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Jeremiah 29 NLT
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Jeremiah 29 NLT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/jeremiah/29.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/jeremiah/29-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NLT</a> > Jeremiah 29</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../jeremiah/28.htm" title="Jeremiah 28">◄</a> Jeremiah 29 <a href="../jeremiah/30.htm" title="Jeremiah 30">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Living Translation</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/nlt/esv/jeremiah/29.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="hdg">A Letter to the Exiles</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>This was after King Jehoiachin,<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">a</span></a> the queen mother, the court officials, the other officials of Judah, and all the craftsmen and artisans had been deported from Jerusalem. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>He sent the letter with Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah when they went to Babylon as King Zedekiah’s ambassadors to Nebuchadnezzar. This is what Jeremiah’s letter said:</p><p class="b"/><p class="pmo"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>“Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”</p><p class="pm"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let your prophets and fortune-tellers who are with you in the land of Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>because they are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them,” says the LORD.</p><p class="pm"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>This is what the LORD says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>In those days when you pray, I will listen. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>I will be found by you,” says the LORD. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”</p><p class="pm"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>You claim that the LORD has raised up prophets for you in Babylon. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>But this is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all those still living here in Jerusalem—your relatives who were not exiled to Babylon. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “I will send war, famine, and disease upon them and make them like bad figs, too rotten to eat. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>Yes, I will pursue them with war, famine, and disease, and I will scatter them around the world. In every nation where I send them, I will make them an object of damnation, horror, contempt, and mockery. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>For they refuse to listen to me, though I have spoken to them repeatedly through the prophets I sent. And you who are in exile have not listened either,” says the LORD.</p><p class="pm"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>Therefore, listen to this message from the LORD, all you captives there in Babylon. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says about your prophets—Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah—who are telling you lies in my name: “I will turn them over to Nebuchadnezzar<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">b</span></a> for execution before your eyes. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>Their terrible fate will become proverbial, so that the Judean exiles will curse someone by saying, ‘May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned alive!’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>For these men have done terrible things among my people. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have lied in my name, saying things I did not command. I am a witness to this. I, the LORD, have spoken.”</p><p class="hdg">A Message for Shemaiah</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>The LORD sent this message to Shemaiah the Nehelamite in Babylon: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: You wrote a letter on your own authority to Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, and you sent copies to the other priests and people in Jerusalem. You wrote to Zephaniah,</p><p class="b"/><p class="pmo"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>“The LORD has appointed you to replace Jehoiada as the priest in charge of the house of the LORD. You are responsible to put into stocks and neck irons any crazy man who claims to be a prophet. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>So why have you done nothing to stop Jeremiah from Anathoth, who pretends to be a prophet among you? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>Jeremiah sent a letter here to Babylon, predicting that our captivity will be a long one. He said, ‘Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce.’”</p><p class="b"/><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>But when Zephaniah the priest received Shemaiah’s letter, he took it to Jeremiah and read it to him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>Then the LORD gave this message to Jeremiah: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>“Send an open letter to all the exiles in Babylon. Tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Since he has prophesied to you when I did not send him and has tricked you into believing his lies, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/29-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>I will punish him and his family. None of his descendants will see the good things I will do for my people, for he has incited you to rebel against me. I, the LORD, have spoken!’”</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="fn">a</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">29:2 </span><span class="ft">Hebrew </span><span class="it">Jeconiah,</span><span class="ft"> a variant spelling of Jehoiachin.</span><br><span class="fn">b</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">29:21 </span><span class="ft">Hebrew </span><span class="it">Nebuchadrezzar,</span><span class="ft"> a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar.</span><br></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><em>Holy Bible</em>, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of <a href="http://www.tyndale.com">Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.</a>, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. 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