberate coming to God. Together the three describe a progression from a first cry to sustained and earnest prayer.

God answers with “I will hearken unto you”, the same verb shâmaʻ that verse 8 used for listening to dreams. When God hearkens, he hears with attention and understanding and is ready to act. This mattered greatly to people far from the temple in Jerusalem, the centre of their worship. God was within reach of their prayers in Babylon.

Verse 13 carries the promise further: “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Two verbs for seeking stand side by side. bâqash is a diligent search for something one means to obtain, and it is used for seeking God in worship and prayer. dârash at root means to tread a path or frequent a place, and so to inquire, to seek counsel, to follow something up with care. “Heart” is lêbâb, the inner person, mind, will and emotions together with the moral centre. To search for God “with all your heart” is to seek him with the whole of oneself, in sincerity and undivided devotion.

Moses had spoken in the same words of Israel scattered among the nations: “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29). David told Solomon, “if thou seek him, he will be found of thee” (1 Chronicles 28:9), and Jesus said, “seek, and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7–8). James puts it simply: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8).

Verse 14 begins where verse 13 ends: “And I will be found of you, saith the LORD.” The verb is mâtsâʼ, to find, or to appear and be present, and the Hebrew phrase, nimtseti lakhem, means “I will be found by you”. God had felt far away to his exiled people because of their sin and their exile, and now he promises to make himself known and to answer them again.

Three more promises follow, each with “I will”. “I will turn away your captivity” joins shûwb, to turn back, with shᵉbûwth, captivity, and some translations render it “restore your fortunes”. It means a full reversal of their condition, from bondage and displacement to freedom and well-being. Moses had promised the same: “the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations” (Deuteronomy 30:3). “I will gather you” is qâbats, to collect or assemble, from “all the nations”, gôwy, the foreign peoples, and from “all the places”, mâqôwm, every locality where they had been scattered. Isaiah heard the same promise, “I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west” (Isaiah 43:5–6), and so did Ezekiel: “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land” (Ezekiel 36:24). Last comes “I will bring you again into the place”, their own land of Judah and Jerusalem. “Saith the LORD” (nᵉʼum Yᵉhôvâh) appears twice in the verse, sealing every part of it.

The warnings and promises of this passage come to their fullness in Jesus Christ. Moses promised a prophet like himself (Deuteronomy 18:15), and Peter preached that Jesus is that prophet (Acts 3:22). The false prophets borrowed the LORD’s name for their own words, while Jesus said, “I am come in my Father’s name” (John 5:43), and every word he spoke was the Father’s truth. He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and he promised the Spirit of truth, who guides his people into all truth (John 16:13) and helps them try the spirits. The wishful dreams of a quick end to suffering meet their answer in him too. He calls his followers to take up their cross daily (Luke 9:23) and to wait for a glory far greater than the sufferings of this present time (Romans 8:18–25).

God’s visit came in person when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), and “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). God’s thoughts of peace are seen most clearly in his sending his Son “that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17). Christ “made peace through the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20), and “he is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14). The expected end of those who trust him is a lively hope and an inheritance kept in heaven for them (1 Peter 1:3–5), and “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).

The seeking and finding of these verses are fulfilled in him as well. Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), and he said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). To seek God with all the heart is to seek him in Christ, and those who come to Christ find rest for their souls (Matthew 11:28–30). Through his blood we may “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19–22), and God “is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). Jesus taught his disciples how to pray (Matthew 6:9–13) and promised to do what they ask in his name (John 14:13–14). He lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25), and the Spirit helps us in our weakness when we pray (Romans 8:26–27).

He also turns away a deeper captivity, the captivity of sin and death. He came “to preach deliverance to the captives” (Luke 4:18), and the Father “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13). As the Good Shepherd he gathers his other sheep, so that there is “one fold, and one shepherd” (John 10:16), and John saw a great multitude “of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” before the throne (Revelation 7:9). The last homecoming is the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1), where “the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3). Until then believers live as “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13–16), longing for the better country God has prepared.

The exiles had two messages in front of them. One promised what they wanted, and soon. The other told them the truth and gave them a hope that would take seventy years to arrive. We hear both kinds of voices too, from outside and from our own wishful hearts, and the test is the same: what has God actually said? His word is sometimes the harder one, and it is always the one that comes true.

While they waited, the exiles were to build, plant, raise families, seek the good of the city they lived in, and pray. Waiting for God’s promise meant a full and faithful life in the place where he had put them, and all through it his thoughts toward them were thoughts of peace. The God who counted the exiles’ years knows your days as well. Call on him and pray to him, and seek him with all your heart, because he has promised to be found.