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Among these also, probably in connection with the projects which we have traced in the preceding chapter, there was a restless disquietude, fostered by false prophets, who urged the people to rebel against their conquerors. Against that policy Jeremiah, in accordance with the convictions on which he had all along acted, enters an earnest protest. The letter was sent by special messengers, of whom we read in <a href="/jeremiah/29-3.htm" title="By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,">Jeremiah 29:3</a>, and shows that Jeremiah had been kept well informed of all that passed at Babylon. The spelling of the prophet’s name, in the Hebrew text, as Jeremiah, instead of the form Jeremia<span class= "ital">hu</span>, which is the more common form throughout the book, is probably an indication that the opening verse which introduces the letter was the work of a later hand. The date of the letter was probably early in the reign of Zedekiah, before the incidents of the previous chapter. It is brought before us as following in almost immediate sequel on the deportation mentioned in <a href="/jeremiah/29-2.htm" title="(After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)">Jeremiah 29:2</a>. The term “residue of the elders,” in connexion with “priests and prophets,” points to the fact that the whole body of counsellors, so named, had not been carried into exile, but only the more prominent members. Such “elders” we find in <a href="/ezekiel/8-1.htm" title="And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there on me.">Ezekiel 8:1</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/20-1.htm" title="And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and sat before me.">Ezekiel 20:1</a>. Ezekiel himself may be thought of as among the priests and prophets.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-2.htm">Jeremiah 29:2</a></div><div class="verse">(After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were departed from Jerusalem;)</div>(2) <span class= "bld">The queen.</span>—This was probably the queen-mother, Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan (<a href="/2_kings/24-8.htm" title="Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.">2Kings 24:8</a>). The name probably indicates a connection with the Elnathan the son of Achbor, of <a href="/jeremiah/26-22.htm" title="And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt.">Jeremiah 26:22</a>, but we cannot assert with any confidence the identity of the one with the other.<p><span class= "bld">The carpenters, and the smiths.</span>—See Note on <a href="/jeremiah/24-1.htm" title="The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.">Jeremiah 24:1</a>. Among the exiles thus referred to as “princes” we have to think of Daniel, and those who are best known to us by their Babylonian names as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego (<a href="/context/daniel/1-6.htm" title="Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:">Daniel 1:6-7</a>). The conduct, we may well believe, was in accordance with Jeremiah’s teaching.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-3.htm">Jeremiah 29:3</a></div><div class="verse">By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,</div>(3) <span class= "bld">By the hand of Elasah . . .</span>—The names of the messengers are of some interest. Elasah, the son of Shaphan, was the brother of Jeremiah’s protector. Ahikam (<a href="/jeremiah/26-24.htm" title="Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.">Jeremiah 26:24</a>). Gemariah (to be distinguished from his namesake the son of Shaphan in <a href="/jeremiah/36-12.htm" title="Then he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and, see, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.">Jeremiah 36:12</a>) was probably the son of Hilkiah, the high-priest under Josiah who found the lost Book of the Law (<a href="/2_kings/22-4.htm" title="Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people:">2Kings 22:4</a>), and took a prominent part in the work of reformation. Each would therefore naturally take his place among the prophet’s friends and supporters. They carried his letter as well as the diplomatic missive of the king. That they had been sent as envoys by Zedekiah indicates that the policy of the weak and vacillating king had been to some extent affected by the counsels of Jeremiah, and that he had at least half abandoned the idea of revolt, and had sent to acknowledge the suzerainty of Nebuchadnezzar. It is hardly likely, at least, that the letter from the prophet, of which they were the bearers, should have been in flagrant antagonism with their mission as envoys from the king. The embassy was probably prior to the personal visit of Zechariah recorded in <a href="/jeremiah/51-59.htm" title="The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.">Jeremiah 51:59</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-4.htm">Jeremiah 29:4</a></div><div class="verse">Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Thus saith the Lord of hosts . . .</span>—We have here the nearest parallel in the Old Testament to the Epistles which make up so large a portion of the New, the very text of a written letter sent to those with whom the teacher was no longer able to hold personal communication. It obviously furnished the type which was followed by the writer of the apocryphal letter from Jeremiah in Baruch 6.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-5.htm">Jeremiah 29:5</a></div><div class="verse">Build ye houses, and dwell <i>in them</i>; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Build ye houses, and dwell in them.</span>—The command had a two-fold bearing. It counselled a patient acceptance of the present state of things. It announced, as the next verse does yet more emphatically, that their exile would last for at least two generations. It indicates, also, the comparative leniency with which the exiles were treated. They were allowed to become possessors both of lands and houses. The favour shown to Daniel and his friends would, of course, tend to make their condition more tolerable.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-7.htm">Jeremiah 29:7</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">And seek the peace of the city . . .</span>—This was, we may believe, the hardest command of all. To refrain from all curses and imprecations, even from such as came from the lips of those who hung their harps on the willows by the waters of Babylon (Psalms 137), to pray for the peace and prosperity of the city where they were eating the bread of captivity—this surely required an almost superhuman patience. Yet this was the prophet’s counsel. It seems almost to follow—unless we apply Augustine’s rule, <span class= "ital">Distingue tempora, </span>and refer the psalm to a time prior <span class= "ital">to </span>Jeremiah’s letter, or nearer the day of vengeance—that those imprecations, natural as they seem, belonged to a lower stage of spiritual progress than that represented by the prophet. He was, to those impatient exiles, as our Lord was to the impatient disciples who sought to call down fire on the village of the Samaritans (<a href="/context/luke/9-54.htm" title="And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, will you that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?">Luke 9:54-56</a>). So, we may remember, Christians living under Nero were told to pray for the Emperor (<a href="/1_timothy/2-2.htm" title="For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.">1Timothy 2:2</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-8.htm">Jeremiah 29:8</a></div><div class="verse">For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that <i>be</i> in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Let not your prophets and your diviners . . .</span>—The words are significant as showing that the same agencies which were counteracting the prophet’s teaching in Jerusalem were at work also in Babylon. There, too, “prophets and diviners,” whom the Lord had not sent, were prophesying of a speedy deliverance, and it was necessary to reiterate for those who would listen to the prophet’s warnings, that the exile would run its appointed course of seventy years, as Jeremiah had announced to the people of Jerusalem in <a href="/jeremiah/25-12.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, said the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.">Jeremiah 25:12</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/27-22.htm" title="They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, said the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.">Jeremiah 27:22</a>. The “dreams which ye cause to be dreamed” (an altogether exceptional phrase) indicates that the supply was created by a demand for visions of this nature.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-11.htm">Jeremiah 29:11</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">For I know the thoughts . . .</span>—The word used for “<span class= "ital">saith </span>the Lord” implies that the gracious promise came to the prophet’s soul as an oracle from heaven. In the “thoughts” of God there is, perhaps, a reference to what had been said before of the Babylonian exiles in <a href="/jeremiah/24-6.htm" title="For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.">Jeremiah 24:6</a>.<p><span class= "bld">To give you an expected end.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">to give you a future </span>(that which is to be hereafter) <span class= "ital">and a hope. </span>This is the literal rendering of the words, and it is far more expressive than that of the English version. An “expected end” may be one from which we shrink in fear or dislike. Each word, in the amended translation, has its full meaning. The “future” tells them that their history as a people is not yet over; the “hope” that there is a better time in store for them. To wait for that future, instead of trusting in delusive assurances of immediate release, was the true wisdom of the exiles.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-12.htm">Jeremiah 29:12</a></div><div class="verse">Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.</div>(12, 13) <span class= "bld">Then shall ye call upon me . . .</span>—The words need no comment, but they cannot be passed over without dwelling on the infinite tenderness which they manifest in the prophet’s soul, the reflex of a like tenderness in the mind of God, from whom he gives the message. It is the anticipation of the like message from the lips of Christ, “He that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (<a href="/matthew/7-8.htm" title="For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.">Matthew 7:8</a>). As they stand, the words are an echo of <a href="/context/deuteronomy/4-29.htm" title="But if from there you shall seek the LORD your God, you shall find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.">Deuteronomy 4:29-30</a>, as <a href="/jeremiah/29-14.htm" title="And I will be found of you, said the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, said the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.">Jeremiah 29:14</a> is of <a href="/context/deuteronomy/30-3.htm" title="That then the LORD your God will turn your captivity, and have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the nations, where the LORD your God has scattered you.">Deuteronomy 30:3-5</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-14.htm">Jeremiah 29:14</a></div><div class="verse">And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">I will turn away your captivity . . .</span>—On the substance and fulfilment of the prediction, see Notes on <a href="/context/jeremiah/23-3.htm" title="And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.">Jeremiah 23:3-8</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-15.htm">Jeremiah 29:15</a></div><div class="verse">Because ye have said, The LORD hath raised us up prophets in Babylon;</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Because ye have said, The Lord hath raised us up prophets . . .</span>—The words point to the boast of some of the exiles, that they, too, had the guidance of prophets whom, as in <a href="/jeremiah/29-20.htm" title="Hear you therefore the word of the LORD, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon:">Jeremiah 29:20</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/29-24.htm" title="Thus shall you also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,">Jeremiah 29:24</a>, they were inclined to follow in preference to Jeremiah. In answer to that boast, he emphasises the contrast between the exiles in whom the prophet sees the future hope of his nation and the worthless king (Zedekiah) and people who had been left in Jerusalem, and for whom he foretells yet sharper sufferings. The symbolism of the “vile figs” is reproduced in <a href="/jeremiah/29-17.htm" title="Thus said the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.">Jeremiah 29:17</a> from <a href="/context/jeremiah/24-1.htm" title="The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.">Jeremiah 24:1-2</a>. The word for “vile” is, however, not the same as in that passage, and has the stronger force of “horrible” or “loathsome.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-21.htm">Jeremiah 29:21</a></div><div class="verse">Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie unto you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;</div>(21, 22) <span class= "bld">Ahab the son of Kolaiah . . .</span>—We know nothing, beyond what is here recorded, of either of these prophets. They would seem to have been the leaders of the party of revolt, and to have been conspicuous, like their brethren at Jerusalem (<a href="/jeremiah/23-14.htm" title="I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness; they are all of them to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.">Jeremiah 23:14</a>), for base and profligate lives. The record of the prediction of their fate implies its fulfilment. They were punished by the Chaldæan king as traitors and rebels, and were burnt alive. The history of the “three children” in <a href="/daniel/3-6.htm" title="And whoever falls not down and worships shall the same hour be cast into the middle of a burning fiery furnace.">Daniel 3:6</a>; <a href="/daniel/3-20.htm" title="And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.">Daniel 3:20</a>, shows that this was a sufficiently familiar punishment. A strange legend in the Targum of Rabbi Joseph on <a href="/2_chronicles/28-3.htm" title="Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.">2Chronicles 28:3</a> records that the future high-priest Joshua, the son of Jozedek, was thrown into the furnace with them, and came out uninjured (Smith’s <span class= "ital">Dict, of the Bible, </span>Art. “Zedekiah”). We may, perhaps, trace the source of the legend in the figurative language of <a href="/zechariah/3-2.htm" title="And the LORD said to Satan, The LORD rebuke you, O Satan; even the LORD that has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?">Zechariah 3:2</a>, “Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” The name Kolaiah (which admits of being derived from a verb meaning “roasting”) possibly suggested the cruel mockery of a punishment which turned it into an omen of the false prophet’s fate.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-22.htm">Jeremiah 29:22</a></div><div class="verse">And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which <i>are</i> in Babylon, saying, The LORD make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Of them shall be taken up a curse . . .</span>—We note the characteristic tendency of Hebrew thought to fix on individual cases of highest blessedness, as in <a href="/ruth/4-11.htm" title="And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman that is come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do you worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem:">Ruth 4:11</a>, or of deepest shame, as here, and to bring them into formulae of blessing and of cursing.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-23.htm">Jeremiah 29:23</a></div><div class="verse">Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and <i>am</i> a witness, saith the LORD.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Because they have committed villany . . .</span>—The Hebrew noun is almost always used for sins of impurity. It is more commonly rendered “folly” (comp. <a href="/genesis/34-7.htm" title="And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it: and the men were grieved, and they were very wroth, because he had worked folly in Israel in lying with Jacob's daughter: which thing ought not to be done.">Genesis 34:7</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/22-21.htm" title="Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she has worked folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shall you put evil away from among you.">Deuteronomy 22:21</a>; <a href="/context/judges/19-23.htm" title="And the man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, No, my brothers, no, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, do not this folly.">Judges 19:23-24</a>). The English word “villainy” is used definitely with this meaning by Bishop Hall (<span class= "ital">Sat. i.</span> 9).<p><span class= "bld">Even I know, and am a witness, saith the Lord.</span>—The words find an echo in <a href="/malachi/3-5.htm" title="And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, said the LORD of hosts.">Malachi 3:5</a>. We are left to conjecture whether the prophet refers his own knowledge of the facts to a direct supernatural source, or had received private information from his friends at Babylon. The special stress laid on the Lord’s knowledge of their guilt suggests the thought that the false prophets with their restricted ideas of God had persuaded themselves that Jehovah the God of Israel hardly exercised his attributes of power in a distant place like Babylon. There they might sin without fear of detection or of punishment. They thought of him as a God not nigh at hand, but far off (<a href="/jeremiah/23-23.htm" title="Am I a God at hand, said the LORD, and not a God afar off?">Jeremiah 23:23</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-24.htm">Jeremiah 29:24</a></div><div class="verse"><i>Thus</i> shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,</div>(24) <span class= "bld">Thus shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite.</span>—It is clear that this section (<a href="/context/jeremiah/29-24.htm" title="Thus shall you also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,">Jeremiah 29:24-32</a>) is of the nature of a fragment attached to the Epistle to Babylon on account of its associations with it, but not forming part of it. It gives, in fact (as <a href="/jeremiah/29-28.htm" title="For therefore he sent to us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.">Jeremiah 29:28</a> shows), the sequence of events, and so far stands in the same relation to it as the Second Epistle to the Corinthians does to the First. Jeremiah’s letter had naturally roused the indignation of the rival prophets at Babylon, and they organised a movement, of which Shemaiah was the chief instigator, for his destruction. Of Shemaiah himself we know nothing more than is here recorded. The description “Nehelamite” gives us no information, as the name Nehelam does not appear as belonging to any person or place in the Old Testament. It is just possible, as in the marginal reading, that there may be a play upon the Hebrew word (<span class= "ital">Halam</span>) for “dreamer.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-25.htm">Jeremiah 29:25</a></div><div class="verse">Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that <i>are</i> at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,</div>(25) <span class= "bld">Because thou hast sent letters in thy </span>name<span class= "bld"> . . .</span>—The letters were probably sent through the envoys named in <a href="/jeremiah/29-3.htm" title="By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,">Jeremiah 29:3</a> on their return from Babylon. Their object was to urge Zephaniah, who appears in <a href="/2_kings/25-18.htm" title="And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:">2Kings 25:18</a> as the <span class= "ital">Sagan, </span>or second priest, to exercise his authority to restrain Jeremiah from prophesying, and to punish him as a false prophet. It was an attempt to turn the tables on him for the manner in which he had thwarted the plans of the party of revolt at Babylon. The part taken by Zephaniah in acting for the king when he wished to consult Jeremiah (<a href="/jeremiah/21-1.htm" title="The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,">Jeremiah 21:1</a>), and imploring his intercession (<a href="/jeremiah/37-3.htm" title="And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now to the LORD our God for us.">Jeremiah 37:3</a>), makes it probable that he endeavoured to maintain a neutral Gamaliel-like position between the two parties, and had seemed so lukewarm and temporising that he was open to the influence of threats. On the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuzaradan he was taken prisoner and slain (<a href="/context/jeremiah/52-24.htm" title="And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:">Jeremiah 52:24-27</a>).<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-26.htm">Jeremiah 29:26</a></div><div class="verse">The LORD hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man <i>that is</i> mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">The Lord hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada . . .</span>—The priest so named had apparently been deposed, as not favouring the stringent policy of the party of revolt. As <span class= "ital">Sagan, </span>it was probably his special duty to maintain order in the Temple, and punish pretenders to the gift of prophecy, and the letter reproaches him for his lukewarm timidity in discharging that duty. In the word “mad,” as in <a href="/2_kings/9-11.htm" title="Then Jehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, Is all well? why came this mad fellow to you? And he said to them, You know the man, and his communication.">2Kings 9:11</a>, <a href="/hosea/9-7.htm" title="The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of your iniquity, and the great hatred.">Hosea 9:7</a>, we have the habitual term of scorn applied to such pretenders. On the punishment of the stocks, see Note on <a href="/jeremiah/20-2.htm" title="Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.">Jeremiah 20:2</a>. The word translated “prison” is probably another form of punishment like that of the stocks.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-28.htm">Jeremiah 29:28</a></div><div class="verse">For therefore he sent unto us <i>in</i> Babylon, saying, This <i>captivity is</i> long: build ye houses, and dwell <i>in them</i>; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">This captivity is long . . .</span>—As the italics show, there is no word corresponding to “captivity” in the Hebrew, and some commentators render the words, <span class= "ital">It is far off </span>. . . as though Jeremiah had counted on the distance of Babylon as enabling him to write the letter with impunity, or possibly in all the emphasis of abruptness. “All is a long way off—the end of your exile, your present distance from your native land, and haste, therefore, is but folly.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-29.htm">Jeremiah 29:29</a></div><div class="verse">And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">And Zephaniah the priest . . .</span>—The fact thus related agrees with what has been said as to the character of Zephaniah. He does not act as Shemaiah wished him. At the most he only uses the letters as a threat, possibly to put the prophet on his guard against the machinations of his enemies, possibly also to induce him to moderate his tone. We are reminded of the like conduct of the Pharisees who reported Herod’s threats to our Lord, in <a href="/luke/13-31.htm" title="The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying to him, Get you out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill you.">Luke 13:31</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/29-31.htm">Jeremiah 29:31</a></div><div class="verse">Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:</div>(31) <span class= "bld">Send to all them of the captivity.</span>—The words imply something in the nature of another epistle to the exiles, sent, probably, like the previous one, by the hands of envoys from one government to the other. We have no record of the fulfilment of the prediction but its insertion implies its fulfilment. This frequent intercourse between Jerusalem and Babylon is noticeable (1) as confirming the literal interpretation of the journey to Euphrates in <a href="/jeremiah/13-4.htm" title="Take the girdle that you have got, which is on your loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.">Jeremiah 13:4</a>, and (2) as accounting for the special instructions given to Nebuzaradan by Nebuchadnezzar in <a href="/jeremiah/39-11.htm" title="Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,">Jeremiah 39:11</a>.<p><span class= "bld"> <div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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